Lent begins this week. Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season of penance. In the traditional cycle in the Catholic Church, we started “pre-Lent” a couple of weeks ago. This gives us a chance to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for the forty days of Lenten discipline leading up to Easter.
Some of the Church Fathers as early as the fifth century supported the view that this forty days’ fast was of Apostolic institution. In determining this period of forty days we see the example of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, but it is also possible that the fact was kept in mind that Jesus lay forty hours in the tomb. Regardless, the modern concept of Lenten penance has been seriously watered down from the practices of our ancestors. The minimum requirements for Lenten discipline today only include fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstaining from meat on Fridays. Prior to 1969, the minimum requirements were to fast and abstain from meat every day during Lent, except Sundays.
Many years ago, in a fit of youthful enthusiasm, I observed the traditional Lenten rules. I recall only doing it one Lent because it was so difficult! I have tried many other voluntary penances during Lent over the years. Some were successful; others not so much. A few years ago, I decided to leave my Lenten penance up to God. Inevitably, the penances imposed on me (or allowed by God to happen to me) were more difficult than anything I would have chosen voluntarily. One Lent, however, led me to re-think asking God to assign me penance.
I had decided that year to let God decide what form of Lenten penance I would observe. As Lent approached, we happened to visit a grocery store. This happened to be a store that we did not visit normally. It turned out to be quite large inside. The store had a poured concrete floor all throughout the store and I was wearing dress loafers on my feet with no cushioning. We ended up walking the entire store.
That night and into the following day, my left foot was in excruciating pain. I felt like I had a nail stuck in the ball of my foot and I was concerned that I had broken something! I made an appointment to see a doctor and get an x-ray. The x-ray turned out negative — nothing was broken. The doctor explained the pain was the result of an inflamed metatarsal joint in the ball of my foot. (The Mayo Clinic has a good illustration of exactly where the pain was in my foot on their page about metatarsalgia.)
Even with metatarsal pads for my shoes, running or jumping at the gym was impossible. The pain was terrible. I had to modify all of my workouts. Fortunately, after a week or two the pain was not constant throughout the day. I had to be careful, however, not to re-injure my foot. A misstep would send a stabbing pain into the ball of my left foot, reminding me it was there.
Lent came and went. We observed Holy Week. The joy of Easter Sunday followed. The next morning, I got up and went to the gym for a Monday morning workout. I realized that the pain was gone. It went away. The pain had ended on Easter Sunday.
Since that Lent, I have not asked God to assign me a Lenten penance.
Jesus was blunt about the fact that “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3, D-R) In theological language, this aspect of penance is called satisfaction and is defined, in the words of St. Thomas: “The payment of the temporal punishment due on account of the offense committed against God by sin.” (Suppl. to Summa, Q. xii, a. 3) (https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/penance#iv-satisfaction). It is an act of justice whereby the injury done to the honor of God by our sins is required, so far at least as the sinner is able to make reparation. The Church Fathers, among them Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Augustine, extolled the value of penitential works. “Among the motives for doing penance on which the Fathers most frequently insist is this: If you punish your own sin, God will spare you; but in any case the sin will not go unpunished. Or again they declare that God wants us to perform satisfaction in order that we may clear off our indebtedness to His justice.” (https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/penance#iv-satisfaction)
If we are sorry and repent, the sin is forgiven by virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. But the punishment still remains for the offense against God. For example, King David was forgiven his adultery but he had to suffer the death of the child born out of his sin. St. Paul references this concept as well: “When we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:32)
The Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ was a long, painful and tortuous experience. There is no way to sanitize what He went through. The stress in the agony in the garden caused Him to sweat blood. He was mocked, beaten and spit upon. The Romans scourged Him with leather straps with metal balls hundreds of times. They put a crown of thorns on his head and pushed the thorns into His skull. He carried a 75 to 100 pound wooden beam through Jerusalem—after having been beaten and scourged—falling to the ground multiple times. He was nailed to the cross and had his shoulder separated to stretch Him onto the cross. In His Passion and Death we see the price to be paid for sin.
Our Christian ancestors understood the concept of satisfaction well and took advantage of the annual Lenten fast and discipline as an opportunity to atone not only for their sins but also for the sins of mankind. The Mother of Jesus reminded us of this in 1917 when she told the little children in Fatima: “Pray, pray a great deal, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to sacrifice and pray for them.”
God the Father is asking each of us, His children, to participate in the ongoing work of redemption of Jesus Christ by making sacrifices. St. Paul saw the value of satisfaction and rejoiced in his sufferings as a result:
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Colossians 1:24; see also 2 Cor. 1:5, 4:10; Phil. 3:10)
My prayer for you today is that the Lord grant you courage to undertake some sacrifice this Lent—big or small—in a spirit of penance and satisfaction out of love for Our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!
Eric A. Welter is an employment lawyer and trial attorney with a long-time devotion to intercessory prayer. He is a Catholic Christian who has been involved with intercessory and healing prayer ministry for over twenty years. This article can be found here.