The
life of a Christian is a life of constant
conversion, of constant turning toward God and
away from all that distracts us from our final
End in Him. This is the essential meaning of
the word “penance” as a summary of the positive
path we walk toward God in this earthly life.
As sons and
daughters of the Incarnate Christ, in following
Our Lord, we engage all of our faculties: flesh
and bone as well as soul and spirit. The
Confraternity Rule offers a balanced guide to
committing every aspect of our lives in a
wholesome way towards the perfection our Lord
counsels (Mt 5:48).
Under spiritual direction we follow disciplines
of sacramental life, prayer, fasting, ongoing
education, and simplicity of life that help keep
us growing and maturing in our life in Christ.
Today the very words “penance” and “penitence”
conjure up images of self-flagellation, hair
shirts, and sleeping on the floor -- practices
all but abandoned in the last Century as
neurotic, hysterical, theatrical, and even
harmful. Distortions such as the bizarre
caricature in The Da Vinci Code, titillate
imaginations already so alienated from Christian
culture and practice that they seize upon any
absurdity as if it were factual. The affluent
First World recoils in disgust at the idea of
mere temperance, never mind personal, physical
penance.
C.
S. Lewis observed in The Screwtape Letters
that
the Enemy is eager to warn us against the very
thing we need most: sumptuous ages label
self-denial as poor self-esteem; sexually
licentious times decry modesty as prudery;
cultures of brutality disparage compassion as
sentimentality. In a time when the need for
penance is obvious to all but those who need it
most, it is widely rejected, even by well
meaning Christians as primitive, archaic,
self-defeating. Many – perhaps most – Americans
would consider even the mild ascetical demands
of the Confraternity Rule to be excessive. We
all know of Religious communities whose
ascetical practices appear to be less demanding
in some ways than ours. Yet at times, for some
among our number, even additional physical
penances beyond our Rule may be salutary. Under
spiritual direction, each Penitent will identify
the path upon which the Lord is guiding him.
There is no single right answer to the question
of whether extraordinary mortifications assist
us in our journey towards God or whether such
practices might be inadvisable. What may be
salutary, normative, profitable, and fruitful
for one person may be insufficient, excessive or
harmful, for another person in a different state
or time of life. This is not a
one-size-fits-all proposition and requires
careful discernment.
The
Carthusian fathers to this day wear the cilicium
(hair shirt) at all times (except when
bathing). Certain Carmelites and Mother
Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity routinely take
the discipline under the provisions of their
rule of life. The Franciscan Friars of the
Renewal sleep on the floor. So “extraordinary”
mortifications are not necessarily useless
holdovers from a more primitive age.
Conventional
wisdom prescribes that the charism for such
mortifications attaches only to institutes of
consecrated or apostolic life that require them
under their Rule.
That maxim may be in serious need of
re-examination.
Under the caveat that such practices not damage
the body, which we honor as a gift of God’s
creation, it is reasonable to believe that some
people, in some circumstances at some times in
their lives, do receive the charism to accept
such mortifications as wholesome and profitable
both to their own souls and for the building up
of the Church. The motivation must be tested
and found to be fully oriented towards the
purposes of God and the good of the Penitent as
seen in the broad perspective of time and
eternity. In former centuries, when such things
were more prevalent and better understood, it
might have been reasonable for people in
ordinary life to use a flagellum [aka,
discipline] from time to time or to don a hair
shirt without permission of a spiritual
director. This is no longer realistic.
Physical penance has become a novelty.
Psychological and spiritual disorders are better
understood. General catechesis in the use of
extraordinary mortifications has all but
vanished. Hence, the impulse must be astutely
scrutinized. This has become a subspecialty of
spiritual direction, and one that is hard to
come by.
When
the subject of physical mortification arises in
spiritual direction, experienced directors
assert that the key to granting permission for
them lies in the docility of the person who is
drawn to them. Any sign of willfulness is a
disqualifier. A director may grant permission
for a person to decide on his own what penances
to undertake, or (more likely) may tell him not
to take this path at all, or may advise him to
wait, or may advise a trial period with frequent
checks to see where this is taking him.
Obedience is paramount, for obedience is a
greater thing than any extraordinary ascetical
practice and will be decisive in rendering the
exercise fruitful.
Any
ascetical method that is novel, rare, or employs
instruments entails the very real spiritual
risks of self-will, scrupulosity, spiritual
vanity, pride in one’s own efforts, the
substitution of ascetical disciplines for
authentic conversion, and making of one’s
spiritual life a self-choreographed art form
rather than allowing oneself to be formed by the
master Potter.
Although, in truth, rotating the tires or
scrubbing the kitchen floor will often be a more
effective penance than the more glamorous
extraordinary mortifications, nevertheless,
among those who have a zeal to heal a broken
world and to foster the growth of the Kingdom,
those who have discerned with a responsible
spiritual director that this is an authentic
charism for them, and who observe appropriate
caution, the extraordinary mortifications could
well be used more widely than they are today to
the benefit of individual souls, of the Church,
and of the world.
Since most people do not have even a regular
confessor, much less a spiritual director, a
basic rule might be that the ordinary
penitential practices (fasting on Fridays and
Wednesdays, abstaining from meat on certain
days, springing out of bed the moment the
alarm-clock rings, praying the penitential
Psalms with outstretched arms [in private, of
course]) do not require consent of a spiritual
director or confessor unless, for example, one
fasts to an unhealthful weight. If a person
feels drawn to penances requiring instruments,
then direction is critical.
A
person who does not have a confessor or director
to guide them in these things is not ready for
them. If the call is strong, he should pray
that the Lord will send a guide who will be
responsive to his desire. Meanwhile, he should
offer up the desire for penance as penance, and
the Father will receive it with joy.
Karen Sadock
Memorial of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
April 24, 2007
Teleion:
Brought to its end, finished. Wanting
nothing necessary to completeness.
Perfect. Consummate human integrity and
virtue. Full grown, adult, of full age,
mature.
