Daily Retreat 06/21/06

2006 Jun 21 Wed: Aloysius Gonzaga, r M
2 Kgs 2: 1. 6-14/ Ps 30(31): 20. 21. 24/ Mt 6: 1-6. 16-18

 

From today’s readings:  “When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to Heaven in a whirlwind, he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal....  Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord....  your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.”

 

Penance in Progress

 

Day by day, the lectionary continues to step through the verses of the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Chapters 5-7 of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Today’s text should sound especially familiar - it’s read every year on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of the penitential season of Lent.

 

Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting are the three subjects our Lord addresses, warning against hypocrisy and pointing out essential traits for the authentic exercise of these self-disciplinary practices.

 

Even though these three disciplines are encouraged especially during Lent, that certainly doesn’t prohibit us from engaging in extra prayer, fasting, and almsgiving at other times of the year as well!  In fact, although it is often forgotten, Fridays throughout the year are designated as days of penance (except when they coincide with liturgical solemnities, such as this Friday’s Feast of the Sacred Heart).  This point is established in many Church documents, including the Code of Canon Law: (Canon 1250 “All Fridays throughout the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the universal Church.”  Canon 1251 “Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”)

 

Many can still remember abstinence from meat on all Fridays as the form of penance mandated by the Bishops for Catholics across the country.  In 1966, the American Bishops re-iterated abstinence as the recommended penance for all Fridays, but they dispensed with the obligatory nature of abstinence, as long as some other penance was substituted (Pastoral Statement On Penance and Abstinence, USCCB, 11/18/1966). 

 

Sad to say, the penitential aspect of Fridays has not been sufficiently publicized by most  bishops and pastors, so that many Catholics are not even aware of this as an expectation!  But by simply taking to heart the Lord's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, we can re-discover and re-vitalize penitential practices as a regular part of the practice of our faith, especially on Fridays:

"In memory of Christ's suffering and death, the Church prescribes making each Friday throughout the year a penitential day. All of us are urged to prepare appropriately for that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday.” Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics, USCCB, 11/12/2000. www.usccb.org/dpp/penitential.htm