ON THE VIRTUE OF PENANCE

So the topic of today is one of Penance.

And we're also going to be talking a lot about Contrition.

Penance is a virtuous act. Now, that is one thing that we must establish right away, because we have kind of a convoluted idea of what penance is. When we think of penance, we think of hardship, we think of pain, we think of suffering. And that's just not what it is. Suffering is an evil in and of itself. It is evil. It is not supposed to exist in the original economy of salvation, as God created it. There was not supposed to be any pain or suffering. But because of sin, suffering came into the world. So now this is where penance comes in. Suffering can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. Suffering can be seen as a recognition of the horror of sin, or it can be a repayment for sin, or it can be a way to discipline ourselves to overcome the wounds of original sin. In which case, this is where it falls under the term of penance. Or it can be masochism. Or it can be senseless. Or it can be any number of other things. But pain in and of itself is not a good thing. It's only when it is used to accomplish a higher good, a higher perfection, to draw closer to God. That pain is a useful tool, nothing else. But again, is penance exclusively reduced to pain and suffering? No, it's not. Penance is a much broader topic. It is one that includes every act of our life. There is mental and intellectual penance. There is physical penance, emotional penance. There's all types of penance that we can do. The question of what it is is based upon what our intention is. Every human, faculty and action can be brought under the realm of penance. Every last part of us can become one act. One inclination or one intention of penance.

First and foremost, let's ask the biggest question;

Why should we offer penance?

1. The Necessity of Self-Discipline

The idea of penance is the self-discipline, which brings everything back into order as it should be. Our intellect clarified, illuminated by the grace of God, and by eliminating as much as possible all the darkness a sin brings with it. And the weaknesses of our nature. The weakness of will for we fortify it frequently. It's the it's we we fall into sin as much by laziness or just not willing to battle ourselves for virtue So therefore, we have to teach ourselves to be strong, to practice the virtue of fortitude. And in order to do that, you know, activity is necessary. And then the last the last thing is put our emotions back in check. I'm sure we all know something about that. Our emotions get the better of us. We lose our temper. We were overcome with sadness. Whatever else may be the cliche that we want to use at that moment. The fact is, our emotions sometimes carry us and directions that our intellect and our will would not want us to do We start snarling and snapping at people around us where our blood sugar is low and we get grumpy, whatever else might be the case. There are proofs and evidences of the fact that there are reasons for our emotions being the way they are. But they need to be brought back into control, back into submission, underneath our intellect. And will they need to be guided by intellect and controlled and dominated by our will? So this is the self-discipline. This is the goal. One of the goals of penance. But this is also the lowest goal of penance. This is the most human goal, something that's very important and essential for each and every one of us to practice. But it is also the lowest. The second one, the second to the second tier. And that comes down to essentially one of three things for self-discipline, because we are undisciplined, we are wounded creatures. When Adam and Eve sinned, their progeny immediately suffered the wounds of original sin, which means the darkening of the intellect. We don't see things as clearly as we should. We get easily confused the weakness of the will. We don't have the fortitude in the strength to choose the right thing all the time. We have to work for it. It's not easy and pleasurable to do the right thing as much as it should be. And even when it is, even when it is enjoyable and pleasing, frequently it is because there's too much of ourselves, too much selfishness involved. And so therefore, it's not actually a virtuous act. So. And then also there is the lack of integrity. Our emotions are completely out of control. They dominate our thought process and our decision making process.

2. Union with God:

The worst evil in this world is sin. It is the source of all evils. And it is something we fall into far too frequently, and it's something that we frankly do not have enough care about. We tend to be very calloused about the fact that we are sinning because of the fact that we're so used to it. We sin and we go to confession and we sin again. And as a result, we never have the purpose of amendment that we should have. Now, I'll get to that with contrition later on, but we never get to the point of perfection that we should, where we are actually so horrified by our sins that we never go back to them. We must learn to have a true abhorrence of sin and penance helps us do that. Saint Thomas comments that if a person is so unfortunate as to fall into mortal sin, they should at that moment perform some form of physical penance and beg of God, the grace of contrition. So it has a salutary effect of kind of waking us up to the horror of what sin is. So it's a payment for sin. Penance can be considered as a payment for sin when we do penance, and it can be any type of penance, this must be one of the considerations that we have.

I have sinned. And sin is a horrible thing. Help me to understand just how bad it is. So therefore I will deprive myself of this, or I will inflict this upon myself, or I will offer this thing up for that purpose. It is a way for us to understand the gravity of sin and to really abhor it to the point that we never want to go back to it. So that's the second purpose of penance. The third purpose and the highest purpose. Is to die in oblation to ourselves a little bit each day. Day two ourselves, I should say, die to ourselves in oblation a little bit each day. The whole purpose of us being able to live is to know, love and serve God. Correct? So therefore, we must learn how to do so. But in order to know, love and serve him, our goal must be perfect. Unity with him that there is no separation between our will and his will, but there is no distinction between his life of grace and our lives. There should be absolutely no separation between us. Perfect, absolute union, nothing less than what Our Lady had. That is the final goal we must have. We are going to fall far short of it because we still have loads of sins on our soul. But still, that is the inspiration we must put, we must push ourselves to. And therefore, we must make the effort. And part of that is going to be purifying ourselves. Part of that is going to be to di to ourselves a little bit each day to put into perspective what is truly important in our lives. What is really important before us is our Lord Jesus Christ and God and the cross and the mass and all of the things about God and our life itself is a tool for us to be able to live, for them to live, for Him.

Penance is how we helped ourselves to understand that when we offer up an act of penance against any type of act, it is a way that we are not claiming something for ourself, but we are giving it to God. We are trying as best we can to take our everyday lives, every single action, every single thought, every single part of our lives. And we are making it his and not ours. That is the goal, the final goal, the ultimate and most perfect goal of what penance is. Giving our lives to God, making our life in offering to God. Because penance is not limited to the voluntary little penance that we offer during Lent. Penance is not limited to the little things we do here and there during the day. Not even when we tell our children to offer it up for the poor souls in purgatory. So much more than that.

THREE TYPES OF PENANCE

What is Penance?

PENANCE OF PRAYER

The first step. It's always going to be the most fundamental part of our lives. Prayer. The first penance we must learn to offer is prayer. We must be so faithful to our daily prayers. Not because it's a checklist that we have to fulfill and because we feel better by saying prayers or whatever else, even though that is a secondary cause or secondary effect. Excuse me, but the reason that we are supposed to pray is because how are we supposed to possibly pursue perfect unity with God if we don't know who He is? Mortimer Adler was one of the great. Okay. I can say one of the two great American philosophers I've ever read in my life. There aren’t many, unfortunately. He's the only great American philosopher I've ever read. Excuse me. He was a pure Thomist, but he did not convert to the Catholic faith until he was in his seventies. And the reason, he said, was because he could prove perfectly the existence of God beyond a doubt. He could prove that God existed. He could prove that it was necessary that we live for him. He could even prove that the Catholic faith was the one true faith. But he could not bring himself to accept that. On a personal level until one day he was in the hospital, terrified he was going to die at 70 years old. And for the first time, he asked God for the grace of faith. And then the doors opened. Because how can we possibly know God unless we actually talk to him? Now He has actually given us every possible bridge to be able to get to know him better. But until we do that, there is no possible union with him. We can know him intellectually. We can prove his existence. We can know him as thoroughly as Aristotle did. But the fact is, until we kneel down and we pray and we actually talk to him, and there is finally the connection between our soul and him, that essential connection that we must have. There is no possibility of union with him. So the first penance we must learn to offer up is always going to be our prayer life. We must pray. A simple prayer. It's better than no prayer. We don't have to look for perfection in prayer. Scrupulous people get stuck seeing the rosary because my attention wandered at such and such a mystery. So I have to go back to that mystery and restart it. You will never stop. Your intention is never going to be perfect, but pray, pray as best you can and then persevere in the prayer until the end. The first penance we must do is always going to be the act of simply humbling ourselves. Ironically, humbling ourselves enough to actually talk to God. There's never been a more presumptuous act than for these creatures to sinful creatures at that. To actually talk to God himself. And yet we don't have sufficient humility to do that and to do it simply. So that is the first step, pray.

Penance is a virtue by which we are learning to separate ourselves from everything in our lives, to give it to God. That is the action that penance fulfills. We are detaching ourselves from our very life to put it at the service of God, to do with whatever He wants so that we are Him. Absorbed in him. Immolated in him. Destroyed in him. That is the final goal. So that is why we offer penance. And that is what penance is. Now, how do we go about that? That is the much more complicated question.

PENANCE OF PURIFYING OUR PRAYER

The second step is going to be pray better. The second penance we must learn to offer is to purify our prayer. So much of ourselves, we tie into our prayer. We connect too much of us into our prayers. Our intentions, our desires, our words, our whatever. Our emotions. It's also very dangerous to start thinking it's a good prayer. If it makes us feel good, it's a bad prayer if it doesn't. That's very dangerous because it's not about us. So we just simply offer ourselves in prayer. And the way that we purify prayer is going to be silence. And we talked about that last night. So I'm not going to revisit everything but go back to silence. Silencing the noise of our own heads. Silencing the noise of the world. Silencing ourselves. Absolutely. Putting ourselves into the sanctuary that we can create in our own souls and our own minds. Where we know beyond a doubt, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is dwelling. And there we approach him and we listen. So the first step is just prayer. That's why the first prayer that we teach kids is vocal prayer. We can teach them the intricacies of how to elevate their souls to God and everything else. They do that more instinctively than we do, but they don't understand the discipline of the act of prayer. So the first prayer we teach them is active vocal prayer. But then we teach them to look beyond that, beyond the formula of words, and to actually start offering up themselves and not just the words. In order to do that, we teach them silence. And that silence is going to come. Little by little, it is something we're going to have to claw into our lives. It's not something that comes naturally or easily. For some, it's easier for brothers than for others. Even those who are very quiet and naturally, very contemplative, naturally. They actually have the hardest job quieting themselves because there's so much noise going on in their own heads. They may be it may be easier for them to shut out the world, but it's probably going to be a whole lot harder for them to shut out their own side, their own noise. So everyone has to work on that.

So second penance that everyone must learn to offer up is the noise in our own head, especially in prayer, especially in prayer. That is the sense of first penance. Prayer. Second penance is purify the prayer with silence. Then we get into. Other Penances The first penance that God demands of us, the first one that he actually commands that we offer is our obedience. This one is hard. Now, this is also why Saint Saint Thomas explains that obedience, the vow of obedience, is actually the hardest wonderful film because it is part of ourselves that we are giving up. We are voluntarily sacrificing our own will. Each and every one of us must obey. Now, sometimes obedience makes the is as is as evident as a parent commanding a child to do something. Sometimes it's that clear, that evident. And while the child is under their authority, they are obliged to follow through. Sometimes it's that clear. Sometimes it's also clear that when a boss tells you to do something, you are obliged to do it in the context of work. When a teacher tells you to do something, you are bound to do it in the context of school, etc. It's very clear authority, duty. The relationship of authority and subject is very clear, but sometimes it's not so clear. It's a little more fuzzy because then you have to add the element of. Is it a greater good that is being commanded of me than what I should be doing? And a lot of other things. Is this authority really telling me this for my good or not? There's a lot of other elements involved in it, and what it comes down to is there has to be a certain amount of trust. And trust is a very difficult penance. You have to be able to trust whoever is telling you to do what you're supposed to do, know that they are looking out for your greater good. And if you do not have that answer in your hands right away. The assumption is always going to go to obey. And again. That makes our skin crawl a little bit, especially in our day and age where authority is so confused and everything else. But the fact that we have to submit ourselves to an authority and accept what somebody else commands us to do is not easy. This is why children act out. This is why there they resist authority. This is why they try to manipulate it. This is why they try to skirt around it. Why they try to find loopholes. Or they try to play with the rules as opposed to follow them. Why they play dumb, why they do all sorts of things again. If you look at a child's psychology, you actually can see an adult psychology just without the disguises. It's actually the same things we all do. But the difference is children don't disguise what they do. They're open about it. They don't justify it. Nearly as much or as cleverly. The fact is, obedience is a difficult, painful penance, but it is the only one that God has demanded. Christ himself said. To not sacrifice balls and fat lings, etc.. The one sacrifice he asks for and demands is obedience, obedience to his law, obedience to the people to whom he gave authority. Obedience is hard. Because the problem is we all have our own wills. Now we all think that having our own willpower or being willful is a good thing. It's actually not non the way that the modern world sees it. Willfulness is damaging. It's actually a sign of weakness. You know, we always say about a little kid when he's when when he's tough to lead around or to teach. He's got a very strong character, actually. No, that's a very weak character. So we character who does who is a slave of his own passions and does not dominate them enough to be able to say, I will do what is right. The strong character is the one who is able to accept obedience. That is a stronger personality, a stronger character. But again, we don't understand that. We see the violence of the reaction and automatically attribute strength to that. But it's actually the opposite. The one who has more control is the one who is stronger. So that is the that is the next level of penance. Obedience. What is obedience? It is the voluntary submission of ourselves to a lawful authority in their command when they command something that it is within their authority to do command. We voluntarily submit ourselves to it. Now, why do we do that? Because their power, their authority comes from God. And so therefore by submitting to them, we are submitting to God. So first of all, it's an act of faith that God is represented by these people, no matter how godless, no matter how absurd. That's why Christ could say, render unto Caesar the things that are of Caesar. Caesar was not even remotely interested in our Lord Jesus Christ. Was not Catholic, even by and by his stretch he was the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the the Roman religion. The Pagan religion. And yet God commanded tribute. Christ commanded the tribute to him. Because that is what it is to civil authorities, parental authorities, work authorities, social authorities of any sort have a claim on our obedience. But in order for us to be able to obey with the proper spirit, we must be able to see the hand of God in them. God has given them something of himself over us. So that is what we respond to. Not the personality involved, not the person involved. That authority. So first is an act of faith. Then it's an act of trust that if there is nothing perceivable in what they command that is going that is against the law of God or against a higher command that we have. We must trust that this is for the good. This is this is for this is for the greater good or the good of ourselves or the good of the company or the good of the family or whatever. Believe it or not, when our parents commanded us to clean our room, it was not just because they're oppressive. You know what's. It's not because they were trying to repress our creative instincts. It was because they were trying to help us organize a specific virtue in our souls. At least, theoretically, it could have been that our mass was just really annoying to them, but at the very least that is the presumption. The presumption is that they are trying to help us to form vital virtues in our soul, so therefore we obey. It's the same thing with every authority unless we have a reason to really believe that this is somehow opposed to a higher law, we are commanded to subordinate ourselves to the Law of God and to accept what Christ is giving us. Through these authorities. So it is an act of the will ultimately. First, it is faith, seeing God even where it is very difficult to see him. Secondly, it's an act of trust, knowing that despite all evidence or whatever else, despite the fact that we can't understand it exactly. Unless we see evidence to the contrary clearly manifest, we must presume that this is for a greater good. And lastly, we must accomplish it to the best of our ability and in a timely fashion. Time is part of obedience. It's not a question of I'll get to it. We are told to do it. We do it. It's as simple as that. By sacrificing our freedom of will, we actually find a greater freedom. A certain amount of responsibility is lifted off of us. A certain amount of of power is taken away from us, and we become actually freer because of it. So penance is not just restrictive, it is actually liberating, but we must see it as such.

PENANCE OF OBEDIENCE

These are penance that we must offer up. Now, C.S. Lewis said at one point about prayer. Prayer doesn't change God. It changes me. I don't pray so that God can give me ex grace or white grace. I pray because the need flows out of me. My day is not complete until I have prayed. Now that C.S. Lewis. He wasn't even Catholic. So we must have that first. We must also have the faith of the Centurion in authority, in obedience. That is why Christ could marvel at him and say, Not in any son of Israel have I seen such faith. But that's not often enough. Those two things are the necessary ones. Prayer. Better prayer and obedience. But now we have the fourth most basic and the most common type of penance. And this is the voluntary, independent penance. More than sacrifices, more than anything else. What it is, is just essentially taking one aspect of our lives and saying, this now belongs to God. During Lent. I'm no longer going to eat sweet things. That's that. That is something very simple, very small. But it is something that we are giving to God for a higher purpose. Now, the other part of that is not just the simple act of doing such. I am not just sacrificing that, but we have to do it for the right purposes. I am going to stop eating sweet things because I want to lose £20. That is not the right purpose. A very welcome secondary effect and benefit. But that is not strictly speaking, the reason that we offer pendants is up. The reason we offer penance OP is because we like this thing, but it is not good for us at this moment. It is something that we like that we can offer to God and give to him because we are trying to control our appetites and we are trying to do better with our lives and we are trying to be able to perfect ourselves. So the big sauce, the big reason for this last type of tendencies is the gift of detachment. We are supposed to be detached from all things. What does this mean? What does detachment mean? Just that. That we do not have any connection to them any more. More than that, they do not have an impact in our lives. They can come. They can go. The result is the exact same. Now we are supposed to have that relationship to all things and all people in our lives. That's the goal. That's what we are shooting for. That the only essential aspect of our lives is God. Everything else is accidental. Obviously, it hurts when we lose somebody we love. Obviously it is sad and tragic when we lose an animal that we love. Obviously it is very sad and tragic when we lose material goods and everything else. But the fact is, when it boils down to it, what is the one essential part of our lives? God, nothing else. Full stop. We can live without other people. We can live without pets. We can live without material goods. We can survive. And not only can we survive, we can flourish without them. We can actually do better. Somehow. It can be very tragic and very painful. It can be very problematic, but we can actually flourish and do better afterwards. St Catherine's. He and his mother at one point wept after her husband died that she didn't know how she was going to be able to live. St Catherine's seemingly brutal response was then live for God. And her mother ended up joining her in the continent, became a toughly holy woman herself. She was a bit of a she was violent, let's put it that way. Since Catherine got her temper for somewhere. So that is the mentality. We must have detachment. We may lose. We may gain. It doesn't matter. A rich man's wealth has no power over him. A poor man's poverty should have no power over him either. Our emotions should have no power over us. It should make no difference to us whether we're hungry or for which make no difference to us whether we are happy or sad. It should make no difference to us whether we are successful or broke. It should make no difference to us where we are living or what our circumstances are, or how problematic our family is, or what kind of a world we live in. It should make absolutely no difference whatsoever. That is perfect indifference. I don't think anyone here can actually claim to have that. I mean, maybe intentionally we want to have that, but we're still very human. We're still very attached to things and to people and the like. And so therefore we must teach ourselves to detach from those things. One theologian of the 19th century said, We must imagine our life like a hot air balloon. Everything that is keeping us down are those cords holding the balloon down to earth and only by letting go of them intentionally. Will we be able to fly up to God. But so long as we are chained to the things of this earth, whether it's our own will or whether it's our distractions, our little temptations and delights that we that we appreciate so much, whatever it may be, any of those things. Those things. Are not supposed to be a part of our lives, essentially. Now, the term essential means a part of who we are. Part of our being, our essence. Our identity. We are not identified. We are not defined by what we have or those things around us. We are defined essentially by our relationship with God. Full stop. There is nothing else that matters. So we offer things up voluntarily. God is not going to command us to get rid of things. He is not going to command us, except he has commanded us to take up our cross and follow him each day. And that is the act of voluntarily giving up things. There is a parameter to set here. While it is important that we clean the slate and we do everything from zero, we don't do that violently or dramatically or right away. We have to do it little by little. The reason being, unfortunately, we're weak. So to use a an analogy, someone who doesn't know how to swim doesn't immediately go into the ocean and swim out 100 meters into the deep. As dangerous as undercurrents, there's all sorts of things that you don't know how to deal with. And you don't have the strength or the experience or anything else to do that. And contrary to human wisdom, as it were, you don't just throw your kid in the deep end in to teach him how to swim. Not a good idea. I'm proof of that, by the way. I was saved by drowning. Saved from drowning? No, it was one of it's one of those things where that is a good method of teaching people how to do and react and everything like that. But you always have to have a safety harness. You always have to have a protection against your own weakness. So you don't just jump into the deep end when it comes to detachment. I have all these attachments. So I'm going to get rid of all of them all at once. That's not going to work. And on the contrary, is going to do tremendous damage. There always has to be a balance and there has to be a certain gradation into it. But you use one detachment, one act of detachment per lens, for example. This year, I'll give up sweets and then I will dos. I will make sure in future years to give up sweets again, just to make sure that they haven't gotten a hold of me again. And I will make sure, you know, just as an example, but then I will add a second penance as well. And I'll give up. I'll give up reading light novels. Not be a bad idea. I'll give up coffee. Really bad idea. I'll think about it. Find what's right for you. Find what's right for you. I will give up X, I'll give up Y. And I will do so until I am sure that they do not have a hold over me. And I will give those up frequently, even though they are good things to have in my life. It's okay to eat sweets. It's a good thing. It's okay to read like novels. It's a good thing. But it always has to be a control thing. Any second it becomes a dependance like anything addictive, it is then a crutch and it is then a problem. So when you hurt a limb. So, for example, I blew my knee out. Okay, first step is you're laid up. You can't move, all right? Until you're given some crutches. And then you're told to move, but then to slowly and gradually start getting your leg back into the motion of walking so that you can start resuming walking And then you're given a cane so that all your weight is on that leg. And then you go through physical therapy and eventually you're back to walking semi normally. And then you do that as constantly as possible until your leg is back to full strength. So it's the same thing with this. Get rid of the crutches. If you have an addiction, if you have a particular attachment to something that has too much power over, you, start there. Don't go cold turkey, maybe. But at the very least to start their. Or at the very least start taking things away from around it so that when you have the strength to be able to attack that, that that strongest attachment, you have everything else, all the other muscles in your leg are strong enough to be able to bear the weight while you are while you are dealing with that particular detachment, that particular wound. That is the strategies. Those are the strategies we must use to be able to start eliminating the crutches and the weaknesses and the attachments that we have allowed ourselves for so long throughout our lives. We are not supposed to be dependent on creatures. Even coffee. That was a joke. Believe it or not, we are. Oh, you're not supposed to be perfectly dependent on any thing. We are supposed to be able to practice absolute independence of all things of this earth so that we can use them for better effect to find God But the moment that we become their slaves or dependent on them, that they have become, in some degree or another, gods to us. That's why Saint Paul talks about that. Their God is their belly. If we become dependent on these things, then they have in some way, shape or form have taken the place of God in her soul or where God should be in our soul. Now, that is not to say that she has to stop everything cold turkey, but that is to say that that is something that we must see as a goal and a target for the tendencies that we offer up during Lent to be able to detach ourselves so that we will be able to pursue God entirely. So these are the four levels of penance, the four steps in penance always prioritize. Prayer, always. Penance without prayer is a dangerous thing. The first penance we offer up must be discipline and order and clear and purity in our prayer. Always. And then from there, all the other things should follow through. But that is where we start, and we carry it over into every aspect of our lives. Picking out slowly but surely our weaknesses, clearing up the darkness is being able to fortify ourselves so that we will be able to live according to the will of God Because that is ultimately the purpose of penance being perfectly united to God in all aspects of our lives.
So that is the third penance. We must learn to offer obedience, and it is probably of all of this the hardest. Now again, we always go back to the centurion, for I myself am a man subject to authority. I tell my soldier to do this and he does it. I tell my servant, Go there. And he goes. He understood Christ's power in the world specifically because he understood authority and obedience. And that is why he asked for a miracle, because he was confessing to the rest of the world that he believed that Christ commanded nature itself. And so it was. Another penned the last penance that we are going to look at our personal appearances. Obedience is the type of penance that we cannot get around. We must offer these things up prayer and cleansing our prayer and finding silence in prayer.