Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Lent is often described as a penitential season and rightly so. But I worry that sometimes our understanding of what we mean by penitential may be colored in ways that prevent us from seeing the deeper beauty within this great season. Allow me to use my letter this week to hopefully paint a bigger picture.
Let’s face it, when it comes to Lent, many of us consider it a time of fasting, denial, and penance. And while that’s a large part of the tenor of the season, none of those things, and certainly not Lent itself, are meant to be all doom and gloom. In fact, the purpose of penance in particular, is quite the opposite.
It’s easy perhaps to equate the concept of penance with a sort of punishment, especially when we consider it with going to confession. Many of us may have been taught that we need to do penance to make up for our sins. That’s on the right track, but I fear that it can easily become in our minds this kind of one for one mentality, for every sin we commit we must make it right with some corresponding penance. But that’s like thinking God has some magic abacus in heaven that’s keeping a close tally of all the right and wrong we’ve done in our lives and that the beads move back and forth, according to how many prayers we say or sins we commit. The truth is much more nuanced.
Penance is meant to be a remedy for sin, not some kind of retribution or punishment. It’s more akin to exercising our bodies or eating healthy, in my estimation. Imagine if sin is like eating junk food. One cookie here and there isn’t the end of the world, perhaps. But if we overindulge in one instance, or if eating junk becomes habitual, then it creates issues for us, both in the short and long term. Doing one exercise or eating one salad doesn’t take away every effect of eating junk, but it can help. And the more we engage in such things, the healthier we become and the easier it is to stay on that course. Does that mean that we’re going to enjoy every vegetable or every exercise? No, but there’s always some benefit to choosing a better option. And so it is with penance.
My friends, this upcoming Monday evening, we will be having our Lenten Penance service at 7PM here in church. We’ll pray together, preparing our hearts and minds to leave behind sin, and then have a wonderful opportunity to experience the Sacrament of Penance with a variety of priests here to hear our confession. I would like to extend the invitation to all of us to make use of this great opportunity, or on Saturday afternoons from 3:30-4:30, to find forgiveness and embrace the goodness found in doing penance in this great season of Lent.
Peace and Goodness,
Fr. Dan
Recent Comments