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DL82
Guest
I’m not sure if this thread should be here, or maybe in Spirituality or Moral Theology, but anyway…
Generally, if you confess to stealing money, giving the money back would be considered an appropriate penance.
If you confess to a really serious crime (murder, rape, etc.) often turning yourself in to the cops would be given as a penance or condition of absolution.
If you commit a sin that gave you pleasure, would denying yourself an equivalent pleasure be an appropriate penance? I’m thinking in particular about sins that involve physical pleasure such as gluttony and sexual sins.
It seems from what I’ve seen that this would have been the way the Church worked in the middle ages, demanding extensive fasting and physically demanding or painful penances, but that this is no longer the case now.
Has the Church’s understanding of the salvation economy changed or developed in some way?
I appreciate that one argument is that all good things come from God, so while the sin itself was evil, pleasure itself is not bad, so we shouldn’t think we’re doing His will by denying the pleasures He wants to give us.
On the other hand, natural justice works with giving back money, which is also a good thing, and also comes from God, so why not with pleasure?
Why not at least, if not giving up pleasure, be given a penance that will selflessly cause another person as much pleasure as you got from your sin, e.g. by visiting the sick, fostering children, cooking dinner for your wife, etc?
Generally, if you confess to stealing money, giving the money back would be considered an appropriate penance.
If you confess to a really serious crime (murder, rape, etc.) often turning yourself in to the cops would be given as a penance or condition of absolution.
If you commit a sin that gave you pleasure, would denying yourself an equivalent pleasure be an appropriate penance? I’m thinking in particular about sins that involve physical pleasure such as gluttony and sexual sins.
It seems from what I’ve seen that this would have been the way the Church worked in the middle ages, demanding extensive fasting and physically demanding or painful penances, but that this is no longer the case now.
Has the Church’s understanding of the salvation economy changed or developed in some way?
I appreciate that one argument is that all good things come from God, so while the sin itself was evil, pleasure itself is not bad, so we shouldn’t think we’re doing His will by denying the pleasures He wants to give us.
On the other hand, natural justice works with giving back money, which is also a good thing, and also comes from God, so why not with pleasure?
Why not at least, if not giving up pleasure, be given a penance that will selflessly cause another person as much pleasure as you got from your sin, e.g. by visiting the sick, fostering children, cooking dinner for your wife, etc?
