It is unfortunate that the word penance has become so closely associated in people’s mind with punishment. Perhaps this is more prevalent within Catholicism where the Sacrament of Reconciliation became known as Confession and where confession was too often poorly celebrated and reduced to a formal, and at times, frightening experience of offering a laundry list of personal peccadillos. At the end of the sacrament, after absolution, a “penance” was given. Again, too often the penance was the formulaic pronouncement, “Say an Our Father, and Ten Hail Mary’s.” Not only did this not relate in any helpful or sensible way to what was just revealed by the penitent, but it ran the risk of implying that prayer was a punishment of some kind.
Within the Sacrament of Reconciliation, confession is one integral step in a process of taking stock of one’s life in light of the extravagance of God’s love for us. But it is one step, not the whole dance. The dance of each and all the sacraments, whether your tradition recognizes two or seven, is participating in and experiencing the lavishness of God’s love extended to us and embodied for us by Jesus. This is equally true of the season of Lent as well.
The fact that baby boomer Catholics have horror stories to tell about their experience of “Confession,” does not mean there is not a place for good honest reckoning with the present status and course of one’s life. Although I have no empirical evidence to make a direct correlation, it should be noted that as the lines to the confessional shrunk, the lines to the therapist’s office lengthened. There is within the human person a strong yearning for wholeness, for healing. There is also the deep recognition that reconciliation and healing require honest self-reflection and accountability since sin is always about irreconciliation of one sort or another. To reconcile means to bring together again and sin is what separates, causes disharmony, fragments, or breaks apart. Whether what needs to be reconciled is the person with his or her truest self or most noble values, with one’s spouse or parent or in-law or friend or neighbor or workmate, with creation, or with God, truth-telling is necessary for moving forward in a healthy, life-giving, and liberating manner.
When the sacrament of reconciliation is celebrated as it is intended, the priest “assigns” a penance not as a punishment but rather as medicine or rehabilitation for the soul. The wise confessor is an artisan of listening not just to the words but to the cry, yearning, shame, struggle, pain, or fear beneath the words. As a result, the able confessor is able to “prescribe” the appropriate treatment to respond to the particular ailment and nurse the penitent back to health the way that stretching exercises, weight training, whirlpool, heat and ice treatments function in a physical therapist’s office. It is not meant to be punitive but restorative. It aims to bring the body back to life, wholeness, health, and harmony. This is true whether that “body” is a physical person or a couple, family, neighborhood, faith community, or nations. In any case, it’s the body of Christ.
Similarly, during Lent we don’t fast or pray or give alms or “do penance” to appease the disappointed, angry, Celestial Abacist who is scrupulously sliding and counting beads ready to throw down pointy bolts of lightning at offenders who are not all paid up. Lent is a season of preparation and the promise of new life. What we are preparing ourselves for is the Festival of Life called Easter which reflects here on earth the eschatological love feast that is the symbol of a cosmic harmony, divine oneness, and eternal celebration. For catechumens it is preparation for baptism and the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil. For the fully initiated it is a time of renewing one’s baptism. For both groups, Lent is a season of prayerful reflection and personal reorientation to insure that we are ready for the party, to guarantee that we are doing everything we can to cooperate with the movement of the Spirit to animate us for that which is good, true, and beautiful.
REFLECTION & PRACTICE:
Make time for personal reflection and locating “where you are.” Howard Clinebell’s seven dimensions of well-being serve as a helpful tool for discernment: mind, body, world, relationships, work, play, Spirit.