Sophia Institute Press published a book And You Will Find Rest by Father Wayne Sattler. On page 68, Father Sattler mentions there are plenty of penances in life given to us without our need to have chosen them. His examples are: “when the line is longer than we want it to be, the driving slower, the flight gets delayed or canceled, when it’s too hot, too cold, when sickness comes, when unwelcome visitors arrive. These are all opportunities for penance when gracefully embraced.”
Then there are penances we can choose or volunteer to have! Father Sattler doesn’t provide any examples for voluntary penances we can choose, but some that come to mind are wearing hairshirts (although I don’t think anyone does it these days, nor have I heard any priests recommend it), fasting from food or social media, and taking cold showers.
Father Sattler made a very interesting point that Jesus volunteer and chose to suffer for us. He said, “the sufferings Christ endured were a voluntary act of His will.” This makes sense when we think about it because Jesus, as God, could have stopped the nails from going through His body, or He could have taken Himself off the Cross if He wanted to. But He chose to stay the course and suffer out of love for us. There is Scripture support for this too as John 10:18 says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down on my own.” Saint Catherine of Siena also agrees as she said,
”The nails were not enough to hold God-and-Man nailed and fastened on the Cross had Love not held Him there.” -Saint Catherine of Siena
Father Sattler said, “it was love that held Jesus to the Cross.”
As the title of the book indicates, may we find rest and comfort that Jesus loves us so much that He chose and volunteered to suffer to show us how much He loves us.
Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
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