Meatfare Sunday (of the Fearful Judgment). Our Holy Father Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch (379-95)
1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2; Matthew 25:31-46.
Read 1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today’s reading is not about fasting. That doesn’t mean that it cannot be used to instruct about fasting, only that that was not its original context or intent. Making that distinction at the outset will help us clarify its value for Meatfare Sunday.
Today’s reading is about the freedom we have in Christ. Gentile Christians are not under Jewish Law regarding what they eat. Christians are not restricted from eating foods other people offer to so-called “gods”, which do not exist. We are commended to God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul points out (in the verses preceding and following) that he himself refrains from various things – food, drink, marital companionship, financial support – not because they are forbidden to him but so that others may not falsely discredit his ministry or distort the gospel. If someone would mistake Paul’s eating of food offered to an idol for Paul saying that it is OK as Christians to offer food to an idol, then Paul would refrain from eating that food at that time and place.
So, how does this understanding that, “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do,” relate to the Great Fast we prepare for today? It helps us to begin with the correct intent. Look at how the Fast ends, with the Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom: he who “tarried until the eleventh hour” is received as he who “wrought from the first.”
The question is, what are we doing with the fast? It’s not a competition. We can’t commend ourselves to God through food. But if we are receiving grace though Jesus Christ and exercising faith in love, then we are beginning the Fast the way it ends.