Last week I concluded with the Latin adage, plenus venter non studet libenter (“A full stomach doesn’t willingly apply itself to study”). Remaining a little hungry – both physically and morally – is beneficial. Constant satiation of bodily and other undertakings brings torpor and weakness in the face of more dire temptations. Lent is a time for fasting, both remedial and penitential. From apostolic times we have been obliged to have periods of self-denial.
Not to observe Lent in a serious way would itself be a sin. Caesarius of Arles (d 542) teaches: “Aliis diebus ieiunare aut remedium aut premium est, in quadragesima non ieiunare peccatum est. Alio tempore qui ieiunat accipiet indulgentiam, in his diebus qui potest, et non ieiunat, sentiet poenam.” (“On other days fasting is a remedy or a distinction, but in Lent not to fast is a sin. In another season one who fasts receives an indulgence, but in these days, whoever can fast but doesn’t will experience punishment” (s 199.)
