Quinquagesima 3.2.08 Fasting
Remember what Israel used to do when about to be invaded...they would suddenly get serious and put on sackcloth and ashes. Why did they do that, and not just say they were sorry. We can consider as we enter Lent the usefulness of penance: there are 3 main fronts:
1) Penance adds intensity to our prayer: we do not pray just with words, as though casually, but we pray with the whole body and soul. We are praying like we really mean it. The prayer is more convincing to us, this way, and more likely to be pleasing to God. It is proven through the Bible and the lives of saints that fasting is effective for bringing about the desired intentions.
2) Penance atones for past sins. As sin is taking what was not allowed, penance is not taking what is allowed. It is a kind of reversal of steps, a change of direction, indicating and effecting a change of heart. (Mary-Eve)
Admittedly it may only be symbolic but it does help us take a humbler, and less grasping approach to life. (Put back what you have stolen)
3) Penance improves self-control. If I can control my desires by denying myself things which I really want, then I am going to be stronger when tempted to deny that temptation.
If one never denies self, there is likely to be a weakness of will making us easy prey for the evil one. Self-denial is like exercising a spiritual muscle.
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Penance is not very fashionable these days.
We have so much emphasised that God wants us to be happy that we have become hazy about time and place and modes of that happiness.
He does want us to be happy, but that does not mean this life is one long party.
The party never stops at the casino (the advertising slogan says), but we cannot have one long party yet in the Church. There are still too many things wrong.
Happiness is when we get things in the right proportion and use them the right way. Penance and Lent is all part of that process, getting things the right-way-up when they have become distorted.
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How much penance is enough? We are tempted straight away to think that if we do one thing, even a small thing, that we have satisfied Lenten observance but we are talking about love. We do more penance than we have to, just as we pray more than we have to.
We do not measure out our love for God like medicine by the milligram.
We give like the woman who broke the whole jar and poured out the perfume over Our Lord.
Penance can be little mortifications, even unplanned and unrecorded. Just giving up one extra bit of food...
It can be little extra things, and it can also have a certain recklessness, as in the lives of saints.
Sometimes it is easier to give something up altogether than to dabble with it on a daily basis.
Put it right out of your mind. People often find, having given up something for Lent, they never go back to it.
Should we not just be good and do good, and not get caught up in these other details? The details are important lest our ‘goodness’ be self-defined and lacking any real difference from the ways of the world.
It is obvious that the world does not know God very well and does not love Him very much. Therefore, if we are to do better than that we must adopt unworldly ways, try something different.
If we indulge every sense on every possible occasion we leave little room for any improvement. So eat less, drink less, sleep less, whatever it is, but do it for all the above reasons and then don’t be surprised if things get better.
