What is the point of penance?

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Hi all , I was wondering what is the point of doing pennence if we have already been forgiven wound that be working our way into heven becuase nothing we can do is worthy for god right and also is it biblical ?

Just wondering
Thanks chuck
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The point of penance is to make reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

Maybe you like to read: -The way of Divine Love- by Sister Josefa Menendez
 
Nope. No working our way to heaven. A penance us usually just a few prayers or something to help us repair damage we’ve done. It also jumpstarts our way to listening to God and following his commandments.
 
katy said:
Nope. No working our way to heaven. A penance us usually just a few prayers or something to help us repair damage we’ve done. It also jumpstarts our way to listening to God and following his commandments.
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How does it repair the damage if we have been forgiven and we can never make it up to god as it were so is it biblical ?
 
Chuck1 said:
How does it repair the damage if we have been forgiven and we can never make it up to god as it were so is it biblical ?
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Pennence is absolutely biblical…It is just another way Catholics encouter/participate in God’s grace/energies…Yes we have been forgiven but sin still has consequences regardless and we still need to receive grace.

Consider these examples:

In 2 Samuel 12:9, 13-8 , you can read about how the Lord forgave David of the guilt of his sin but he still had to pay the consequence of what he had done.

Numbers 5:5-8

Psalm 99:8

2 Cor 2:6-10 and 2 Cor 5:10

1 Peter 4:8

James 5:20

CCC

1471-1473​

 
Chuck1 said:
Hi all , I was wondering what is the point of doing pennence if we have already been forgiven wound that be working our way into heven becuase nothing we can do is worthy for god right and also is it biblical ?

Just wondering
Thanks chuck
Feel free to move mods
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Penance is for us not for God. If you are truly sorry for having hurt someone, would you not want express that sorrow. Penance sets a limit to that sorrow.
 
Our sins are wiped away in Baptism. But, we all sin after Baptism.

The habit of sin is called concupiscence, the tendency to sin, due to our weakness and to the temptations which may overpower us.

What would we do? Sin blatantly and pretend that it doesn’t matter, because we have been baptized?

It is part of Catholicism and it is biblical that we need to repent of our sins. We can lose our salvation. “A humble and contrite heart I will not despise.” Jesus said to his disciples, “Whose sins you shall forgive shall be forgiven…”

St Paul describes our spiritual warfare (to avoid sin) as a race that we are in all our lives.

He describes the effect of Baptism as that we become dead to sins, we have “died” with Christ in our Baptism. How does this work? Is it like magic that we then don’t sin? Not at all.

In Baptism (and our later instruction in the faith) we use the knowledge of God’s mercy in sending Jesus to die for our sins. We use this knowledge to understand what is wrong with sin – that it offends God. When we have accepted our faith fully and live according to Jesus’ commands, then temptations can come our way – whatever they are (!) – and we act like we are actually dead – in the sense of not responding to those temptations. They have no power over us.

“Penance” is literally one aspect of the sacrament of Confession in which we express our contrition, by the recitation of prayer that the priest assigns to us, or to perform another assignment like reading a psalm, or whatever.

We NEED all this to discipline ourselves, to turn away from sin, and show our loyalty to God.

Repentence is a BIG deal even in the Old Testament. Surely it is the same in the New Testament, where Jesus calls sinners to repent (turn away from sin).

That’s the “point” – it’s a big point.

In Judaism, repentence is extremely emphasized and focused on a Day of Atonement (specified in the Bible) once a year. If you haven’t repented before then, you are confronted with a ten-day period of preparation for this Day of Atonement, which is observed with special prayer and with self-denial (afflicting the body) in the form of a complete 24-hour fast.

The repentence and penance is a way of showing that we do not take God’s mercy for granted (the sin of presumption).

Again, in Judaism, not to repent for sin is itself considered a serious offense against God. In its own way, this point is emphasized in Catholicism by a parallel requirement (that we don’t hear much about any more) to confess our sins at least once a year.
 
Chuck1 said:
Hi all , I was wondering what is the point of doing pennence if we have already been forgiven wound that be working our way into heven becuase nothing we can do is worthy for god right and also is it biblical ?

Just wondering
Thanks chuck
Feel free to move mods
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I would recommend a book…Lord Have Mercy by Scott Hahn…all you want to know about the sacrament of confession and penance.

As for your question…Doing penance for our sins…is borne of our desire to do right by God…for nothing we do can ever repay the sacrifice of Christ for dying for us on the Cross. So doing penance, with love and humility, and a lot of desire…is our way of showing our remorse…and our desire to truly reconcile back to Christ after confession…it is borne of a desire to do right by God.

From St. John Vianney…saints.sqpn.com/catechism-on-suffering-by-saint-john-vianney/

Whether we will or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious, **he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, **and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. ” The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered imprecations and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair. There are two ways of suffering — to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them. . . . We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love.

Is it Biblical? Yes…look at the example of Zacariah in Luke 19…7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
 
Here’s over 60 references or so where the Bible speaks of sackcloth,most of them are in direct relation to penance, which is a demonstration of sorrow for sin. A physical way in which people have shown their contrition for sin.

Being penitent and penance are inexorably linked in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. This is also what was meant when the people in the Gospels were told to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. Penitence is the like a second step that follows repentance, and penance is a scriptural aspect of that.

You might also have a look at Catholic Confession
 
Chuck1 said:
Hi all , I was wondering what is the point of doing pennence if we have already been forgiven wound that be working our way into heven becuase nothing we can do is worthy for god right and also is it biblical ?

Just wondering
Thanks chuck
Feel free to move mods
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For further reading…catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0091.html

Okay, “if” — how can we know that this is true and real for us? He says in 12, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh,” but look at this, “we are debtors,” we still have a debt to pay; not because Christ hasn’t paid it but because Christ has paid it once and for all and through the Holy Spirit in His mystical body, He applies that. “We are debtors not to the flesh, who live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body” — if by the spirit, not by your own flesh, not by your own power. Human nature is weak and incapable of doing anything ultimately pleasing to God. We cannot earn the state of grace by our own works. It’s got to be through the power of the Holy Spirit in union with Christ. “But, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,” — if you mortify it, is another translation? — “you will live.”

That’s what penance is all about. We must do penance, John the Baptist said. We must do penance, Jesus Christ said. We must do penance, St. Paul and St. Peter and on and on and on; they all say it. It is not just an attitude or an emotion. It’s not just a decision or an experience. It’s not just a choice at a stadium where we go for what the choir sings. We’ve got to mortify our bodies. We’ve got to do penance every day. Well I’m preaching to myself, too, this morning. I don’t know what you’re hearing, but I know what I’m hearing. Oh I tell you, for all who are led, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. “For you do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.”

Now does he mean that Christ died a little too quickly? He needed a few more hours? No. It means that Christ’s suffering and death must be reproduced and filled up in the Church and if some are slacking off, that means others must become more like victim-souls, willing to bear a greater burden, willing to shoulder with love, as Galatians 5 speaks about the love, “Love bears one another’s burdens.” We do that just as 1st John 5 speaks about how we can pray for others and get them back on track after their venial sins have been committed.

Now what does this mean, that Christ has not paid for our sin? Of course not. It doesn’t mean that. Christ has paid once and for all for our sin. His death is the ultimate satisfaction and price for our redemption, but His life and His death must be lived out in us. That’s why we need to pick up our cross, and we need to imitate Christ. Did you catch that? We don’t suffer because Christ’s sufferings weren’t enough. We suffer because Christ’s life must be reproduced in us. It is finished. It is accomplished, but now it must be applied. The work of the third person of the Holy Spirit is New Testament history, is personal history.
 
Chuck1 said:
Hi all , I was wondering what is the point of doing pennence if we have already been forgiven wound that be working our way into heven becuase nothing we can do is worthy for god right and also is it biblical ?

Just wondering
Thanks chuck
Feel free to move mods
Click to expand...
Penance is the visible part of being repentant. The bible tells us that we must repent.
 
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

(Matthew 4:17)

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance

(Matthew 3:8)

I’m thinking fruit in keeping with repentance is pennance, a d pennance is not merely prayer, but also a change in behavior.

What do others think?
 
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