Bishop: Abstinence, not for meat alone

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

MANILA -- As Catholics welcomed the Lenten season, a Roman Catholic prelate reminded the faithful on Sunday that abstinence is not exclusively for eating of meat.

In a report by CBCPNews, Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon stressed that there are other ways that one can practice abstinence during Lent aside from not eating meat.

"Apart from meat, one's favorite fast food, junk food, sweets, and soft drinks are what the Catholic faithful are urged to forego this season of Lent to make one’s sacrifice a heart-felt one," Baylon was quoted as saying by the official news agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He said that in doing so, it would be like going on a healthy diet but that it has a spiritual complex.

"If health-conscious people undergo a diet and refuse a lot of food to get slim and fit to maintain external beauty, why can’t we impose the same discipline to make ourselves beautiful inside too?" said the chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth.

During Lent, traditional Catholic tradition provides that the faithful should not eat meat during Ash Wednesday and during all Fridays of the 40-day period as a form of abstinence.

But according to the prelate, there could be more to abstinence than just stopping oneself from eating meat.

"The point of abstinence is depriving ourselves of the things that give us comfort and luxury. It is imposing discipline on our body so that we may free up our souls," Baylon said.

On Wednesday, the Catholic faithful flocked the churches in order to attend the Ash Wednesday mass and have their foreheads marked with cross-shaped ashes.

Ash Wednesday ushers in the Lenten season, which is culminated by the Easter Sunday celebration on April 8. (AMN/Sunnex)