"Except You Do Penance"

Saturday, October 25th Readings Reflection: Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us of the necessity of penance in order to merit eternal salvation. In speaking with His disciples, Jesus uses two historical examples with which His listeners were familiar. The first was the execution of a group of Galileans who refused to acknowledge Caesar’s authority. These Galileans also refused to offer sacrifices for the safety of the Emperor and the Romans, thereby angering Pontius Pilate, who ordered their execution. The second example that Our Lord uses is the death of eighteen people upon whom a tower fell in Siloe.

Jesus tells His disciples not to think that these people died because they were worse sinners than the rest of their fellow men: “No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:5 DRB). In their commentaries on this Gospel reading, the Church Fathers point out that Jesus does not deny that the victims of each event were sinners and worthy of punishment; rather, He reminds His disciples that God only punishes sinners with equal justice and mercy.

I am blessed to study under the instruction of a great Dominican Thomist this semester, and he recently gave a lecture about God’s justice and mercy. God’s mercy first and foremost wills the existence of all creatures. This willing into existence precedes all God’s other actions toward His creatures, including His justice. God could not punish a sinner if He did not first mercifully will that sinner into existence and to remain in existence for all eternity by virtue of his immortal soul.

When a sinner repents, we rightly attribute his forgiveness to God’s mercy. To give just a very brief theological explanation of this, mercy removes a defect, so when God forgives our sins, His mercy is removing them from our souls. Our sins can thus no longer be punished in justice, because they no longer exist. God’s mercy therefore precedes His justice in all things, even in punishing sinners.

Returning to today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples that when God wills in justice to punish a sinner, His mercy is also at work. It does so first by keeping the sinner in existence rather than simply annihilating him and second by calling the sinner to repentance so that his sins may be forgiven. Our own experience shows how suffering can lead us to realize how we have fallen away from God and to return to Him in the Sacrament of Penance.

However, God’s mercy is so great that Jesus takes it one step further. He explains that another effect of God’s punishing the wicked in this life is to inspire others to repent. St. John Chrysostom explains: “[A sinner] is punished for his own crimes, and hence arises an opportunity of salvation to those who see it” (Catena aurea). Rather than giving rise to judgment in our own hearts, the punishment of sinners should lead us to examine our consciences and root out our own sinfulness, seeking forgiveness through Confession and frequenting the sacraments to strengthen us against temptation.

The Church will soon celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, on which day she prays, “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.” Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. By His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, Christ has conquered sin and death. He wills that all should inherit His Kingdom, but we must follow His commands and obey His will on earth in order to do so. May today’s Gospel serve as a reminder of our own sinfulness, and may we respond to Our Lord’s call to repent with true contrition, seek His forgiveness in Confession, and reject all that separates us from His infinite love and mercy.

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