The Season of Lent evokes thoughts about the importance of penance. But what is penance about?

Newsroom (10/03/2023 1:25 PM, Gaudium Press) It is common at the beginning of Lent to hear about the importance of abstinence and the requirements of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Few people, however, know what this much spoken of penance is all about.

Normally, when we speak of penance, we refer to mortification of the senses – to fasting, to abstinence from meat or any other food; rarely do we think of a more spiritual sacrifice, such as battling a personal defect.

Corporal mortification: a consequence of the desire for conversion

The word “penance” comes from the Latin verb “pœnitere”, derived from “pœnam tenere”, which means “to bear a penalty”, and so can indicate both the application of a punishment and the pain – the repentance for something one has done. When this penance is based on the principles of faith, it becomes a virtue.

In this way, the virtue of penance consists of three acts: 1) repentance of one’s faults; 2) the resolution not to commit them again; 3) the application of an appropriate punishment.

This distinction is very important for us to be able to ponder whether or not we are practicing correctly the Lenten precept of penance. It is not enough, therefore, to abstain from food – as we do when we want to lose weight – but the most important thing is repentance for one’s faults or defects, and corporal (bodily) mortification must be a consequence of this desire for converconversionsion.

Thus, this period that precedes the Passion of Christ invites us to an examination of conscience that leads to corporal mortification with a view to a change of conduct, in order to obtain salvation.

In other words, it is a time of penance, conversion and salvation.

By Miguel de Souza Ferrari

Compiled by Sandra Chisholm