Absolution? Penance? WhaaaT?

[Maathw]

I am a Catholic and I get confused on the Sacrament of Penance. When do our sins get forgiven? Would it be forgiven through absolution or by doing your penance? I dont get it.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

When you are absolved, your sins are gone, right then, immediately. As CCC 1459 says, “Absolution takes away sin.”

You doing your penance is separate from the absolution. If you were lazy and didn’t do your penance, then it might be a new sin for your next confession (sin of sloth or whatever). However, penance is NOT required to make your absolution take effect.

The purpose of penance is to try to make amends for, or make reparation for, the previously committed sin. It is not to make the previously committed sin go away. Absolution does that.

 

[Genesis315]

To elaborate on Tis_Bearself’s good summation, there are three parts to repentance: contrition, confession, and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance (aka making satisfaction). Penance has to do with the third part.

Sins are forgiven when the priest absolves you after you confess your sins with contrition. You are restored to the friendship of God. But, we still must bring forth fruits worthy of repentance–that is, we must attempt to “expiate” the temporal stain of our sin.

Here’s an analogy: if I steal a five dollar bill from you, I have sinned. I confess my sin with a contrite heart and am forgiven by God. Am I now totally clean? No–I still have the ill-gotten five dollars in my wallet. I still carry with me that injustice. What is the fruit worthy of my repentance for stealing? To give it back, or, if that is not possible, to give it as alms or make some other amends.

Every sin carries with it some kind of stain of injustice, even if intangible, including honor we should have given to God which we did not. Most priests assign prayer as a penance for this reason, since by it we give honor and love to God.

Penances assigned by the priest are not meant to make full satisfaction. We can and should do more ourselves through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, especially during the penitential days and seasons of the Church (Fridays, Lent, etc.). Almsgiving is associated with sins against neighbor, fasting with sins against self, and prayer with sins against God (which all are).

God also can and often does send His own punishments (see e.g. Hebrews 12:4-11) which, if we bear them patiently, also satisfy for our sins.

The Catechism sums this all up:

1473 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the "new man."84

If we don’t make sufficient satisfaction in this life, but die in the friendship of God, our sins are expiated before entering Heaven (this is what Purgatory is).

Finally, since are all one Body and should bear each other’s burdens, as Jesus says, we can offer our penances in satisfaction for another’s sins. The Church, through the power of binding and loosing, also distributes the superabundant satisfactions of Christ and the saints through indulgences, which remit the need to make some or all satisfaction.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Your sins are forgiven once the priest confers absolution. It is not contingent upon doing the penance. That said, you should do your penance as soon as possible. I am pretty bad about not doing my penance right away. If it’s a prayer I’m not familiar with, I have to look it up online first. In my last confession I was asked to recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I knew what it was, but I have never made a practice of saying it. I told myself that I’d look it up. Some time passed. I realized I had forgotten what penance I was given! What to do now? I took a while to “let it come to me” and finally it did. You’re not as likely to forget it if you do it right away, or as soon as you get home. Word to the wise.

I do not go to confession nearly as often as I should.

 

[po18guy]

Fairly simple. From the Modern Catholic Dictionary, by Servant of God Fr. John Hardon, S.J.†

ABSOLUTION. In the sacrament of penance, the act by which a qualified priest, having the necessary jurisdiction, remits the guilt and penalty due to sin. The new formula of absolution, since the Second Vatican Council, is: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” To which the penitent answers, “Amen.” In this formula the essential words are: “I absolve you.” For centuries, the Church used the deprecatory form of absolution, e.g., “May God absolve you from your sins.” This was really declarative in meaning, as is clear from the fact that in the whole of tradition the priest who absolved was looked upon as a judge who actually absolved, even though he used the subjunctive mood to express his affirmative judgment. (Etym. Latin absolvere , to free from; to absolve, acquit.)

PENANCE. The virtue or disposition of heart by which one repents of one’s own sins and is converted to God. Also the punishment by which one atones for sins committed, either by oneself or by others. And finally the sacrament of penance, where confessed sins committed after baptism are absolved by a priest in the name of God. (Etym. Latin paenitentia , repentance, contrition.) See also SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION , SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION .