There is always the temptation to talk too much in confession. If a penitent talks too much, he becomes an obstacle between God and the priest. If a confessor talks too much, he imposes himself between God and the penitent. The former is a distraction, the latter is dangerous.
Apart from serious cases, I believe that a penance should be light and easy, a few prayers that the penitent can offer before the Blessed Sacrament before going home. The confessor prescribes a penance to prompt the penitent to offer his gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ who purchased his salvation at a great price. [cf. 1Cor 6:20]
A penance should be completed without undue hardship. Better that penance be performed before an altar and crucifix than behind the steering wheel of a car or worse. It is better to confess frequently while suffering profound aridity of soul than to make one hot and steamy confession in three and a half year’s time.
We go to confession with sorrowful hearts for having offended God. We earnestly expect that having been washed clean of sin that heaven’s entrance remains open to us. Then we do our penance. By his own flesh and blood the Lord has remitted the faithful follower’s undeniable and spectacular debts owed to God and his heaven. A believer must lovingly thank Jesus for this.
Jesus “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” [Jn 1:29] came that we “may have life and have it abundantly”. [Jn 10:10] The height, depth, length and breadth of “I AM” sustains us in forgiveness as God holds creation itself in being. No one may enter into God’s holiness to an abundant, eternal and perfect union with God but through him. [cf. Jn 14:6]
A penitent should do something more than say his penance for the good of his own and of the supernatural order. This is usually the case. Let him as well perform the spiritual and temporal works of mercy for the good of his own and the temporal order and these as a habit of life. [1]
FINALLY, BRETHREN, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. [Phi 4:8]
Those who have received the gift of faith behold Jesus Christ who embraced his passion and death willingly and had the power to take up his life again. [Jn 10:18] The life Jesus lives now “he lives to God” [Rom 6:10] expressly for this gift:
BUT NOW that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Rom 6:22-23]
Therefore the Sacrament of Confession has been given to the Church by Christ as a remedy for sin. And the remedy is this: He who believes in Jesus’ name and confesses that he is Lord [cf. Rom 10:9] will be forgiven for the asking. For the devil cannot flimflam the second Adam’s household as he did the first. [cf. Mt 24:43]
The religious and secular annals of world history and cultures will never reveal another like Jesus because none other have or will exist. Apart from Jesus the Christ, all others are fallen mortal creatures, mere thieves and robbers [cf. Jn 10:8] until they “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [Phi 2:10-11] and are forgiven!
Only one person yesterday, today or tomorrow is fully human and fully divine. One alone said ever “my kingship is not of this world” [Jn 18:36] and offered as the blood of a covenant “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” [Mt 26:28] his own. That person is Jesus.
The passion and death imposed by men on Jesus signified the apotheosis of evil revealed in this fallen world, a scandal that does not cease to provoke many to contempt and many more to abhorrence. Nevertheless evil has no power to deify itself.
It is a mystery that while lightless Satan is permitted to pursue the soul of every human being with his venomous deceits, he enjoys no such power to draw near to glory, divine or conferred, or still less to take possession of this shining substance. Why? Because he absolutely is unable and unwilling to forgive or be forgiven. And the glory that belongs to Jesus? Because the son of the eternal father who is himself without sin forgives “seventy times seven” times! [cf. Mt 18:21-22]
Therefore a penance, no matter how severe, cannot be a proxy for Jesus’ passion and death nor should it be implied that any penance can imitate it. The penance is given to unite the penitent to the person of Christ himself who suffered and died and not to a passion and death personified by a person named Jesus. The first is reconciliation of man to God, the second the triumph of evil. Tremendous implications follow for the Sacrament of Confession.
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[1]
SPIRITUAL:
1.) Admonish the sinner, 2.) Instruct the ignorant, 3.) Counsel the doubtful, 4.) Comfort the sorrowful, 5.) Bear wrongs patiently, 6.) Forgive all injuries, and 7.) Pray for the living and the dead.
TEMPORAL:
1.) Feed the hungry, 2.) Give cold water to the thirsty, 3.) Shelter the homeless, 4.) Clothe the naked, 5.) Visit the sick, 6.) Visit the imprisoned, and 7.) Bury the dead reverently.
