August 26, 2009

Q: When Catholics do penance, is it in addition to Christ’s penance on the cross, or is it a parallel penance to Christ’s penance?

A: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). Penance here is a supernatural moral virtue whereby the sinner hates his/her sin as an offense against God and commits to a firm purpose of amendment and satisfaction. The principal act is the detestation of one’s own sin. The motive of this detestation is that sin offends God. One must both recognize and detest one’s sinfulness before one carries out a reform of one’s behavior, the actual satisfaction for the evil one has done. This is a true self-judgment and a true act of justice in response to the divine and universal law of penance.

Penance, which leads us to detest and make satisfaction for our own personal sins and the sins of others too, is then something very wholesome, desirable, and hopeful, for it is the very occasion of a person’s interior and exterior renewal, and the restoration of human and Christian society. Penance must be recognized not just as a duty, but first of all as a gift. No man can do any penance worthy of God’s consideration without His first giving the grace to do so.

Therefore, penance also means cooperating in Christ’s work of redeeming us: we apply to ourselves the grace earned for us on the cross, as St. Paul says in Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church.” In the mystical Body of Christ each of us is called to share in the mystery of His cross. As Catholics, we give witness to the hope we have in Christ (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), that there is a remedy for our age and its sins: the virtue of penance.

This week’s apologist is Father Andreas Hock, chair of the sacred Scripture department at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. Send your question for Ask an Apologist to: editor@archden.org.

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