The prophet Ezechial, chapter 18:21

I noted before in a previous blog that the Sacrament of confession underwent a striking development in the first thousand years of the Church’s history, from public penance that could be used only once to private, repeated confession of one’s sins. The possibility of slipping quietly into a confessional, whispering one’s sins anonymously to an unknown priest and then receiving absolution, appealed much more strongly to people than the severe penitential discipline of the early Church.

Nevertheless, something important was lost in the change. Everyone’s attention was focused on the absolution; the importance of penance itself was diminished.

Why is penance important? Because it recognizes the all-important fact that sin leaves its tracks and traces in our lives and in the lives of others. Because of this fact, sin takes on an existence that often lies beyond our control. Our actions leave addictive patterns in our lives; patterns of greed, anger and selfishness, which aren’t removed by a moment of regret. A longer process of healing is needed to remove the effects and scars of sin. That healing process is called penance.

Penance is the determined effort we make to clean up the traces of sin in our relationships with others, in our lives, in our world, and so with God. What injuries have we inflicted on others, upon our own minds and hearts? After a fearless inventory of ourselves, we should admit our failures; praise God for His accepting forgiveness and love; and then begin to repair the harm we have done. And this, of course, is the work of a lifetime which we enter into through penance.

It is not the work of a single individual either, but rather the task of the entire Christian community. As St. Paul remarked, we have all sinned. Our community and the environment we live in bear the wounds of those sins. Even as we rejoice in God’s healing love within ourselves, we should determine to bring it to others, to heal their wounds as well.

It is no secret that Catholics are no longer beating down the doors of the confessional on Saturday evenings or before Mass. It may be that they sensed something was missing, not absolution certainly, but an awareness that absolution is inescapably linked to the ancient notion of penance
itself.

May you grow in an ever deeper appreciation of the healing power of penance in your lives.

Fr. Hugh Duffy