SubscribePenance is a word that is not used much outside of the Catholic Church these days. Unfortunately, it’s probably not used enough within the Church either.
What is Penance?
Often times, penance is thought of as some sort of remedial punishment for sins that we’ve committed. Sinner goes into confessional and confesses sins. Priest gives absolution and assigns penance. Sinner does simple act of penance such as a set number of Our Father or Hail Mary prayers. Penance is complete. If this is all that there is to penance, then it’s easy to understand why so few are interested in its practice.
Unfortunately, some priests aren’t very creative when it comes to doling out penance in the confessional. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a confessor who will thoughtfully analyze your sinful tendencies and apply a penance that is very appropriate for you.
The Saints and Penance
Penance can be a much bigger part of life than just what we have imposed on us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The least amount of reading about the lives of the saints will reveal that most of them routinely imposed some sort penance upon themselves. Many saints adopted lifelong dietary restrictions that would make our twice yearly church-mandated fasting seem totally insignificant in comparison. Some saints were known to discard all of their belongings in order to adopt lifestyles of poverty and simplicity that are beyond the comprehension of our materialistic minds. And all saints made large sacrifices of their time in order to spend more time in prayer with God. These extreme penitential sacrifices would be looked upon as borderline insanity in our time.
What is the Purpose?
So how can penance be a good thing? Why would one want to embrace penance? After all, doesn’t God want us to be happy? Didn’t he give us food to eat, shoes to wear, electronics to enjoy? Why in the world would we want to give up these gifts? In short, because these worldly things will only bring us temporary happiness. Lifelong happiness has to be rooted in something much bigger than a big steak, a cold beer, a plasma TV, an SUV, a nice manicure, or an enormous house.
Penance, when done out of a love for God rather than for personal pride, is like spiritual exercise! This spiritual exercise can and will help us to overcome worldly temptation, and help us to focus more of our lives on the will of God. Discerning and acting upon the will of God will bring true and everlasting happiness.
Priorities
Why do so many people spend several hours per week in the gym? What about the discipline necessary to follow a strict diet? These disciplines, or similar ones, are necessary for some people to reach their physical goals.
Why do [good] students spend hours studying intently rather than going out and having fun? This discipline is necessary for them to achieve their educational goals.
Why do people get up in the morning to go to work rather than stay home and do something more rewarding? This discipline is necessary in order for us to achieve our financial goals.
In our modern “me first” society, many people focus an inordinate amount of energy on working out at the gym to improve the way they look. Many of us (or our spouses) work many more hours than necessary in order to get the extra money for — fill in the blank. We’re always busy trying to achieve that which will make us immediately comfortable. We feel a sense of entitlement toward our free time, as though we’ve earned the right to relax in some mindless way whenever we want, because — well just because! Our time is precious, but it seems that we always have just enough time to work toward our financial goals, and we can usually fit in plenty of time to work on our physical goals.
But what about our spiritual goals? Maybe that’s the problem — many of us have none.
Getting Closer to Christ
If your primary spiritual goal is to get closer to Christ in this life and share his love with other people, so that all of you may have the opportunity to share in his salvation, then penance is a fine tool to use to help you get there.
Penance can be any number of things to any number of people. The worldly temptations against which you struggle are probably not the same as mine. One can sacrifice a meal, a snack, a video game, computer or television time, or some other activity. To make this sacrifice really beneficial, one can devote the saved time to prayer. No matter what act of penance is chosen, it should always be done joyfully. Jesus himself told us not to look gloomy when we fast!
If you’re reading this, then that means that you’re probably Catholic. As you know, we Catholics believe in Purgatory. This isn’t intended to be an article on Purgatory, but in general, the period in Purgatory is intended to cleanse and purify us before we face God. After all, he is perfect. It’s the least we can do. Penitential acts done here in this life can shorten this period of purgation for us, or for others.
Reparation
If you spill a glass of red wine on your friend’s new carpet, that friend will likely forgive you. But if you’re really and truly repentant, you’ll stay and help your friend clean up the mess that you’ve made. Similarly, when we Catholics go into the confessional, God in his endless mercy forgives us of all our sins. But that doesn’t mean that the work is done. We still have to clean up the mess. Acts of penance can be offered up to God in reparation for our past sins, shortening our time in Purgatory. Or one can offer these penitential sacrifices up for the sins of others, a very noble and generous practice.
Penance = Love = Conversion
Penance doesn’t have to be painful or debilitating. Those of us who feel called to do penance will feel this calling in different ways and to different degrees. One thing is certain, penance is a worthwhile gift to Our Lord when done out of love for Him.
You wouldn’t hesitate to make a sacrifice for one of your children. So why won’t you make a sacrifice for God? Look around you. You’ve been blessed. Show some gratitude. Prayer is valuable and necessary. Add in some penance, and God will know that you mean business. The conversion that you experience will be with you forever.
For further reading about penance from some folks who know what penance is all about, check out:
Steve
/ March 16, 2008If “Purgatory is intended to cleanse and purify us before we face God” why does it say in the Book of Ephesians that reconciliation with God has already been completed for those who have faith?
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” – Ephesians 2:13-16
Penance/confession/pugatory sounds a lot like the old sacrificial system of the Old Testament (with its own human “priesthood”). You seem to be constantly trying to make amends for things when it is already done by God Himself.
“who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this he did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weaknesses, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. – Hebrews 7:27-28 (NKJV)
Penitent
/ March 16, 2008As I stated in the original post, this was not intended to be an article on Purgatory. I pray that we Christians may one day be reunited in our beliefs, but at this point the Protestant reliance upon sola scriptura makes that hope rather dim.
It’s quite easy to take one or two sections from the bible to prove nearly any point. Where one sentence may insinuate that all one needs for salvation is faith, many other passages clearly state otherwise.
But since you did mention Ephesians in your post to try and reinforce your belief, I’ll use Collosians for my own.
Christ’s death on the Cross absolutely sufficed to redeem humanity, but it did not free us from the need to undergo temporal punishments for our sin. For example, humanity is still subject to the temporal punishments of labor, pain, sickness and death even though we have now been redeemed. St. Paul makes this point clear when writing to the Colossians: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (1, 24).
Thanks for your thoughts, dear brother in Christ.
Steve
/ March 16, 2008I think I basically agree with what you said in your last paragraph but myself, as an evangelical, perhaps approaches the situation from a different angle. It’s not a matter of sola scriptura if someone were to hold to beliefs and practices which contradicted by already established (and also accepted) scripture.
When St. Paul in Colossians speaks of what was “lacking in Christ’s afflictions”, we cannot take it to mean that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient for our sins because it would then contradict other scripture such as 1 John 1:7 where it says that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from ALL sin.” (NKJV) There is no sin that we redeem on our own.
What I believe the author of Colossians is refering to is sanctification and not justification to eternal salvation. When we accept Christ, the eternal salvation of our Spirit is secure, but since we live in a temporal flesh, the reality of Christ’s death and ressurrection only meets us part way until we die and receive a new body. Sanctification by works and suffering is valued by God because it continually proves our love for Him/faith and reflects Christ’s life before others.
“…we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were (past tense) saved in this hope…” – Romans 8:23-24 (NKJV)
The hope we are saved by is faith itself. Suffering and doing good works are a byproduct of already being accepted by God through Christ and not the means to it (Christ also suffered though He was innocent already). St. Paul decried rituals of works and rhetorically asked the Galatians “having begun in the Spirit are you know being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3; NKJV).
The prinicple of faith being required for justification in place of works is a theme echoed throughout scripture (ie. Romans 3:28, Eph. 2:8, Gal. 2:16). Verses which describe works in addition to faith are describing the outworking of genuine faith in action (ie. James 2;14-26); it is only natural that someone who truly trusts God would have some change of behaviour somewhere or else it would all be a fraud.