Mass without Coffee

Every year as Lent begins, our Pastor gives his talk on the required Catholic fasting, and the superiority of our Jewish Brethren when it comes to fasting and taking the High Holy Days seriously.

A Catholic's idea of fasting is one regular meal and two smaller meals (required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, days when we also abstain from non aquatic meat). That's pretty wussy.

The Pastor points out that our Jewish brothers and sisters go the WHOLE DAY without eating on the Day of Atonement. And we Catholics whine about not being able to shove a few snickers bars down the hatch two days a year (technically, you still COULD shove the snickers bars down the hatch if you made them one of your light meals- although that is sort of adhering to the letter of the law and not the spirit :)).

Yup, Catholics, unless they are those few admirable penitential saints who went 40 years without eating more than half a grape, are pretty wussy when it comes to overcoming the flesh through sacrifice.

And I'm definitely one of those wussy ones.

In the olden days (not quite as old as the half a grape days, but still before my time) one had to keep a Communion fast from Midnight until Communion at Mass. Nothing but water (the sick and those caring for them excepted) from the time you woke up until Mass. Now the fast is down to one hour before Communion. Which, at my parish, means you could be eating a Whopper halfway through the Homily and you'd still make the hour fast.

This fast is not a bad thing. Holy Communion is such an awesome event- we receive Christ Himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Wow! And because this is available to us each week (each day if we go to Daily Mass) it's easy to lose sight of how incredible this is- each time. Fasting for an hour reminds us this is God Himself we receive, and we must prepare, cleansing our bodies to break our fast with God himself. Looking at it that way, it's easy to see why it used to be fasting all night until Morning Mass.

So what happened to me today?

Normally I wake up in time to have a cup of coffee at least before Mass. Usually coffee and a bagel. Today I got a late start, and had time to get washed, dressed, and out the door.

Mass without coffee... um... is not being able to focus a spiritual experience? Was my phasing out some sort of mystical event?

Probably not. I'm just wussy when it comes to fasting. Next time I'm getting up early enough to have coffee. Unless someone invents caffinated water.

Somewhere in my imagination lives Saint Mindi. She can live 40 years on a QUARTER grape, bear all sorts of pains, and is heroically martyred crying out "Viva Christo Rey!"

But the real Mindi needs coffee.