Penance
3rd Sunday of Easter (C)
After the second Resurrection appearance to the Church on the Sunday following the Resurrection, the disciples who came down with Jesus to Jerusalem for Passover returned to their homes in Galilee. The following Sabbath a group of them went off together to the place they often used to go with Jesus on the other side of the lake, to “get away and rest awhile.” This was the place where the multiplication of loaves and fish took place (cf. Mt 14:13).
On the third Sunday, Jesus again appeared among the disciples, as St. John recounts in today’s Gospel. This Resurrection appearance reveals to us some of the things Jesus did in that sacred 40-day period of Easter. He recalled for them all the experiences and lessons they had with him since his public ministry began, in order to prepare them for Pentecost when they would bring his teaching to the whole world.
The miraculous catch of fish recalls the earlier miracle, which led to their discipleship and calling (cf. Lk 5:1-11). Peter jumping out of the boat after putting his robe back one recalls the time Jesus called him to walk across those waters (cf. Mt 14:22-33). And of course the bread and fish Jesus offered them, recalled the great miracle they had witnessed in that very place.
Jesus also used this occasion to confirm the choice he had made of Simon to be “Peter,” the Rock on which he would build the Church, the chief shepherd of the flock on earth when he Ascended back to his Father in heaven. Jesus tells Peter to “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep “ (Jn 21:15-16).
In order to confirm him in this role, Jesus must heal him of the incident of the high priest’s courtyard after the arrest, where Peter three times denied knowing Jesus (Jn 18:15-18). That incident took place around a charcoal fire (Jn 18:18). On this Sunday, Jesus brings Peter back to the charcoal fire, and asks him to replace each denial with an affirmation of love.
This was Peter’s Penance.
Undoubtedly, Peter had already acknowledged his sin and been forgiven by the Lord. Jesus appeared to Peter personally on Easter Sunday (Lk 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5), and that evening breathed the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins upon all of them (Jn 20:19-23). Clearly Peter was deeply contrite – sorry for his sin, from the moment it happened, as he went out into the night weeping bitterly (Mt 26:75, Lk 22:62). These are the first three important parts of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: Confession, Contrition, Absolution. The fourth part is Penance. In fact that is the “official” name for the sacrament: the “Sacrament of Penance.”
Penance is the healing from the sin. Even when a sin is forgiven, the damage caused by that sin still remains, and must be addressed. We need to remember this about going to confession.
The priest will always assign a penance, and it is important to fulfill that assignment as strictly as possible. But that penance is typically symbolic and only the beginning of penance, acknowledging that we ourselves will never be able to heal all the damage caused by our sins, only Christ can. Moreover, it is not practically possible for the priest to assign a properly medicinal and proportionate penance for each of the sins confessed, as time is limited.
Where he can do so, he will, and some of the great priest-saints are famous for some of their creative and effective penances.[1] But even when the priest is not able to do so, the penitent still has the obligation of discerning a penance for each sin. The penitent expresses this at the end of the Act of Contrition, when he says, “I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to do penance and amend my life.” In order to be fully healed, and not just forgiven, penance is necessary.
Thus, if the sin was lying, the penitent must do what is possible in the circumstances to correct the deception. If the sin was stealing, the penitent must restore the item if possible, and in some way perform an act of generosity as a corrective to the previous greed. If the sin was defamation, the penitent must forcibly speak well of the person, etc.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives Peter a simple penance for each of his three denials: say “I love you.” Because all sins are at their deepest root a failure to love God as we should, this penance is universally medicinal. It is a penance we can do for any and every sin, and it is a penance we should do, on a daily basis.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri incorporated this practice into the devotion he wrote for the Stations of the Cross, which we used in our parish during Lent. At each station, when meditating on the scene before us and thinking about what Christ endured as the price of our sins, we end with this penitential confession of love:
“I love You, beloved Jesus; I love You more than I love myself. With all my heart I repent of ever having offended You. Grant that I may love You always; and then do with me as You will.”
We tell Jesus “I love you,” just as St. Peter did. The Act of Contrition mentions this love (“I am sorry for offending you who are deserving of my love”), but it is not yet the Act of Penance, which is to say, “Lord, you know that I love you.”
As we reflect on this Gospel today, and the forgiveness of sins poured out in the Resurrection, let us not forget the deepest part of that forgiveness, which is the medicinal healing of penance.
[1] St. Philip Neri famously assigned to a woman who confessed the sin of gossip, the penance of plucking a chicken of its feathers while walking down the street, and then trying to gather them up again. St. Ambrose assigned the Emperor Theodosius the penance of standing outside the Milan cathedral for a year, wearing sackcloth, for a crime he committed against the people of Corinth. The Irish monks of St. Columban were famous for the intense and lengthy penances they assigned to their penitents, and who gave rise to the practice of private confession as we know it today.