The Evolution of the Practice of Penance, and the Season of Lent: While specific customs in regard to the practice of penance have evolved over the centuries, one thing that has remained the same and is true to this day in that Christians have understood the absolute necessity of periodically examining their consciences and confessing their sins, and they have readily accepted and accomplished the penances assigned to them as satisfaction for their sins.
Beginning in the early days of the church up through the 11th Century, it was common
that the practice of penance was public, in that only mortal sins were confessed but these were told to the bishop or the priest in front of the entire congregation. Following their public confession, the penitent was assigned to a period of penance, the length of which depended upon the severity of the offense(s). During their time of penance penitents were excluded from the Eucharist as they sat in a special section of the church known as the penitent’s box and they may have worn distinctive clothing, i.e., “sack cloth and ashes”. After fulfilling their obligation to do penance, the penitents were often absolved and restored to full communion during Holy Week, in particular on Holy Thursday, in time to fully
participate and take communion at the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
Lent is the only vague remnant that we have of this form of public penance because
it was customary for Christians to confess or be “shriven” on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, then on the next day they would step forward to be marked as public penitents – by being signed with ashes – then they would prepare to embark on their 40 day period of penance during which they would strictly fast from meat, eggs and other dairy products, devote themselves to spending more time in
prayer and accept the responsibility to make sacrifices through self denial in order that they might accumulate something substantial to give as alms for the relief of the poor.
Hence – prayer - fasting - and alms giving is still the threefold character of the discipline we accept during the 40 days of Lent. Having completed their penance at the end of Lent, the faithful would receive absolution during the day on Holy Thursday and be restored to full communion in time to fully participate in the sacred Triduum. This is obviously different from what has happened with the practice of private penance – because absolution is now given before the penance is even started rather than after its completion. While it would be unrealistic to bring these customs in their entirely there is still some valuable truth that is perhaps more clearly expressed in these than in our present approach to penance and Lent. Embarking on Lent without a sincere examination of conscience and an acknowledgement of sin makes no religious or spiritual sense what so ever. Receiving ashes – the outward sign that one is inwardly repentant – without first appreciating what specific sins one is repenting risks the even greater sin of hypocrisy – which in Greek means “play acting”.
Giving up sweets and treats for Lent without first confessing one’s sins can be more like a Spring diet than an authentic act of penance. Soon the opportunity to live Lent more meaningfully will be before us all, and in order to do so, we will all have some soul searching to do, some decisions to make and some penance to plan.
Confessions Before Ash Wednesday:
Monday, February 27th, 3 PM – 6 PM
“Shrove” Tuesday, February 28th, 9 AM – 12 Noon
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