Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
August 16, 2000
Penance is more than `chicken soup for the soul'
Editor's Note: This is the second in a five-part catechesis by Russell Shaw leading up to the Sept. 17, 2000, Eucharistic Congress.
By Russell Shaw
The first chapter of the first letter of St. John sends the kind of "gotcha" message that can make just about anybody sit up and take notice: "If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 Jn 1.10).
That might be hard for many of us to handle, if it weren't for what comes just before: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn 1.9).
Penance is essential to an authentic encounter with God. We must confront the reality of our sins, repent of them and undo the harm we've done to the extent possible, and receive God's forgiveness. The issues here aren't abstractions called "sin" and "sinfulness" but the concrete, specific evil deeds we will and do, thereby distancing ourselves from God.
Conversion and Penance
Turning away from sin in order to turn to God is at the heart of conversion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church identifies two key aspects of "second conversion," the conversion of those who have already been baptized and are Christians.
First, it is an ongoing process. "Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians," and responding to it is "an uninterrupted task for the whole Church" (1428)
Second, this response is not a matter of external show but of interior disposition. "Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim at outward works, `sackcloth and ashes,' fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart" (1429).
Note the link to penance. There is no conversion without penance. Someone who wished to imagine otherwise would be like the halfhearted Christians to whom Cardinal Newman attributes these terrible words: "If our hearts must be changed to fit us for heaven, let them be changed, only let us have no trouble in the work...no fear and trembling, no working out salvation, no self-denial. Let Christ suffer, but be it ours to rejoice only."
In Christian life, penance takes many forms. Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church especially recommend fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Penance is carried out in everyday life through acts of reconciliation, justice, and charity. "Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance," the Catechism says (1435; cf. Lk 9.23).
The Sacrament of Penance
Above all, penance finds expression and fulfillment in the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. The Second Vatican Council teaches: "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins" (Lumen Gentium, 11).
As one of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ, this is the ordinary and best way to receive God's forgiveness of our sins. While it is true that sins also can be forgiven in other ways, still, as Pope John Paul remarks, it would be "foolish, as well as presumptuous" for a Catholic to neglect the sacrament.
It has several names. Many people remember when it was commonly spoken of as Confession. Now it is usually called Penance or Reconciliation. Each name brings out something true and important about the sacrament.
"Confession" underlines the fact that confessing sins to a priest, the minister of Christ and representative of the Church, is an essential part of it. "Reconciliation" is a reminder that it reconciles us with God and the Church. "Penance" calls attention to its role in the struggle against sin. (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1423-1424).
The Catechism identifies several distinct "acts of the penitent" within the framework of the sacrament.
Contrition is one: genuine sorrow for sin, along with the determination not to sin again. Examination of conscience in preparation for receiving the sacrament is an important part of contrition (1451-1454). The confession of sins also is required. Certainly this is true of mortal sins, which cut us off from a living relationship with God; and the confession of venial sins-real, though less serious, moral offenses which damage that relationship-also is recommended.
The law of the Church requires that mortal sins be confessed "at least once a year," although a person trying to lead a good Christian life will hardly settle for that bare minimum-especially since no one aware of having committed mortal sin should receive Holy Communion without receiving sacramental absolution first (1455-1458).
Finally, there is "satisfaction"-making up for the harm we do by sinning. This includes restitution (giving back what is unjustly taken, restoring what is damaged-including people's good names) and repairing broken relationships when possible. It also involves performing the "penance" assigned by the priest-a charitable work, an act of self-denial or prayer (1459-1460).
What Penance Is and Isn't
A petition in the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass in a city far from here was heard to say, "For those burdened with feelings of guilt, that they may be refreshed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation."
Careful-this sacrament is not psychotherapy. It is good to pray that people who have guilty feelings reflecting the real guilt of sin find relief from both things-the bad feelings and, more important, the objective guilt-in Penance. But it would be wrong to reduce it to chicken soup for the soul.
Still, it is a psychologically healthy practice to confront one's moral faults and seek forgiveness through the grace of God in the Sacrament of Penance. People who fail to do so are in danger of rationalizing their sinning, evading the truth, and on the whole losing touch with reality.
Christianity is realistic about sin. That is why it insists on penance as a precondition for worthy participation in Christ's redemptive act as it is made present in the Eucharistic celebration. People in whose lives sin remains a reality (is there anyone in whose life it does not?) yet fail to acknowledge their sins, repent, and ask God's pardon, have not prepared properly for the Eucharist. They are like the man in the gospel who came to a wedding feast without a wedding garment (cf. Mt 22.11).
Yet God's readiness to forgive sin is-one might almost say-notorious. The parable of the Prodigal Son testifies to that. It might equally well be called a parable of a prodigal father-a Father who is quick to forgive and lavish in his mercy. Through the practice of penance-and especially through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation-our merciful Father pardons our sins, straightens our paths, and prepares us for participation in his Eucharistic banquet.
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