Слово на часах, в четверток недели 1-й Великого поста, о епитимии

While talking about confession, we focused our attention on the very essence of this sacrament. But the composition of confession includes one thing, which, although it does not constitute a sacrament in essence, is extremely important in its moral consequences, and therefore requires careful consideration. This is penance! There are so many wrong concepts about her! Some avoid penance as something unnecessary and superfluous; others think to base almost the entire (great) work of their reconciliation with God on it. Let us look for the proper middle between these extremes, and learn to turn into good what is truly soul-saving in penances. What is penance? According to the very meaning of the word from the Greek language, this is a remark, reprimand, reproof, punishment. Almost the same thing is meant by the name penance in church language: penance consists of various feats and hardships, which are imposed on the repentant from the spiritual father during confession. These are various types of fasting, penitential bows, scheduled reading of various prayers, visiting holy places, a certain kind of alms and donations to the churches of God and for the benefit of the poor, and therefore similar acts of love and selflessness. What power is there in these penances? Is it the one who, through the hardships and deeds she takes upon herself, to satisfy God’s justice for her sins, to pay, so to speak, her debt to God, or at least some part of it? To think like that would mean to have no idea either about your sins or about the truth of God. Who is able to satisfy the highest truth of God for their sins, except for our Divine Intercessor, except for His death on the Cross, raised for us? “Only the most pure Blood of the Son of God could extinguish the flame of God’s wrath against sinners—and it did!” “There is not a single condemnation...there is now one condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), says the apostle. But if there is no condemnation for believers, then what will be our satisfaction here? And what can our insignificant donations add to the endless sacrifice made for us? Only the Pharisees could think that by their fasts and alms they had acquired the right to the love of God: a Christian concludes all his rights in one Divine mercy and the merits of his Divine Intercessor. Why, after this, is penance needed during confession and what can it serve? For many and important purposes. And, firstly, it is most natural for a criminal who has received a pardon to want, as soon as possible, to have an opportunity to express his gratitude in some way, to prove that he has definitely decided to correct his life and devote all his remaining days to making amends for previous sins. Where can I get this case? Wait until he comes on his own? But he may not come for a long time: and meanwhile, the heat of holy jealousy may cool down from time itself. In this regard, penance, that is, any feat of deprivation or labor imposed on the penitent immediately after confession, is not a punishment for him, but mercy and a gift. The very fact that the purpose of the spiritual feat came from the lips of the spiritual father, who accepted confession from us and spoke forgiveness to us on the face of God, gives it a sacred character, the appearance of some kind of Divine commandment, and thus saves us from frivolity and the desire to abandon, or change, or weaken the feat that we have taken upon ourselves. A prudent choice of penances, in relation to the quality of our passions or sins, makes the feat of which the penance consists even more fruitful in its effect on our moral correction. In this regard, penance, being directly directed against our mental illness, is completely similar to those strengthening medicines that doctors prescribe to the sick after an illness. By performing penance not on our own, according to our own will, but according to the appointment of our spiritual father, we are therefore subject to an account of fulfillment and thus we have a new impulse, necessary for our weakness, to fulfill the feat we have taken upon ourselves with possible accuracy. In addition, due to the overwhelming power of Christ’s merits and to encourage our weakness, reconciliation with God is so simplified and facilitated in the sacrament of confession that, one might say, it depends on one of our words: you have sinned, have mercy! – Such an excess of mercy for our spiritual person, completely imbued with a sense of his poverty and disgust for sins, serves as an abundant source of eternal gratitude to the Lord and fidelity to his vow: not to fall into previous sins; But for our sensual person, such speed of performance and simplicity of the appearance of the sacrament can give rise to frivolity and a return to the previous state. When, as a sensual person may think, repentance is so convenient and easy, then sin is not such an important evil as it is imagined; I can repeat my sins again, again indulge in passion, and again receive forgiveness whenever I want, as easily and quickly as I received now. How can we prevent and eradicate these dangerous thoughts and feelings? By the way, penance. The more difficult it is, the stronger the rein against frivolity. In this case, the most sensual and frivolous person necessarily judges himself this way: if for past sins I must deprive myself of this and that, endure such and such labor: then for new sins I will have to be subject to even greater deprivations. Such a thought naturally protects our weakness from repeating previous sins. Finally, does a sinner need to remember his sins? Very necessary. The details of sins, especially sensual ones, should be smoothed out from memory in every possible way so that they do not spoil the purity of the imagination and heart; but the memory of our sinfulness must remain as a source of humility, as an incentive to caution and vigilance over ourselves. Therefore, almost all sins themselves leave behind some unpleasant traces even after the sinner is corrected. This, one might say, is a natural, inevitable penance, with which the paternal Providence of God warns a reformed person from falling into previous sins. But, on the other hand, it is an unfortunate property of our nature that we do not forget anything so easily as our sins! If we have corrected ourselves from them, although not completely, then we are soon ready to think that we never sinned at all and are disposed to look at ourselves as righteous. Such oblivion of one's weaknesses and impurities is very harmful for true advancement in virtue. For, in addition to being the fruit of self-love, it itself feeds sinful self-love - the main source of all our impurities. Therefore, some kind of reminiscent sign of our falls for many, if not all, is an extremely necessary and useful thing. And such and such a sign is penance. By its very existence, as long as it continues, it constantly reminds the pardoned sinner that he was not what he should have been, that he belonged to the number of people who perished, and escaped condemnation only by the mercy of the Lord. Therefore, those who understand such a beneficial effect of penance, instead of wanting to reduce it, often want to preserve it in some form for the rest of their lives, in order to always have the closest reminder of the previous disastrous state of their soul and, at the same time, of a constant incentive to humility. Since its effect very much depends on the prudent choice of penance, this choice is one of the most important duties of a spiritual father. The Holy Church helps him in this important and difficult matter with many rules of the holy fathers. But it is also your duty, brothers, to help your spiritual father in this important matter by all means within our power. And mainly by revealing to him as truly as possible your position, your conscience, your character, your relationships, your thoughts and feelings. The humble idea of ​​the impossibility of performing any kind of penance is complacently accepted by the Church itself. It is not inappropriate to raise doubts regarding the moral effect of any penance. You just need to remember: 1) that the choice of penances, as medicine, primarily belongs not to the patient, but to the spiritual doctor; 2) that our aversion to any kind of penance can often serve as the surest sign that this healing is precisely for our illness: for the main source of all our spiritual ailments, as we have already noticed, is our criminal pride, just as the main healing and the basis of all healing should be the renunciation of our will; 3) we must not forget that undergoing penance, even if it seems to us not due to the nature of our illness, or not according to our position, is in any case a good deed, as an experience of spiritual obedience, as the fruit of renunciation of one’s will, as a victory over oneself. Amen. You might be interested in: