Penance also has a rehabilitative effect. It helps us to learn from our sins and restore the loss or damage caused by them. Finally, penance satisfies our innate need to mourn for tragedies and sin, especially mortal sin, which is the greatest tragedy that can befall a person. The reality is that the purgatorial cleansing we endure for sin is in a special way a consequence of Christ s sacrifice for us. Christ s sufferings paid the price for our sanctification from beginning to end.
Purgatory is our final sanctification.
If Christ had not suffered there would be no purgatory and therefore no final sanctification at all. We take anxious care lest something of our Cup of Bread should fall upon the ground. And each year, on the anniversary of his death, she offers the Sacrifice. We always offer sacrifices for them, as you will recall, as often as we celebrate the passions of the martyrs by commemorating their anniversary day. Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.