Penance: Breaking Free

One of the things I have learned over the years is the value of penance. It’s not a word often used these days. Even the use of the word “sin” seems to be a rare event. But we all sin, whether we acknowledge it or not.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…. If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and His word is not in us” – John 1:8-10

The best description of sin that I ever heard was from our Pastor at our home church in Ohio. He said that we “sinned” anytime we failed to love God as we should or love others the way Jesus loves us. Well, we all fall short on that definition :).

Another reminder he made about “sin” is that it is not just the “sin” we commit. It’s the things we failed to do (omit)-that we should have done. Such as helping another human being. We’ve all, I am sure, helped many people along the way, but I think if we are honest, we know that there are at least a few times that we walked by people we could have encouraged or helped!

Christ calls upon us all to “repent”. To love God with our whole heart and soul and to love others!

And that brings me to Penance. An old fashioned word to be sure. What is penance. It is anything we do to make amends for the times we have “fallen short” of Christ’s Great Commands. Sometimes it’s prayers such as an Our Father or Hail Mary or a prayer that we speak from our heart and in private. Sometimes it’s a sincere apology to God. For some it’s going to confession. Sometimes we take extra actions to help others, to make up for the times we failed to do so. Sometimes it is all of those and more! But it is a prayer for forgiveness and we always make it in Jesus’ Name 🙂

Personally, I have found Penance to be a great help to me :). For while I am sure that Jesus forgives me for the times I fall short, I sometime find it harder to forgive myself. We can be our own worst critics, lol. Perhaps that is why our Lord created penance, because He knew it would help us. God is good like that 🙂

For me, prayer and penance are a way to begin again with a clean slate. To be free! An opportunity to have my heart renewed and at peace. For it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can receive the Peace & Joy that transcends all 🙂