05-19-2026, 07:31 AM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
THIRTY-SECOND OBJECTION. IT IS NOT WHAT GOES INTO THE MOUTH THAT DEFILES THE SOUL. GOD WILL NEVER DAMN ME FOR A MORSEL OF MEAT. MEAT IS NO WORSE ON FRIDAYS THAN ON OTHER DAYS.
Answer. You are quite right: it is not the meat which would condemn you; meat is as harmless one day as another. What does condemn you is disobedience, which is the cause of your eating meat on those days.
The wrong done on Friday is the violation of a law which does not exist for other days; it is the revolt against the legitimate authority of those pastors whom we ought to obey as representing Him who sends them: "Go, I send you forth. He who heareth you heareth Me; he who despiseth you despiseth Me."
It is not, then, a question of any particular food or day, or of the palate; but of the sin incurred by refusing to obey a law at once obligatory and easy to keep.
Besides the great and general motive for observing all the laws of the Church, we may further urge that these laws are not made at random, or through caprice; they are based on solid and important reasons.
Thus the law of abstinence, the application of which occurs every week, is designed to recall incessantly to the Christian's recollection the Passion, sufferings, and death of the Saviour, as well as the necessity of doing penance; it is the public practice of penance among Christians, etc.
None but the ignorant and superficial can regard this institution as useless. It is incredible how efficacious in practice is this simple observance of abstinence on Fridays in retaining the soul within the sacred influence of religious ideas.
The laws of the Church, although binding on pain of sin, are far from being harsh or tyrannical. The Church is a Mother, not an imperious mistress. It is quite sufficient that serious and legitimate reasons prevent your observing abstinence, to insure its dispensation in your case. The Church desires to do you good, not to do you harm. She desires to make you expiate your sins, not to make you ill. Illness, weakness of constitution, the fatigues of constant hard labor, extreme poverty, great difficulty in procuring abstinence fare; such are the reasons which dispense with this law.
To avoid any mistake, however, it is better to consult beforehand your parish priest or confessor, who are the proper interpreters of the law.
This observation, which extends to all the laws of the Church, shows how wise and moderate is the authority which enacts them. Let us, then, respect this authority from the bottom of our hearts; let us leave those to laugh who know nothing about it, while we fulfil, without murmuring, commandments so simple, so judicious, and so profitable for our souls.
THIRTY-SECOND OBJECTION. IT IS NOT WHAT GOES INTO THE MOUTH THAT DEFILES THE SOUL. GOD WILL NEVER DAMN ME FOR A MORSEL OF MEAT. MEAT IS NO WORSE ON FRIDAYS THAN ON OTHER DAYS.
Answer. You are quite right: it is not the meat which would condemn you; meat is as harmless one day as another. What does condemn you is disobedience, which is the cause of your eating meat on those days.
The wrong done on Friday is the violation of a law which does not exist for other days; it is the revolt against the legitimate authority of those pastors whom we ought to obey as representing Him who sends them: "Go, I send you forth. He who heareth you heareth Me; he who despiseth you despiseth Me."
It is not, then, a question of any particular food or day, or of the palate; but of the sin incurred by refusing to obey a law at once obligatory and easy to keep.
Besides the great and general motive for observing all the laws of the Church, we may further urge that these laws are not made at random, or through caprice; they are based on solid and important reasons.
Thus the law of abstinence, the application of which occurs every week, is designed to recall incessantly to the Christian's recollection the Passion, sufferings, and death of the Saviour, as well as the necessity of doing penance; it is the public practice of penance among Christians, etc.
None but the ignorant and superficial can regard this institution as useless. It is incredible how efficacious in practice is this simple observance of abstinence on Fridays in retaining the soul within the sacred influence of religious ideas.
The laws of the Church, although binding on pain of sin, are far from being harsh or tyrannical. The Church is a Mother, not an imperious mistress. It is quite sufficient that serious and legitimate reasons prevent your observing abstinence, to insure its dispensation in your case. The Church desires to do you good, not to do you harm. She desires to make you expiate your sins, not to make you ill. Illness, weakness of constitution, the fatigues of constant hard labor, extreme poverty, great difficulty in procuring abstinence fare; such are the reasons which dispense with this law.
To avoid any mistake, however, it is better to consult beforehand your parish priest or confessor, who are the proper interpreters of the law.
This observation, which extends to all the laws of the Church, shows how wise and moderate is the authority which enacts them. Let us, then, respect this authority from the bottom of our hearts; let us leave those to laugh who know nothing about it, while we fulfil, without murmuring, commandments so simple, so judicious, and so profitable for our souls.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre