Metmom:Instead of penance every time you commit the sin, how about repenting and not doing it any more?
Or don't you think that that doesn't show that someone is sorry enough for their sin or that they don't care enough?
Or how about when we sin against someone we go to them and ask forgiveness of them and make amends to them for their loss, if possible? Isn't that what Christ told us?
This idea of "doing penance" comes from the "deep" thinkers of the "Church" who envisioned some "disruption in the force" kind of happening and how the sufferings of some could make up for this disruption and, all the while, totally leaving out the entire purpose of the cross of Christ.
Oh, but it's so much easier to take a few trips around the Rosary and say a few dozen Our Fathers.
bb-””Or how about when we sin against someone we go to them and ask forgiveness of them and make amends to them for their loss, if possible? Isn’t that what Christ told us?””
We should do that if possible but there are times when we get angry at people we don’t know or will not likely ever see again like getting mad at someone while driving our cars,impatience at stores, etc..
bb-””This idea of “doing penance” comes from the “deep” thinkers of the “Church” who envisioned some “disruption in the force” kind of happening and how the sufferings of some could make up for this disruption and, all the while, totally leaving out the entire purpose of the cross of Christ.””
Sin disrupts nature and our relationship with God,bb. Scriptures tell us that even the heavens were disrupted by the fall of lucifer and prideful angels.
God wants restoration,BB
Here is something from the late Fr William Most that might help you
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getwork.cfm?worknum=160
Excerpt..
The image is a two-pan scales. The sinner takes from one pan what he has no right to have. The scale is out of balance. The Holiness of God wants it righted. How do that? If he stole some property, he begins to rebalance by giving it back. If he stole a pleasure, he begins to rebalance by giving up some pleasure of similar weight.
But we kept saying “begins”. For the imbalance from even one mortal sin is infinite, an Infinite Person is offended. So if the Father wanted a full rebalance - He did not have to - the only way to achieve it would be to send a divine Person to become man. That Person could produce an infinite value. Paul VI put the redemption into this framework.
All sinners of all times took an immense weight from the two-pan scales. But Jesus gave up far more than they had stolen, in His terrible passion.
So this is the price of redemption, the rebalancing of the objective order, which the Holiness of God willed. Rom 5:8 said,”God proved His love.” Yes, if someone desires the well-being of another, and starts out to procure it, but then runs into an obstacle - if a small obstacle will stop him, the love is small. If it takes a great obstacle, the love is great. But if that love could overcome even the immense obstacle of the terrible death of Jesus, that love is immense, beyond measure. It was not only the physical pain, but the rejection by those whom He loved that hurt Him. The pain of rejection can be measured by two things: 1) how severe is the form of the rejection; 2) how great is the love for the one who is rejecting. If someone jostles me in a crowd, that is a small thing. But if he wanted to kill me, that is far worse, and if he means to do it in the most hideous way possible - then the rejection is at the peak . And what is His love?: Inasmuch as He is a Divine Person, the love is infinite; in as much as we consider the love of His human will, able to overcome such a measureless obstacle - the love is beyond measure.