Penance is a recognition that we have a "past." It is not morbid to recognize this fact; rather, to pretend that it does not exist is morbid. The past will affect our future. We are not only what we eat; we are also what our sins have made us. If we do not make amends for our past, we are postponing and increasing our eternal punishment; the only reason that time is given to us is in order that we may do penance.
The true lover of God, conscious of having wounded Love, will voluntarily renounce his/her privileges and conduct himself/herself in such a way as to be identified with the Christ Who bears five hideous scars on hands and feet and side.
In this world most of us mind pain more than we do sin; in fact, we often believe pain to be the greater evil. Penance helps us to set these disorders in their right perspective; when a man finds joy in penance, he/she realizes that no other evil can affect him/her more than sin. Unless there is love, sacrifice and penance will be felt as an evil, but not when love is there. We understand, when we accept penance, that the very selfishness that caused our sin makes some such sacrifice necessary as a condition of taming the errant impulses that caused the trouble.
And when the full light of the Lord Jesus Christ Love shines in a soul, it begins to incorporate, not only penances imposed by the Church, but all the trails of life into the great work of redemption. Instead of breaking into bitter complaint about the reverses of fortune and the trails, it receives them in a spirit of resignation as the just wages of sin; through this patient acceptance, atonement is made for many sins.
There are three general ways of doing penances: prayers, alms and fasting. In prayer, we beg God's mercy on our souls. By alms, we give back to God some of the gifts He gave to us, that we may justify our possessions. "redeem you your sins with alms." - Dan. 4:24 - By fasting, we mortify the root of all cravings of a sensual character. The increasing comforts of modern life afford many occasions for mortification. If a person cannot himself/herself in respect to food, other pleasures within his/her reach - artistic, conventional, mechanical, and social - will supply many an occasion for actual fasting.
But penances are not done by ourselves alone; the penitent is helped by others who are in the Body of Christ. This could not be if we were isolated individuals, but it can come about if we belong to one Mystical Body where all are one because governed by one Head, vivified by one Soul, and professing the same Faith. Just as it is possible to graft skin from one part of the part to the other, and just as it is possible to transfuse blood from one member of society to another, so, in the spiritual organism of the Church, it is possible to graft prayer and to transfuse sacrifices.
This Christians truth in its fullness is known as the Communion of Saints. Just as we are all bound up in the guilt of one another's faults, so we can be bound up in one another's reparation. Such a miracle takes place in the reversibility of merits and the interchange of advantages. That is why we ask our friends to pray for us, why we pray in the context of "Our Father." We have spiritual need of one another. "And the eye cannot say to the hand: I need not thy help; nor again the head to the feet: I have no nee of you. Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary." - 1 Cor. 12:21-22 -
Few consolations are greater than the knowledge that we are bound up in great corporation of prayers and sacrifices. The Communion of Saints is the great discovery of those who, as adults, find the fullness of faith. They discover that for years there have been dozens, in some instances hundreds, of souls praying especially for them-storming heaven with the plea that a little act of humility by the convert might open a crack in his armor to let in God's grace and truth.
Every soul in the world has a price tag on it, and since many cannot or will not pay the price themselves, others must do it for them. There is probably no other way to account for the conversion of some souls than the fact that in this world, as in the next, their parents, relatives or friends interceded to God and won for them the prize of everlasting life.
Why are there monasteries and convents? Why do so many young souls leave the lights and glamour of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross where saints are made? The modern world so little understands their mission that, as soon as a newspaper man hears of a handsome young woman entering a cloister, he telephones the parents to ask, "Was she disappointed in love?" The answer, of course, is "Yes, with the love of the world. She has fallen in love with God." These hidden dynamos of prayer, the cloistered men and women, are doing more for our country than all its politicians, its labor leaders, its army and navy put together; they are atoning for sins of us all.
They are averting the just wrath of God, repairing the broken fences of those who sin and pray not, rebel and atone not. As ten just men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, so ten just saints can save a nation now. But so long as a citizenry is more impressed by what its cabinet does than by its chosen souls who are doing penance, the rebirth of the nation has not yet begun. The cloistered are the purest of patriots. They have not become less interested in the world since leaving it; indeed, they have become more interested in the world than ever before. But they are not concerned with whether it will buy and sell more; they care - and desperately care - whether it will be more virtuous and love God more.
With such noble men and women helping here and now, there and formerly, the rest do little enough penance for our individual sins. But, even so, many of the frustrated modern men and women look around wistfully for some easier way - for a religion which will give the emotional lift without the penitential drag, for some cult that is elevating but not too demanding. Having many passions to be mortified, many bad habits to correct, many egotism to surrender, they want a streamlined cross. They seek a religion to give them a glow - but no blow. Some repudiate all religion, saying, "What can the Church give me?" At that stage of pride, the Church can give nothing, but it can take something away - one's sins. And that is gift enough, as a start.
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BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895 to 1979)
Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless.
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Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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