Is Eating Animal Meat Ok with God?

By Mariana Burgos

I was brought up in a family who loves all kinds of animals as you all well know by now. My husband came from a family who loves animals, too. So, it is, as you may have expected, why we raised up Yumi, our daughter, loving them as well. That is why it was a no-shocker to learn that she wanted to be a Veterenarian one day soon.

We, my husband and I, share two more similar things with our upbringings----we both came from a religious family and we all love to cook and eat “good food”, meaning, “meaty” dishes. Both of our families have each of their traditional special recipes that are really mouth watering because they are prepared in a “labor of love” kind of way, as some would say. On my side of the family, for instance, we have this spaghetti sauce that is cooked for eight hours. If you do it less than that, that is not it. Period. That is just one of the five traditional recipes we have. On the side of my in-laws, they have this ham recipe that needs 3-4 hours of preparation, 10-15 hours of curing, and 2-3 hours of cooking. If you do it quicker than what is required (of their traditional recipe), then, I recommend that you just buy the commercial hams because that is the kind of taste you will be getting if you do so. They have many more recipes and a lot are meat dishes also. So, you may say, we are all carnivorous clans.

I grew up in a Roman Catholic family wherein, everyday, you are woken up at five in the morning to say the morning prayer. At twelve noon and at six in the evening, you are reminded to pray the Angelus. At three in the afternoon, you are told to pray the Divine Mercy. After the Angelus at six in the evening, we would pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Before you sleep, you are reminded to pray your evening prayer. We attend the Eucharistic Celebration (Holy Mass) every Sunday and we try to have our confessions once every week as often as possible. I have an aunt who was a nun. My husband has a priest for an uncle and his own mother is a descald Carmelite sister. So, as you can see, we have pretty much the same backgrounds. I guess, that is why we vibed easily together.

Having come from such a background, there is this question in the back of my mind for a long time now----“Is eating animal meat ok with God?” Well, of course, now, Google has many answers from various referrences to offer to help us understand better. In my own opinion, I think that God prefers us to be vegetarians. If you go back to the readings in the Holy Bible about the time before the “fall of man”, before Adam and Eve first sinned, God did not mention there that He gives the animals to them for food. He was telling them to take care of them, not to eat them.

“Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

God told them specifically what to have for food. The animals may have the greens for food.

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” (Genesis 1:29-30).

It is the plants that He was giving them for food. After the time that they disobeyed and they were sent out of the Garden of Eden, that was the time God mentioned that man would see animals as food. But still, He was not telling them that they should eat them. From my understanding, He was simply telling them that all other animals will be fearful of man from then on because man will see most of the animals as food.

“The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.” (Genesis 9:2-3).

This is the reason why I resolved long ago to lessen my consumption of animal meat and until I can finally come to the point where I no longer have the slightest craving for it. I try to instill this same belief to my daughter. When she was just in her elementary years, I was nearly successful. There was a time, I think, around three years that we rarely have meat with our meals. I intentionally cook meat only twice a week. And, I make sure that one of that is fish. It was easy to ensure this at that time because we were living in our own apartment. We only get to eat more meat when we are at somebody else’s house. Nowadays, it is hard to keep this up because we no longer have our own place. We are staying with my mother-in-law now. What she wants as viand, we have the same. Most of the time, we have meat.

If we get the chance to have our own place once again, we will surely go back in trying to lessen our meat cravings. For us, this is how we get to honor God more and all his creations. And we hope more people will come to be enlightened just the same. When most of mankind have this view of the world, I think, we will get to see the Garden of Eden once again.