On the Necessity of Penance

First Point - There are only two roads that lead to heaven, the road of innocence and the road of penance. Only those who have not reached the age of reason can lay claim to the road of innocence. There is no salvation for the sinner without penance and mortification. What is a sinner, asks Tertullian? He is a man born to do penance. A sinner must either do penance or be cast into the fires of hell. He must weep and suffer of his own free will in time, or he must weep and suffer in spite of himself for all eternity. If the gospel is true, there is no other road to heaven than that of penance.

Second Point - Every sin, says Saint Augustine, must be punished by an avenging God or by penitent man. Is it not better to avoid the rigor of God s justice by doing penance while there is yet time? If you do not pay to the justice of God the trifling debt now demanded of you, you must some day pay the entire debt. God does not will the death of the sinner; He prefers that he should repent and live. Penance, says Tertullian, takes the place of the justice of God. Penance remits eternal punishments but it exacts from you temporal punishments. God is a creditor, who obliges us sooner or later to pay the debt of our sins. If we do not pay it in time, then we must pay it in eternity. But if we wait until eternity, He will demand not only payment of the debt itself, but also the interest of that debt.

Third Point - Penance in this life is brief, because life itself is brief. It is trifling when compared with the eternal punishment which we have merited. And penance is also fruitful. The sigh of a contrite and humble heart can disarm the anger of God; a penitent tear can efface all our sins however grievous and numerous they may be. The penance of the other life is long, because it is eternal; it is hard to endure because it is in some manner infinite; finally, it is useless, be cause it does not efface sin, or justify the sinner. An ocean of tears can not wash away the sins of a lost soul, while one tear of yours can blot out all your sins; and yet you do not weep!

Since you must do penance either in this life or in the next, take the resolution to do it now while it is fruitful.

Repent, and believe the Gospel. - Mark 1:15

Nothing is so repugnant to God as an impenitent heart. - Saint Jerome

- text taken from Meditations for Every Day in a Month, by Father François Nepveu