PENANCE: UN AMERICAN ACTIVITY?

FEBRUARY 2, 2008

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. At the heart of the season is the spirit and practice of penance, which involves acts of self denial. Penance is not just an expression of remorse for past sin, but also a self discipline that builds the strength necessary to resist future temptation.

Doing penance for sin seems very foreign to today's culture, which glorifies instant gratification. Yet penance is of value for people of today. Consider mainstream American culture. Americans are a "can do" people. We're pioneers and pathfinders who are always solving problems and looking for new challenges. We're almost obsessed with conquering the unconquerable, breaking records, and overcoming all odds and obstacles. We look for better ways of doing things, and often find them.

Our impressive technology is a tribute to our problem solving mentality. If we can't reach our goals one way, we find another. If something's in our way, we go around it. We don't take "no" for an answer. Our achievements abound. Many are noble and praiseworthy. For many other peoples, America stands as a beacon of light, giving them hope for what they too might become. For every light, though, there is a shadow. What's our shadow?

Critics say we're not a very wise or patient people, a people who have pondered deeply the great questions of life. In our rush to get things done, we don't pause long enough to ask what is really worth doing. The brilliance of our achievements has blinded us to the inescapable limits placed by nature on human life. We have produced information, but not meaning.

In fact, we've confused the two. We seem to trust in the power of information to solve problems. For example, the ever popular self help books appeal to the American conviction that if people "read up" on their personal problems and follow a few practical, easy steps, they'll transform their lives. Similarly, many Americans base their diets on the latest reports on the foods that will help them lose weight, stay healthy, and insure a long life. Others work out a careful plan of investment and savings to insure financial security. Some even try to insure a successful marriage by turning to a professional dating service to pick the right match for them.

But people don't always do what the self help books say they should, or follow healthy diets, or spend their money within their means, do they? And we know good marriages are made in heaven, not in computerized data banks!

The point is that there is more to us than our minds, and we do not always act practically or reasonably. In the most important things of life, it is our hearts, not our heads, that lead the way.

The key to understanding human behavior is the will, not the intellect. It's what we desire, not what we think, that shapes our lives. No facts, reasons, or practical considerations will keep us from pursuing our heart's desire. The key to human happiness, then, is not information, reason, or practicality, but a rightly ordered will. The source of our problems and sorrows is a disordered will.

Today's culture makes no room for the mystery of sin and its power to weaken the will's ability to choose what is truly good. We can know what we ought or ought not to do, and nonetheless rebel against the truth inside us. We can know the law and violate it anyway.

The corrupting effect of sin on the will is subtle. We never fall all at once, but by a gradual weakening process, one small evil at a time. It is the nature of evil to appear good, attractive, and harmless. This appearance is only momentary, however, while evil's consequences are long lasting. Or, sometimes evil attracts us to what is truly good, but to the point of interfering with our pursuit of higher, more important goods. So, for example, many people honorably pursue material goods, but to the extent that it interferes with their pursuit of higher spiritual goods. They may end up luxuriating in created things, but never possess the infinitely greater treasure of love of God and neighbor.

The value of penance is that it makes us masters of our wills. Penance is neither a reasonable nor a practical thing to do. It may seem almost un American. But it is essential to gaining the inner strength necessary to resist the disordered will's attraction to what will harm us. It gives us courage to cooperate with God's grace and to reorder our lives according to what is true, just, and good. Jesus Christ said, "Unless you do penance, you will likewise perish" (Lk 13:3,5).

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap