Penitence During a Pandemic
I failed at giving up television for Lent. I gave up on the discipline when I contracted Influenza A several weeks ago. And then, it seemed like punishment to give up television during the pandemic that has us all quarantined in our homes. I didn’t replace one discipline for another intentionally, but a new discipline has sprung up during this Lenten season. I give up sleeping in, and I spend an hour or two reading Scripture, praying, drinking tea, and hanging out with the dog. Because every day in this new normal is odd and difficult, this practice has helped me start my day with relative calm and in God’s presence.
We give up our desires and make sacrifices during Lent because Lent is a season of penitence. “Penitence” means having a spirit of repentance: having a sorrowful heart that understands the weight of your sins and making a confession and turn towards God. In some ways, the heaviness of this pandemic feels penitent – like a global penitence. I am not saying that our human sinfulness caused this pandemic or brought it about. I am saying that the penitent or sorrowful heart, the contrite heart, feels like what my heart is feeling these days: weighed down with the troubles of the world.
If our lives feel as if penitence has been thrust upon them, then how do we intentionally practice penitence during this Lenten season? How can we be penitent during a pandemic? I offer you this suggestion: be penitent, but do so with a gentle spirit and with grace for yourself. Where has your faith life and its expression in the world fallen short of God’s will for you? Examine your spirit. Offer it up to God with a contrite heart. And know that your confession and willingness to try to be better is all that God asks of you. Be humble, and God will be merciful.
A penitent heart need not be a heart that beats itself up over where it has strayed. A penitent heart is honestly sorry. A penitent heart understands that Jesus sacrificed life itself for the opportunity that our hearts have to seek forgiveness, mercy, redemption, and salvation. Even now – especially now – God loves us.
Penitence is not designed to foster a sense of self-loathing or all-encompassing guilt. Penitence is designed for freedom. Our confession and God’s pardon frees our hearts from the fear of punishment. Penitence is designed for hope. Once we feel that sense of pardon offered to us through Jesus Christ, we can hope for a future of redemption and resurrection. Penitence offered with a gentle spirit and grace for ourselves (even during a pandemic) can free the soul and offer hope for the future.
I invite you now – yes, right now – to stop reading and to spend a few minutes in a personal prayer of confession. There are no magic words. There is only your heart communing with God and offering the sorrows of your heart for God to redeem. After you have taken a few minutes with God, end with the following prayer from the Church of England’s Daily Prayers for the Lenten season, attributed to 12th century St. Anselm:
Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you;
you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.
Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness;
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.
Your warmth gives life to the dead,
your touch makes sinners righteous.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us;
in your love and tenderness remake us.
In your compassion living bring grace and forgiveness,
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.
Amen.
