The last of the four holy habits that Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison has encouraged the faithful to practice as part of the Go Make Disciples evangelization initiative is to embrace some form of penance on Fridays as an act of thanksgiving for the saving death of Christ.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)” (CCC, no. 1348).
For many years, Fridays were traditionally known to be mandatory days of abstinence from meat for Catholics.
After the Second Vatican Council, this norm was lifted as an obligation (except for specific days during Lent), although believers were still urged to make Friday “a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ.”
The U.S. bishops wanted to encourage and exhort the Christian faithful to prayerfully discern a particular penance as a personal act of love rather than merely mandating a specific practical practice for all to follow.
Unfortunately, in the lifting of the universal obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays, people interpreted this sudden change as an abandonment of all penitential practices.
Even 60 years after the council, people are still confused regarding what they ought to do on Fridays and struggle with taking on personal responsibility to commemorate this special day by some sort of mortification or virtuous act.
In calling the faithful in the Diocese of Madison to rediscover the original intent of the shift, Bishop Hying is once again urging the people of God to perform some act of self-denial as an expression of gratitude for Jesus’ sacrificial death on Calvary.
Penitential practices express in a tangible and visible way an interior conversion of heart.
We offer to the Lord some intentional act of love in imitation of Christ who offered Himself for us in His suffering and death on the Cross.
By embracing some form of penance, we are striving to radically reorientate ourselves to be disciples and to make disciples.
Did Christ not say, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mt 16:24)?
Penitential acts done out of love can help us turn away from evil, resolve not to sin, and trust in God’s amazing and transforming grace.
They can be pathways to perfection for us and sources of grace for others if done in union with Christ’s sacrifice for all of us on the Cross.
We are invited to share in His work of redemption by participating in the saving work for souls by uniting our suffering with Our Lord’s.
In this way, we can imitate St. Paul who wrote: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church” (Col 1:28).
Make Fridays special by asking the Lord what you can do to express your gratitude and thanks for freely offering Himself to His Heavenly Father as a sacrifice for the redemption of all mankind.
Encourage others to do the same, too!
Michael D. Wick is the director of mission for the Diocese of Madison.