Penance and Mortification… What is the difference?
Dear Father John, OK, now I have a better grasp of what we mean by “mortification,” but that has raised another question. Is there a difference between mortification and penance or penitence.
This is a very interesting question. The distinction between
mortification (synonymous in most spiritual writers with self-denial,
abnegation, self-renunciation, dying to self) and penance (synonymous
with penitence, sacrifice or self-sacrifice, and “reparation”) has to do
with the interior motive behind the action. In other words, the
exterior action (fasting, for example, or taking a cold shower on a cold
morning) can be exactly the same, but depending on the reason why I am
doing the action (my intention), the spiritual nature of the act can be
either mortification or penance.
The intentionality of an act of mortification is to “punish [i.e.,
discipline] my body [i.e., self-seeking tendencies] and bring it under
control, to avoid any risk that, having acted as herald for others, I
myself may be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). In other words, I
freely deny the satisfaction of a normal and healthy desire in order to
grow in my spiritual maturity, to learn to govern the self-seeking
tendencies built into my fallen nature. For example, I purposefully
mortify my perfectly legitimate desire for dessert on Wednesdays and
Fridays during Lent, so that I am better able to control an illegitimate
desire to get drunk whenever that desire happens to surface.
Mortification is spiritual training, tempering of the willpower in order
to be able to better govern our passions and instincts, starving the
bad plants in the garden (vices and selfish tendencies) so the good
plants (virtues) can flourish... READ FULL ARTICLE
