Reparation: Can You Help Me Understand This?

[RosyAnne]

I’m somewhat fuzzy on Penance and Reparation.

I understand that when I make a sincere Confession and receive Absolution from the Priest, my sins are forgiven. The Penance that I am given by the Priest is meant to demonstrate my contrition as well as make amends to God for what I’ve done. It also helps heal the wound or inclination to continue sinning.

From Arch. Fulton Sheen: catholictradition.org/Classics/sheen-excerpt7.htm

Forgiveness alone does not wipe out the offense. It is as if a man, after every sin, were told to drive a nail into a board and, every time he was forgiven, a nail were pulled out. He would soon discover that the board was full of holes which had not been there in the beginning. Similarly, we cannot go back to the innocence that our sins have destroyed. When we turned our backs upon God by sinning against Him, we burned our bridges behind us; now they have to be rebuilt with patient labor. A businessman who has contracted heavy debts will find his credit cut off; until he has begun to settle the old obligations, he cannot carry on his business. Our old sins must be paid for before we can continue with the business of living.

I have a sinful past, some very grave sins were involved. I have made complete & numerous Confessions to the best of my ability and Jesus has healed me of some very serious inclinations. I know I am forgiven and I am thankful for the gift of Confession and for the gift of Faith. I have been back in the Church for nearly 5 years now.

My question:

I am very drawn this year to making acts of reparation. Not because I feel I am so sinful and unworthy and need to do more to earn God’s forgiveness. I believe in my heart, I have indeed been forgiven. My motivation is more about giving back to God…sort of in the sense of gratefulness but also in a sense of justice too. I also think that I have scars that need more tending to and healing.

I don’t know if I’m understanding this correctly though. Here’s my thinking, using the analogy of Sheen above with the board & nail holes…

I have A LOT of holes caused by past sins. A lot. Yes I have Confessed them to the best of my ability and yes, I do fully believe nails have been pulled out. My thinking is that making acts of reparation will help “heal” those holes. Fill them in so to speak.

Is that a correct way of thinking? Does anyone have any book recommendations on the importance of Reparation and how it heals us? And Reparation in this sense is something separate than the acts of Penance that we do after Confession, correct?

This first started stirring in me a couple years ago when I saw something on tv about Saint Margaret of Cortona and how she spent YEARS living a penitent life due to her years of sinful living. If it was simply going to Confession and starting all over again, she had that covered like the rest of us. Yet she was drawn to a life of penance.

I also heard someone in a talk mention that in Confession, our sins are forgiven and we are washed clean and our wounds bound, but the scars from the sins are still there, and only acts of Reparation can remove and heal those scars. Until these scars are healed, they are more tender and inclined to draw us into sin again. Something like that.

So there’s something more here that I haven’t quite fully grasped.

 

[RosyAnne]

I just came across this excellent article, now Mortification…that’s not the same thing as Penance or Reparation, correct? Mortification would be more self-imposed for developing virtues and overcoming sinful habits rather than making amends…correct?

christianperfection.info/tta32.php

PART 2 - The Purification of the Soul in Beginners (cont)
Ch 20: Mortification According to St. Paul and the Reasons for Its Necessity

When sins are confessed with contrition or sufficient attrition,** absolution obliterates sin, but it leaves certain dispositions, called the remnants of sin, reliquiae peccati, 24 which are, as it were, imprinted in us, like a furrow in our faculties, in our character and temperament**. Thus the seat of covetousness remains after baptism. It is certain, for example, that although a man who has fallen into the vice of drunkenness and who accuses himself of it with sufficient at*trition receives together with pardon sanctifying grace and the infused virtue of temperance, he preserves an inclination to this vice, and, unless he flees from the occasions, he will fall again. This trying inclination must not only be moderated, it must be mortified, made to die in order to unfetter both nature and grace

…

Finally in a spirit of penance, we must mortify ourselves to expiate past sin that has already been forgiven and to help us avoid sin in the future. The virtue of penance leads us, in fact, not only to hatred of sin as an offense against God, but still more to reparation. For this last, to stop sinning is not sufficient; a satisfaction must be offered to divine justice, for every sin merits a punishment, as every act inspired by charity merits a reward.(26) Consequently, when sacramental absolution, which remits sin, is given to us, a penance or satisfaction is imposed upon us that we may thus obtain the remission of the temporal punishment, which ordinarily remains to be undergone. This satisfaction is a part of the sacrament of penance which applies the Savior’s merits to us; and as such, it contributes to our restoration to grace and to its increase in us.(27)

…

It is important to accuse ourselves especially of sins that are becoming habitual and most hinder our union with God. This is more important than to aim at a complete enumeration of venial sins

This quote brings up another question I have:

Thus is paid, at least in part, the debt contracted by the sinner in regard to divine justice. To this end, man must also bear patiently the sufferings of this life, and if this patient endurance does not suffice to purify him completely, he must pass through purgatory, for nothing defiled can enter heaven. The dogma of purgatory thus strongly confirms the necessity of mortification, because it shows us that we must pay our debt, either in this life while meriting, or after death without meriting.

If I am a housewife and one of my regular duties is to wash the kitchen floor, if I do this with a heart full of love and patience and offer it up as reparation for my sins…does that “count”? Even though washing floors isn’t something “extra” or out of my realm of duties but something that’s an ordinary part of my day and is something I must do regardless.

 

[Paganus]

I have A LOT of holes caused by past sins. A lot. Yes I have Confessed them to the best of my ability and yes, I do fully believe nails have been pulled out. My thinking is that making acts of reparation will help “heal” those holes. Fill them in so to speak.

If you can make it right, then you should make it right. However, often you can’t make it right directly. In these instances you can practice intercessory prayer and take virtuous actions in opposition to the sin. Also, it’s a good idea to get a plenary indulgence.

 

[NeedImprovement]

. . .This quote brings up another question I have:

If I am a housewife and one of my regular duties is to wash the kitchen floor, if I do this with a heart full of love and patience and offer it up as reparation for my sins…does that “count”? Even though washing floors isn’t something “extra” or out of my realm of duties but something that’s an ordinary part of my day and is something I must do regardless.

(sorry to snip out some of the great material in your posts)

If you are able to do it “with a heart full of love and patience,” wouldn’t that be an indication that the “holes in the board” and the "scars"are healing ? The *heart *is where God looks first.

Without getting too deeply into any of the analogies , if we dumb it down, the habitual sins often tend to be of a more stubborn temperament when it comes to rooting them out. IOW the longer a habit has been practiced, the harder it can be to break.

Several definitions found in Fr John Hardon S.J.'s Modern Catholic Dictionary :

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.

REPARATION.
The act or fact of making amends. It implies an attempt to restore things to their normal or sound conditions, as they were before something wrong was done. It applies mainly to recompense for the losses sustained or the harm caused by some morally bad action. With respect to God, it means making up with greater love for the failure in love through sin; it means restoring what was unjustly taken and compensating with generosity for the selfishness that caused the injury. (Etym. Latin reparare, to prepare anew, restore.)

**MORTIFICATION. **
The practice of Christian asceticism in order to overcome sin and master one’s sinful tendencies, and through penance and austerity to strengthen the will in the practice of virtue and grow in the likeness of Christ. Natural mortification is a normal part of self-discipline; supernatural mortification, based on faith, seeks to grow in holiness through merit gained by co-operating with the grace of God. (Etym. Latin mortificatio, a killing, a putting to death.)

Something I’ve gotten into the habit of doing (this is just my own personal spin here) is when I am able to perform a duty with love and patience and offer it to God, I frequently try to offer it to Him for the souls in Purgatory. That way, I gain new intercessors each time.

 

[RosyAnne]

If you can make it right, then you should make it right. However, often you can’t make it right directly. In these instances you can practice intercessory prayer and take virtuous actions in opposition to the sin. Also, it’s a good idea to get a plenary indulgence.

This is a big thing for me…I have led a very sinful life from childhood on. I won’t get into specifics but suffice to say I come from a very troubled family on all sides. There are reasons why Jesus specifically warned against causing little ones to stumble, one of them is because a child who loses innocence too young doesn’t have time to develop and nurture virtues and faith that can carry one through more troubled ages (say teenage years and young adulthood).

Now how do I make right decades of gossip and detraction for example? I didn’t even know that detraction was a sin. I thought if you gossiped but it was the truth, then you’re not doing anything wrong. Things like that, I had no real direction or even much good example to draw from (though God did indeed strategically place good people around me throughout my life).

Or how about laziness/sloth? I had no idea that laying around binge watching movies on a weekend or sleeping in till noon was a problem.

I could go on about my faults but I won’t . But seriously, decades of sins( some I committed knowingly, others I didn’t) have left me in the spiritual condition of a veteran who has had her arms and legs blown off in war. No kidding. How I’m seeing my situation:

–By the grace of God, I somehow have been given the gift of faith. Real faith. One where I know that God loves me and that He exists and that Jesus came into the world to die for me and He is very active in my life.

–My battle wounds are so severe from the sins committed against me but also the sins I have committed, like I said, arms and legs blown off (I’m speaking in the spiritual sense, not the natural/material sense). God has healed over the wounds so they are no longer foul and oozing or even painful. I am at peace and comfortable and have some ability to be active and contribute in the world around me (again on a spiritual level), but still…I have no limbs.

What I want…

–Is to grow back my limbs so that I can run back out on the field of battle and get at it.

Is that what Reparation does…grow back the limbs? Am I understanding this correctly?

It hasn’t escaped my notice that I also have self-serving intentions here, that I not only want to make acts of Reparation to show God my gratefulness and to give back some small part of what He gave to me, but I also want to be made strong and whole.

 

[RosyAnne]

If you are able to do it “with a heart full of love and patience,” wouldn’t that be an indication that the “holes in the board” and the "scars"are healing ? The *heart *is where God looks first.

This is exactly why I started having inklings that things weren’t quite right with me. When Jesus talks about hardness of hearts, THAT’S ME. I sense that I don’t love as a whole person does, much of that due to the pain caused to me but again, also because of the numerous and grave sins I have committed. I should have said: perform the act with as much love as you can, rather than heart full of love .

Without getting too deeply into any of the analogies , if we dumb it down, the habitual sins often tend to be of a more stubborn temperament when it comes to rooting them out. IOW the longer a habit has been practiced, the harder it can be to break.

Yes, I can understand that, that makes sense. But there’s something more going on with those of us who were “Barbarians” from a young age. I have been healed from many things, but I still have some residual habits I can’t shake, even after novenas and a couple years of consistent prayers. I understand that God allows us to suffer these things to keep us humble, but I sense…in my case…Reparation is a key that I’ve overlooked.

Several definitions found in Fr John Hardon S.J.'s Modern Catholic Dictionary :

These are most excellent, thank you! I have the book and didn’t even check it. God bless Fr. Hardon, he has given us so much.

Something I’ve gotten into the habit of doing (this is just my own personal spin here) is when I am able to perform a duty with love and patience and offer it to God, I frequently try to offer it to Him for the souls in Purgatory. That way, I gain new intercessors each time.

I am learning about that too. I read a knowledgeable blogger once say that NO NO NO, the prayers from souls in Purgatory are not efficacious for us, no matter what anyone says. Then boom, last week or so I read something from St. Alphonsus that we should pursue the prayers of souls in Purgatory since they are so beneficial for us. lol. I’ll side with the Doctor of the Church on that one

 

[InLight247]

This is a very good talk from a priest, an exorcist. Hope it may help.
youtube.com/watch?v=NK_uz5YVaWo

 

[ineeda]

This is a very good talk from a priest, an exorcist. Hope it may help.
youtube.com/watch?v=NK_uz5YVaWo

This was a great video and very informative!

 

[ineeda]

RoseyAnn,

I have many similarities as you have posted. How ironic that I found it last night! After going to confession, yesterday, I felt okay my sins are forgiven, but I need to do so much more.

I have always had a problem with laziness. I have had chronic fatigue with chronic illness. However, I wonder if it just turned into laziness. I have always had low energy, and I need to pace myself doing activities.

Also, have many years to atone for, as I lived according to my will, and not God’s will. I am a cradle Catholic. As soon as I was an adult, I quit going to church. I attended with my children when they were in grade school. I just went through the motions. When they were teens they gave me a hard time about going to church. So, I did not make it mandatory to go to church. I was a lazy parent! Now, I am so worried about the life they are living.

I could go on and on. I married twice outside of the church. I slowly came back to the church about five years ago, too. I think once I started going to Eucharistic adoration weekly, I was hooked. I had my marriage blessed. I am the only one that goes to church. My husband is not into church at all. He says that he prays every night in his bed. And, my son who lives away is now agnostic. My daughter will go to church, but I believe it is just to shut me up. But, that is okay because some day it may hit her, and she will really want to attend. I have a 10 year-old grandson that I have going to church with me when I can.

I care for my elderly mother with dementia. She was quite religious. Now, she will watch EWTN on tv. However, her dementia has robbed her of the memory of all of her daily prayers, rosary, and Divine Mercy. Too bad, I came back after dementia sit in for her. But, I am grateful for the grace that I have been blessed with to return.

I have much reparation to do. That video from InLight’s link was very informative.