4 Less-Suicidal Ways for Doing Penance

Primary School Me, complete with the apple haircut mismatched
printed shirts and flowery blue shorts - a mayhem of prints. 
Just look at that cross! It was about as tall as I was 
(though I was never very tall to begin with).  

I was in elementary when my parents took me to Lucban Laguna, where one of their former friends resided. I remember that it was during summer, and there was a fiesta. During the fiesta, one family would be assigned to feed everyone else. That's what my parents told me anyway. When the got to the town, the house we went to was indeed bursting with food and people, to the point that the bloody ladder going up the house creaked ominously and my mother, along with a bunch of other namimiyesta, scampered up the steps to reach the safety of the living areas, which were up on the second floor. I remember the food was great, and that there was bingo in the afternoon. My mother rarely ever played, but I remember she won. It was only about PHP500, and it was probably not enough to put gas in the car's tank, but she was happy anyway.  

What we really went there for was not the food or the company. It wasn't even the bingo. It was the penitensya. Penance. 


Here are merriam-webster.com's definition of the word.

1

: an act of self-abasement, mortification, or devotion performed to show sorrow or repentance for sin

2

: a sacramental rite that is practiced in Roman, Eastern, and some Anglican churches and that consists of private confession, absolution, and a penance directed by the confessor

3

: something (as a hardship or penalty) resembling an act of penance (as in compensating for an offense)

The town had a pretty painful way of showing God they're sorry: they cut their backs with a blade, the same kind suicidal people cut their wrists with, then they parade around town while hitting themselves with whips made from strips of wood. They do it for the forgiveness of God - infection and pain be damned. Other people prefer something a bit more dramatic: they act out Jesus Christ's last hours on Earth, except the nailing to the cross part is all but an act. It's a brutal, but relatively common practice in the Philippines during the Holy Week.

My barely-grade-3 impression: Since I am not going to submit myself to such pain, God will probably never forgive me. Hello fire and brimstone and Satan and sexy fallen angel wings.

Photo from Flickr.com. This one isn't so brutal as the rest. Feel free to Google. 

I understand religious freedom, and I don't want to offend anyone but I totally think this is crazy. Even the people at CBCP, who are known for their Dark-Age thinking, are not in favor of this. First time we agreed in a long while. 

Oh well, to each his own. Although as a person who cringe at unnecessary pain and infection, I came up with 4 ways to do penance that are not only less-suicidal, but can also be done outside the Holy Week. Because, you know, we really should be trying to make up for our effed-ups whenever we commit them instead of just one week a year.

1.  Sacrifice desire. You'd really love to have Coke right now, or maybe a Starbucks frappe, because the heat is just so punishing. You may want to buy that really cute new heels, despite having several ones at home. You really want to have crazy wild sex sans the rubber, but your partner is not comfortable with that. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and ask yourself if you really need it. Maybe instead of a Coke or a frappe, cold water will do. Maybe your closet-full of shoes deserves another look-over and you don't need a new pair of heels after all. The last one's not a maybe, though. Get the freaking glove!

2. Decrease vanity. So you love posting selfies on Facebook? Instead of like, an entire album of you doing duck-faces, your rock-hard abs, and whatever else, try for a couple of pix. I know: it's your social media, you can do whatever you like, including blurred names of the candidates you'll be voting for in May (which is nonsense, seriously, but people still do it) or even pictures of cats, dogs, and cute pet snakes, but I still say less vanity is better than whacking yourself bloody. 

Besides, too much self love can't be healthy. And after all, shouldn't, as the religious adage say, "love our neighbors as we love ourselves"? I'm betting you don't have as many pictures as your kapitbahay as you do of yourself. 

3. Be a healthier you. The worst you can do, in my opinion, is not to do something wrong, but to be stupid enough to believe that you can never be redeemed. And no, I'm not talking about confessions to a priest and saying Hail Marys and Our Fathers. I am firm believer of happy endings. Does penance only mean demeaning yourself? Can't being a better person be a form of penance? I think so. I mean, if you've got your mind set on walking around town to atone for your sins, (and trust me, this IS sacrifice if you're a total couch potato), at least do it so you decrease your risk for heart disease. Eating healthier stuff and giving up on your daily dose of Starbucks would also held decrease the risk of having diabetes, while letting go of your obsession for junk food and sugar-monster coffee. Instead of a pack of cigarettes, maybe 5 sticks will do? 

4. Be Useful. If you've, for instance, hurt someone in the past, it wouldn't really do them any good if you have yourself nailed to the cross (unless they have some sadistic streak, then that's another story) as opposed to you going back to them, asking for forgiveness, and actually doing something that would really make a difference? Instead of whacking yourself silly, why not be of service to the community? 

I believe I was also in grade 3 (in a Catholic school - surprise, surprise!) when I learned about the corporeal works of mercy. I've always thought that forgiveness does not end with apologizing. People should continue to pursue this through actions that would show a change of heart and a change of act. The corporeal works of mercy are actual service to the community, and is expected to be done by Catholics for their neighbors, although many of them don't.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the corporeal works of mercy are:

• To feed the hungry;
• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• To harbour the harbourless;
• To visit the sick;
• To ransom the captive;
• To bury the dead.

Think about it: saying sorry to the person you've hate and doing penance by joining feeding programs as volunteer versus cutting yourself every year and parading in front of people while hitting yourself. Which one is of value to people, and to the God who apparently asked us to love one another?


Parting words, dear reader. This blogpost does not want to offend anyone's religious feelings, but is simply an expression of my non-religious ones. The rituals of achieving forgiveness is really up to people, and is thus none of my business. Maybe you're making it up to god, and maybe, if your god is cruel and sadistic as others make him to be, he would appreciate the effort.

Please consider: what good will it do for you and the people you hurt if you hurt yourself?