My Favorite Penance

It’s been incredible to watch God at work in particular ways this Lent. Just 3 Lents ago, I was sitting in a mission, wondering how God was ever going to use my situation. This Lent, I gave 3 Lenten missions plus several other talks. It’s amazing to watch His plan unfold, and I’m so humbled to serve Him in this way.

The week that I was not giving a mission was the week of my home parish’s mission which I got to attend, and it was excellent. On night 2 of the mission, 5 priests were there to offer confession. I went to a priest who I’d never been to for confession before- he is from another parish. It was a powerful experience for a couple of reasons.

First, the priest drew my attention to a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in which Jesus is holding His Sacred Heart in his hand, extending it out towards us. It’s a beautiful image of Jesus actually giving His heart to us. The priest explained that he particularly likes this image for that reason. You see Jesus’ heart ablaze with love, and you see Him handing that heart to you. So powerful!

Then, he gave me an interesting penance that I’d never received before, and it quickly became my favorite penance that I’ve ever received. My penance was to sit in the church for 3 minutes, in the presence of the Eucharist, and let God set the table for me.

And set the table He did. He set a table of love for me. It’s a table where I am chosen, a table where I have value… because of Him and His love for me. The same is true for you- He sets that table of love for each and every one of us, and that’s a beautiful thing. We just must remember to show up to that table, sit down at it, and rest in the truth that we are loved.

As humans, our wounds often stem from some lack of love, some way in which we were not loved well by others. Our wounds hurt, but Jesus’ wounds infuse the love that we are so craving, the love we didn’t receive or can’t find elsewhere. When love is the setting, when love is the starting point, that changes everything. When we lived loved, it shows. It changes how we experience life and how we respond to situations. If we all lived realizing just how much we were loved by God, the world wouldn’t be in quite the state it’s in now. Living loved means cutting back on sin. Think of even small children who would not be ugly to other children at school if they knew how much they were truly loved and chosen by God.

The cross reminds us of how much we were and are loved by Jesus, and it reminds us of how we are called to love others in that same way. Jesus wounds infuse our wounds with the proper treatment- love. We then can love Jesus and others by what we do with our own crosses. We enter love through the cross. We unite our sufferings, inconveniences, and hurts to Jesus’ cross for them to be used redemptively- for Him to bring good out of them. We can offer these things for specific intentions, including the very people who hurt us. It’s a powerful thing that can only be done through His grace, as we could not do such a thing on our own! God’s grace abounds though, and He is walking with us every step of the way.

I’m coming to know Jesus’ love more as an adult than I did earlier in my life, but I still have a lot to learn, and I’ll never be able to fully comprehend it. I can always rest in Jesus’ love more than what I’m currently doing, and I was so grateful for that reminder in confession. There was something about the way the priest said to let God “set the table” for me that put it into a different and deeper perspective for me. I realized a bit more how much I need to let God set the tone and create the setup in my life instead of my earthly experiences taking the lead there.

And what a better time to hone in on this than Holy Week. Think of how much more deeply we can enter into this sacred week if we can better connect to the love Jesus poured out to each of us individually on the cross. When we see it as individual love, the experience of Holy Week becomes much more personal, and it’s easier to walk with Him in a selfless way. So this Holy Week, let’s ask God to set the table for us first, and then, resting in His love, we can embark on the spiritual journey that is this week with a greater sense of conviction and desire to accompany Jesus on Calvary. Amen.

Wishing you all a blessed Holy Week and Triduum. May God bless in a special way the priest who gave that incredible penance to me!

Enter your email address to receive email updates whenever I publish a new blog post! I won’t crowd your inbox- my goal is to post a couple times per month.