A Time For Penance
There are two messages in today’s Gospel. First, that we must follow Christ into the wilderness, where we fast and do penance for our sins. This acknowledgment of our failures prepares us for the second stage of our commitment, which is to then follow Christ in resisting temptation. Our Lenten penances will not take away the temptations from our life, but they will help us fight them when they come. Easter will not bring us freedom from our inclinations to sin, but if we practice repentance for the next few weeks, when Easter comes we will be stronger in our determination never to offend God again.
How does this happen? Why does penance help us with temptation? Because with our habitual acts of Lenten penance, we remind ourselves over and over again that we have offended God and deserve the fires of hell. Only by God’s mercy are our souls saved, and penance reinforces our prayers for that mercy, as we voluntarily give up not only our sins but even a few of our innocent pleasures, habits and attachments. Penance is a small gift we give to God, and in return he showers us with the graces we need to save our soul.
Having said that, it is important to remind ourselves that our motivation for doing penance is not first and foremost for our own spiritual benefit, no matter how essential that might be for our salvation. Above all, our penances must come from a solid act of the will to give glory to God by making reparation for sins already committed. Merely giving up chocolate, for example, will not save our souls. It is the reason why we give up chocolate that will help us on the road to salvation. And that reason must not be just so we can save our souls—penance must be an act of love, love for God, sorrow for having offended him, and determination not to offend him anymore.
God is so good to us that not only does he forgive us our trespasses but goes a step further and bestows on us all the graces we need to keep us out of future trouble.
When temptation comes, then, remember that we are armed to resist it, especially if we have been careful to persevere in our penance. When we reach out for that little forbidden snack, remember the words of our Lord that man does not live by bread alone. Physical bread might keep us alive physically, but that’s not all there is to life. Our spiritual life is far more important, and for that we need the Word of God to keep us going. And what is the Word of God? It is he who was in the beginning—in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without Christ, we are nothing but dust, returning into dust when we die. But with Christ we rise above our earthly state and reach to the heavens to touch the hand of God. How can we be anything but truly sorry for our sins once we reach out for that hand, ever mindful of our unworthiness to do so.
Let’s get going with our penance and stick with it faithfully throughout the forty days of Lent. We owe it to God, who is deserving of all our love, and we look upon it as a fitting reparation for all the times we betrayed that love.