Dear Father,
Someone at my campus ministry told me that I’m not supposed to eat before going to Mass. She said something about a one-hour fast. I never heard of this and I was raised a Catholic. Is this true about fasting?
- Messalina
Dear Messalina,
Yes, it is true that Catholics are required to fast from food and drink in preparation for Holy Communion. The 1983 Code of Canon Law, no. 919, states, “Whoever is to receive the blessed Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before Holy Communion from all food and drink, with the sole exception of water and medicine.”
The law uses the word “abstain” rather than “fast,” but the meaning is the same. One may drink plain water or take medicine within the one-hour fasting period, however.
It’s worth noting that the canon stipulates “at least one hour.” This is a way of encouraging us to go beyond the legal limit and prepare ourselves for Holy Communion by fasting for a longer period of time. In fact, the one hour is a modern concession when it comes to receiving the Most Holy Sacrament.
I recommend the excellent article in Antiphon, “Eucharistic Fasting,” by Sister Madeleine Grace. She notes that the pre-Communion fast is an ancient practice in the Catholic Church. That said, during the first centuries of the Church, considering that an agape meal preceded the Eucharist, it seems there was no fast before Communion.
However, by the fifth century, St. Augustine spoke about it as a nearly universal practice, apparently thinking that it was divinely inspired. We have evidence that a fast was definitely universally practiced in the Middle Ages. In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the fast began at midnight. Keep in mind that people attended early morning Masses. Moreover, Catholics used to be more aware of the need for going to Confession prior to receiving Holy Communion.
In 1953, Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution Christus Dominus, reminded Catholics that fasting in preparation for Communion pays “due honor to our Divine Redeemer, it fosters piety … and it can help to increase in us most salutary fruits of holiness which Christ, the Source and Author of all good, wishes us who are enriched by His Grace to bring forth.” He went on to point out what we know from human nature, namely, that “when the body is not weighted down by food the mind more easily is lifted up” so that we can “meditate upon that hidden and transcendent Mystery that works in the soul, as in a temple, to the increase of divine charity.”
Partly due to the shortage of priests and the increases in numbers of Masses at later hours, in 1957 Pope Pius XII reduced the fast to three hours. In 1964, Pope Paul VI further reduced the fast to one hour, the current discipline.
Medicine and water do not break the fast. Also, the new canon law asserts that “the elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour.” The fasting rule is also mitigated for priests who celebrate multiple Masses on the same day.
One hour “before Holy Communion” hardly seems difficult, apart from the elderly and infirm. If you arrive a decent time before Mass begins, and especially if the priest is a long-winded preacher, almost an hour will have elapsed before Communion. You would almost have to be munching on a doughnut on your way into the church in order to break the fasting law these days. Does this really show proper respect and preparation for receiving the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ? Surely, not!
People will often ask whether coffee breaks the fast. While some people’s coffee looks more like they merely waved a coffee bean over a cup of water (yes, I like my coffee strong), coffee is not water even if it is mostly water. That goes for other beverages, too.
For those wondering about chewing gum or a piece of candy or something that has no calories, I would remind them to take seriously the need to prepare to receive Christ in your body and soul. I mean, this is God, people!
Quite frankly, and I know I’m not alone in this, I think we need to return to the three-hour fast before Holy Communion. I believe that a longer fast would help us to take more seriously that we are feasting on the Body of Christ. As one commentator noted, the longer fast also would help us to prepare for the Liturgy of the Word. Here, too, we are taking into our souls Christ the Word.
Pope Benedict XVI taught that since it is Christ Who gives Himself completely to us, should we not give ourselves to Him in a total self-offering. The Eucharistic fast is just one aspect of our self-offering.
