Recently a priest I know preached on guilt, which sent me pondering that subject in light of my psychological studies. His bringing up the widespread idea of Catholic guilt which he said he had not experienced (nor have I) reminded me of the distinction between true guilt (when one feels bad for doing something wrong) versus false guilt (feeling bad for something one has not done or simply for existing or any other irrational reason).
Now his proposed answer to guilt was simple and direct: do penance.
I have never heard it put in quite the way he expressed it: that guilt is one's conscience saying that justice has not been satisfied and therefore one ought to do penance until the guilt is gone, which means that justice has been satisfied.
Naturally that makes sense for true guilt. If one has committed a wrong against another then doing penance to satisfy justice and make reparation for the harm done seems the best response.
What about for false guilt, however? Often false guilt is taking on another person's guilt, so perhaps doing penance in response to false guilt might also be a way to satisfy justice. Perhaps penance could be as satisfactory a way to remove that false guilt as unveiling the irrational beliefs that lead one to feel guilty without deserving those feelings of guilt.
I have no specific convictions here, but am merely pondering. Here I must make one important caveat, however: this theory would hold true only so long as said penance was indeed penance and not self-punishment. It is far too easy for one not in a healthy psychological frame of mind to undertake penance as a way to punish the self for not being good enough and consequently to view penance as making the self suffer, which is not at all the essence of penance.
What is penance then?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the following:
1434 The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: effort at reconciliation with one's neighbor, tears of repentance, concern for the salvation of one's neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity "which covers a multitude of sins."
1435 Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.
Charity and the Cross. Those are the surest signs of true penance and two expressions of the same reality: following the example of Christ.
Anything therefore could be penance. Saint Therese could pick up a pin for love of God, which is the essence of penance. Even eating chocolate might be a form of penance. Now that may seem strange, but some people have so many wounds from their childhood that they cannot love themselves and sometimes in order to believe that they are worthy of receiving good things and being loved by God they need to give themselves good things, such as chocolate.
Is it not beautiful how many opportunities we have to show God that we love Him—which is in the end what penance truly is? There is nothing except sin that we cannot make a penance—an act of love for God who has loved us first. That love then will cover a multitude of sins.
