Ruth's Book I

Penance

     As Franciscans we are, or should be, constantly striving for spiritual perfection, the Gospel way. To this end, let us try to revitalize the part true Penance has in this struggle for spiritual perfection.

     One thing is absolute, and that is, we must  have penance in our lives. We simply cannot make it through the “Pearly Gates” without it. We have sinned and do things all the time that we should not do. And, there are sins of omission, things we should do that we do not do. We can’t just write these sins off even though we are sorry for them. We must do penance. How? Let’s poke around in this area a little while and consider just what penance can do for us.

     One thing penance can do is act like a buffer between us and the tricky conniving of Satan. We call this buffer against sins that we might stumble into this afternoon, tomorrow, next month, or next year “Penance for the Future.”

     What is “Penance for the Future?” Simply, it is a way of helping us insure ourselves against future sin. To get this insurance or to acquire any insurance we have to pay a premium. The premium is self-denial and self-denial leads to self-discipline and self-control. Penance is made perfect only by the mastery of these virtues. Don’t ever underestimate their worth. It takes a terrific amount of self-discipline to kiss a leper; to bear intense pain; to submit to a slap in the face by life and to say “no” to a temptation when we are simply dying to say “yes.”

     Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

     All right, think about those words a minute: “deny himself.” Isn’t that self-denial straight from Christ’s own lips?

    His words, “Let him take up his cross and follow me,” is discipline and self-control, as He taught. Isn’t this what it means to live the Gospel way?

    Now, the only way in the world we can cultivate these virtues is by persistent and arduous training. It is sometimes a grueling, day-in-and-day-out forcing ourselves to practice these acts of self-denial.

    Self-denial covers a multitude of things. It is not only fasting from something to eat, or denying ourselves some desirable entertainment or recreation. It includes saying no, no, a thousand times no, to ourselves in such pleasurable little goodies as giving someone a piece of our mind; talking behind someone’s back; wanting our own way too much; “letting George do it;” making excuses for our own faults and having intolerance for other people’s faults, etc., etc. — so many etceteras. Most of these are little failings, but some are bigger and some can be down right deadly. St. Paul said, “They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.”

    Does all this mean we have to sit with our eyes raised to heaven and our hands piously folded all the time? Of course not, but it does mean that we have to learn to keep those desires and their gratification in bounds. We have to learn to keep them within the curbstones of the roadway that Christ has walked.

    It has our neighbor’s needs in view, too. We should not forget our neighbor in the gratification of our own human and spiritual desires.

    Self-denial is not without reward. It has its own built-in reward of freedom — freedom from runaway desires. We will find that there is a real satisfaction in that.

    Remember, we are members of the “Order of Penance.” We must make penance a part of our lives.

    Now, from “Penance for the Future,” a strong bulwark that it is against temptation and evil things that crop up from time to time, we come to “Penance for the Past.”

     Every “No” to God is a slap in His face. If we are truly sorry and ask him to forgive us He will, but we still owe Him a debt. An example of this is: if we break someone’s window the owner may forgive us; but we still have to pay for a new window.

    How do we pay our debt to God? We do it by “Penance for the Past.”

    “Penance for the Future,” we have seen, strengthens us so we can resist sin. “Penance for the Past” is paying for sins actually committed — one prevents, the other heals.

    “Penance for the Past” can simply be all our good actions offered to God. Remember our Morning Offering — “All our prayers, works, joys and sufferings in reparation …” This is “Penance for the Past” right in our daily routine, our offering of little things to God. God likes little things. He does not expect us to climb a mountain, or swim a vast sea, or fast forty days and forty nights. Those things are for the one-of-a-kind type like Christ Himself, or for the one-in-a-million types, like St. Francis, St. Clare, the “Little Flower” and people like that. We are the little bitty ones that make up the rest of the millions.

    If we do every little task and duty every day and bear every pain willingly for God’s sake we would be doing perfect penance. It’s as simple as that — and as hard as that.

    This does not mean that we should not seek to alleviate our pains or to make our lives easier when we can. We are privileged to use the good things of life; to take aspirins, for instance; to make good use of work saving devices, or when we can, settle into a comfortable chair instead of choosing a hard bench. But, when something for instance cannot be mitigated then we should not waste the opportunity to “do penance.” We have said this before: “Don't waste anything.”

    However, in our self-denials we should never abuse “brother body.” Also, and this is important, we should keep our acts of self-denial quietly to ourselves — no looking for a pat on the back — self-denials lose much of their acceptability to God when we talk about them to others — bragging has its own reward.

    This also applies to alms giving, which is another form of penance. Alms giving can include giving anything good — our time; our talents, such as they may be; personal help; money; clothing and other material things too numerous to mention. We can also offer our compassion; a smile; a word of encouragement and on and on. The quieter we are about these things the greater will be their value.

     These penance’s we have been talking about rise up and up to God in a real burst of glory when they become “Penance for Christ Crucified.”

    What is “Penance for Christ Crucified?” It is this: Willing to unite our penance’s with Christ on His Cross. We are continuing Christ’s work in the world today by willingly offering up our unavoidable sufferings and kicks in the teeth by life in union with His redemptive sufferings. We are then, right at this moment, sharing in His redemptive work. This is “Penance for Christ Crucified.”

    Someone has said, “A bed of pain has made many a saint, for when a person is flat on his back the only way to look is up.” St. Francis suffered daily with Christ and wept many times over His sufferings.

    Or, as Father Nimath said, “Suffering in itself is not good ... The pity is not that there is suffering in the world; but, that there is too much wasted suffering not united with Christ — too many crosses that never become crucifixes.”

    Or, still another quote of unknown origin: “It is much easier to let the cross hang on the wall than it is to carry it.”

    And now, with this, we can say we have scratched the surface of the subject of penance; but, we cannot leave it without some reference to the Sacrament of Penance.

    We don’t have to confess venial sins, but they should be avoided like the plague. Venial sins, carelessly accumulated, are spiritually debilitating. Just as Christ likes little good things, so does Lucifer chortle with glee over little bad things. The little bad things, when persisted in, have a way of dimming the lights so gradually that the darkening effect goes unnoticed until suddenly there is real danger of falling into some unseen pit.

    St. Francis said, “I feel that I am the greatest sinner that ever existed.” Well! If that holy man felt that way, the rest of us, at times, should feel a hot sulfuric breeze on the back of our necks.

    But remember, our great saving virtues of faith and hope — faith and hope in God and in ourselves. Every time we make an “Act of Contrition,” a heartfelt one, it is an act of faith in the justice of God; an act of hope in the mercy of God and an act of our own worship and love for God.

    We, who are of the “Order of Penance,” should examine our consciences daily, and if in addition, we reverently make use of the Sacrament of Penance, we will find ourselves strengthened in purpose and increased in the holiness of the Holy Spirit. We say we are striving for perfection — all right then, we should soft-pedal our pride, our greed, our lust, our envy, our anger (in particular our revengeful anger) and our sloth or laziness in exerting ourselves to penance. We should show loud and clear what it means to be humble, patient, moderate, kind, meek, and poor in spirit.

    “Learn of me,” Jesus said, “for I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest in your soul.”

     That is really what all of us are longing for, to find peace in our soul.     So, let us push steadfastly up our roadway, resolutely, doing penance as we go.