The Punishment of Sin

Saturday, March 8th Readings Reflection: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Today’s Gospel reading recounts the calling of St. Matthew to become an apostle of Jesus. Today’s reading ends with Jesus’ declaration of Himself as Divine Physician, Who “came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Lk 5:32 DRB). The message of today’s Gospel reading is aptly summarized in the Verse Before the Gospel: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezec 33:11).

Read in light of the above passage from Ezechiel, the calling of St. Matthew takes on new significance for the season of Lent. God does not desire the death of sinners; rather, He desires that they repent so that they might attain eternal life. This holy season of Lent is a time of preparation in anticipation for Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Our Lenten practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving unite us with Our Lord’s sufferings and enable us to participate in Christ’s act of redemption by uniting our sufferings to His in reparation for our sins.

In his beautiful meditations for Lent, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “no sin is forgiven without punishment undergone.” As Catholics, we may be tempted to take the Sacrament of Penance for granted. We know that no matter how many times we sin throughout our lives after we are baptized, we can turn to the Sacrament of Penance to restore the life of grace to our souls. This gift of sacramental forgiveness is offered to us out of the infinite mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. However, Confession requires a spirit of repentance and contrition—that is, sorrow for our sin from supernatural motives—within our hearts, as well as a willingness to perform penance for our sins. Despite this, we may be tempted to take the immense graces of this sacrament for granted, forgetting the true price that has been paid for our forgiveness.

While we are usually given only a light penance for our sins in Confession, Our Lord Himself has paid a very heavy price for our sins: that of giving His very life on the Cross, enduring the greatest sufferings ever experienced by any human being so that we might be washed clean from our sins over and over again. During His Agony in the Garden, Jesus saw all the sins of mankind—past, present, and future—and lovingly took them all upon Himself, the weight of which caused Him to sweat drops of Blood. In this same Blood, we are forgiven from our sins through the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance, but we must not diminish our own role in enduring punishment for our sins.

Actual sins—that is, the sins that we willfully commit after Baptism—leave temporal punishment on our souls. As St. Paul wrote, “Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil” (Rom 2:9). Through His Passion and Death, Christ has wrought the remission of eternal punishment due to our mortal sins; we receive the remission of eternal punishment along with the forgiveness of our sins in Confession. However, all sins, both mortal and venial, leave a debt of temporal punishment on the soul. Temporal punishment does not merit eternal damnation, but God’s justice demands that we satisfy this temporal punishment—either here on earth or in Purgatory—before we can enter Heaven.

The season of Lent gives us the opportunity to unite our prayers and sacrifices with the merits of Christ’s Passion and Death in reparation for our sins. In this way, we are able to satisfy some of the temporal punishment due to our sins, thereby purifying our souls and growing closer to God. Christ has paid the ultimate price for our sins so that we might attain eternal salvation. May we joyfully unite our Lenten observances with His sufferings so that when we celebrate His Resurrection on Easter Sunday, our debt of punishment is lessened and we are more closely united to Him.

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