Ramadan
is a holy month in Islam which is marked by a time of required fasting.
Observance of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam (Testimony of
Faith, Prayer, Giving Zakat (Support of the Needy, Fasting the Month of
Ramadan, The Pilgrimage to Makkah).
Ramadan
is the 9th month of the Islamic Calendar, which is lunar-based. Based on the region, either astronomical computations
or moon detections mark the start of this month of fasting, which is finished at
the next new moon. Ramadan officially starts when it is heralded by Muslim Imam. Commemorating the month of
Ramadan, Muslims seek the mercy and attention of Allah by fasting from dawn to
sunset. They abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex during the daylight
hours. It is said that good works achieved on the month of Ramadan results in a
multiplication of the regular reward for the same works carried out in other
months. For this reason, generosity and charity escalate on Ramadan. Likewise,
they are encouraged to read the entire Qur’an on this commemoration and to
recite special prayers.
The word Ramadan is taken from the Arabic word ramida, which means “intense, scorching heat or dryness.” It is believed among advocates of Islam that Ramadan reduces to ashes a person’s sins with good deeds. They seek to restrain everything sinful in themselves, putting away all vices, bad manners and desires, to show their dedication to Allah and hope for His mercy. The word Islam means “surrender,” and the posture of obedience and self-denial observed on the month of Ramadan is the extreme act of a Muslim’s submission to Allah.
On the other hand, fasting is also instituted in the Scripture. For Catholic Christians, fasting is usually accompanied by prayer and is a mode to articulate deep distress and dire need.
Wednesday
and Good Friday are required days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In
addition, Fridays during Lent are required days of abstinence.
For
members of the Latin Catholic Church, the customs on fasting are required from
age 18 until age 59. When fasting, an individual is allowed to eat one full
meal. Two smaller meals may also be taken, but not to equate with a full meal.
The norms about abstinence from meat are required on members of the Latin
Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.
Members
of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own
sui iuris Church (a distinct community of
faithful within a rite of the Church).
If
possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy
Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and
death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare to share more fully and to celebrate
more readily His Resurrection.
In
its broad sense, fasting is the voluntary avoidance of something that is good,
which basically means restricting the food that we eat. Fasting can be between
meals, by not eating snacks, or one could engage in a complete fast by
abstaining from all food. In fact, the English word breakfast, means the meal
that breaks the fast.
Lent,
the 40 days before Easter Sunday, is a season of the Church calendar set aside
for Christians to do penance in preparation for the celebration of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Refraining from food helps the faithful to bring bodies under the control of souls, but it is also a way of doing penance
for past excesses. That is why the Church strongly recommends that Catholics
fast during Lent.
Proverbs 16:6 By kindness and piety guilt is expiated, and by the fear of the LORD man avoids
evil. The kind of atonement this verse refers to
is temporal atonement. The biblically-mandated practice of temporal atonement
is the same as the practice of carrying out penance over one's sins. Penances
can be formal (like regulating a day of fasting) or informal (like thoughtfully
going out of one's way to be nice to someone), but they amount to the same
thing.
Significantly,
love and faithfulness atone for sin, which is the concept behind the historic
Christian practice of penance. Anti-Catholics often center their attacks on the
practice on penances to atone, make reparations, or for one's sins but fail to
realize this involve temporal rather than eternal. Catholics are not trying to bribe
the eternal debt of their sins by doing penance. Jesus paid all that off in one
fell swoop more than two thousand years ago.
Keep
in mind that even if humans are in a state of forgiveness, they may have
impaired fellowship with God and need to correct this. Acts of sorrow over one's sins (penances) are significant
in which this is made. Thus, people in both testaments of the Bible would do
penances to restore fellowship with God by grieving over their sins.
Catholics
are only obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and on Good
Friday, the day that Jesus Christ was crucified. Anyone over the age of 18, but
under the age of 59, should eat only one full meal on these days, although they can have a small amounts of food in the morning and the evening can be taken.
The
Church continues to encourage Catholics to observe a stricter fast. Extreme
fasting, however, can be physically harmful, so, as with all physical forms of
penance and of spiritual discipline, so one should consult a priest before getting
on a very strict fast.
References:
- http://www.gotquestions.org/Ramadan.html, What is Ramadan?
- Scott P. Richert, What Is Fasting? A Powerful Spiritual Tool, http://catholicism.about.com/od/catholicliving/p/Fasting.htm
- James Akin, Doing Penance, https://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/PENANCE.HTM
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