Homily Notes, 06-13-21 - Penance

06-13-21

St. Peter Penitent by Guido Reni

"There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner who does penance."

Our Lord says there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who does penance than over 99 who do not need penance.  How is it more pleasing to see a sinner do penance than to see 99 who don't sin?  You can't understand this passage without understanding penance.

What is penance?  Penance is sacrifice.  A sacrifice is usually a victim offered to God, offered by a representative of the people, and the victim has to be destroyed.  It shows God's supreme dominion over us.  The animal being sacrificed is meant to represent themselves, as though they were offering themselves to God. The sacrifice of the New Law is the sacrifice of Jesus: he is both the priest offering himself, and the victim.

When we say we did a sacrifice or penance, we are talking about offering up our actions.  We usually refer to actions that are difficult to perform.  We call them sacrifices because, when we do actions that we enjoy, then we have other motives for doing them.  When we offer a diccifult sacrifice to God then there is not another motive to do it.  The only reason we do the action is because we are offering it to God.

We can offer up sacrifices for different reasons. Penance is when we make a sacrifice offered in reparation for our sin.  This purpose is the key to penance.  The purpose of penance is reparation for our sin.  Sin offends God in a way we can't understand; nothing we do can truly make up for our sins, to make up for the offense against God.  That is why Our Lord became man, to make up for our sins.  The penances that we do are not making up for our sins, but are applying the merits of Jesus' sacrifice.  We need to apply Jesus' sacrifice to ourselves in order to be saved.  He won't force us to receive the merits through the sacrifice on the cross; we have to choose to accept it with our own free will.  It is by our union with His sacrifice that our own sins are removed.

Do we need penance?  Yes, we do, because we are sinners.  Our sins are a serious offense against God.  We also need to do penance for the sins of others.  God demands justice for our sins.  We need to make reparation for our sinsand for the sins of others.  Suffering is because of sin.  Many innocent people suffer from the sins of others.  Why does God allow this suffering?  Because God is just, and reparation is demanded for sin.  We all deserve to suffer in order to make up for sin.  God even asks for victim souls: ouls who offer up every action in reparation for sins.

When do we do penance?  We do penance during Lent and Advent, but also at other times.  The Church reminds us to do penance at certain times, but we really should be doing penance all the time.  There are daily opportunities for penance.  Some penances we choose and some we don't choose.  We can offer up all our little sacrifices all day to God.  These are opportunities to offer penance to God.  There are many different things that we can offer up.

It's important to say the Morning Offering every day, to offer all the actions of your day to God, so the opportunities don't go to waste.

Why is penance important?  Why is it that Our Lady at Fatima told the children to do penance?  It comes back to the purpose of penance: to make up for sins.  Sin is evil and there is much sin in the world.  We often forget the gravity of our sins.  Penance is a good reminder that we have to continue to fight against sin and temptation.  We don't want to contribute to the reparation needed for sin.  Penance can strengthen our will against sin.  If we keep sinning, then all of our penance is for own reparation and we can't offer reparation for others' sins.

Penance can be found everywhere. Use your time well and keep in mind every day why you are on earth and why you need to do penance.  Offer your penances up for others as well.  Ask Jesus for the grace to do penance in reparation for our own sins and for others.