penance

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hey, i’m not sure if this is the right place to post this… i really need some help understanding what doing penance is all about.
What is the purpose? I’ve heard it takes away temporal punishment, but how exactly does it? i’m just not really understanding what i’ve read about it so far and i would really appreciate some help 🙂
 
The Council of Trent (1551) declares:

As a means of regaining grace and justice, penance was at all times necessary for those who had defiled their souls with any mortal sin. . . . Before the coming of Christ, penance was not a sacrament, nor is it since His coming a sacrament for those who are not baptized. But the Lord then principally instituted the Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised from the dead, he breathed upon His disciples saying: ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained’ (John 20:22-23). By which action so signal and words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has ever understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles and to their lawful successors, for the reconciling of the faithful who have fallen after Baptism. (Sess. XIV, c. i)
Farther on the council expressly states that Christ left priests, His own vicars, as judges (praesides et judices), unto whom all the mortal crimes into which the faithful may have fallen should be revealed in order that, in accordance with the power of the keys, they may pronounce the sentence of forgiveness or retention of sins" (Sess. XIV, c. v)
KingsKid91 said:
hey, i’m not sure if this is the right place to post this… i really need some help understanding what doing penance is all about.
What is the purpose? I’ve heard it takes away temporal punishment, but how exactly does it? i’m just not really understanding what i’ve read about it so far and i would really appreciate some help 🙂
Click to expand...
 
Thanks! But I’m still wondering… after confession the priest gives you penance to do, right? I just want to know the reasons for doing penance. What does it accomplish? If anyone could help, that’d be great.
 
Quite honestly you see it even in our earthly penal system.

A person commits some form of crime and instead of sending hime to jail or prison the judge assigns the individual to pay off his debt to society through community service.

Penance is the same thing. You have commited a sin. Punishment is due to you for that sin. But instead of taking the punishment the priest assigns you some form of Penance (or good deed) to do in replacement for the punishment.

Hopefully this helps you.
 
This is the analogy that I always hear.

Say you’re playing baseball in your backyard. The ball goes over the fence, hits and breaks your neighbor’s window. You go over and explain what happened, and apologize. Your neighbor forgives you. All is well, right? Except for the fact that the window is still broken and needs to be fixed. You are forgiven, but you still need to make reparation for breakign the window.

Penance is the reparation for sins to God. By doing penance, you make up for the sins you committed. You are still forgiven, but you do the penance anyway. And the priest will usually try to give you a penance that will help you with the sins you confessed. And the idea is, by doing the penance, it will help you to overcome your tendancy towards that sin, and help you grown in grace and become closer to God.
 
The purpose of penance is to *heal *the temporal effects of sin. An *indulgence *removes the temporal punishment due to already forgiven sin.
 
It helps to see penance, not as punishment, but as repairing the relationship with God broken by sin. Most penances given are to say some prayers. I always had a problem with that when I viewed penance as punishment because, for me, praying is no punishment.

By meditating on the prayers, such as the Our Father, we renew our relationship with the Father and turn our minds and hearts towards what is important to God and away from what tempted us.

It helps to get us back on the right track. Where before, we thought about the sin, committing it and held it in our hearts, we now reject that sin and no longer hold it in our hearts, replacing it instead with love for God and a desire to please Him and not to offend Him.

Where sin takes us away from God, penance brings us closer.
 
I find it useful to regard penance as rehab. A doctor can set a broken bone repairing the immediate damage. However, it remains a weak spot. Rehab is needed to strengthen the damaged area.

Similarly, absolution repairs our break with God, but further work is needed to strengthen that damaged relationship and bring it back to its original form.
 
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