St. John, himself practiced most severe penance. He lived in the desert and clothed himself with a garment made of camel's hair girded with a leather belt. He survived eating locusts and honey. So his preaching was not hypocritical as he practiced even more severely the penances that the called the people to practice.
We have likewise this voice preaching penance in our own conscience. Our conscience is often as an annoying child who constantly clamours until he obtains his will. Our conscience cannot be silenced by ignoring it. It is best for us to befriend our conscience as early as we can, and thus avoid a long period of painful stings from our conscience and the all imposing heaviness of sin that follows every sinner making him unhappy and discontent with everything.
Our holy mother the Church likewise preaches penance to us. She sends us preachers who announce to us the necessity of penance and transforming our lives.
She likewise sends us seasons and feasts to preach to us over and over again the need of penance. We have principally the seasons of Advent and Lent to remind us of the need to do penance. The feasts of Our Lord, the Blessed Mother and the saints all call out to us, of the necessity of purifying ourselves so that we can one day enjoy their company for all of eternity. For nothing stained can enter the kingdom of Heaven.
God likewise preaches to us directly through the various events of our lives. There are dangerous sicknesses, environmental disasters, political upheavals, economic difficulties, etc. All things on this earth come forth from the hand of God including these heavy crosses. As we are forced to bear these crosses we are being trained in the ways of penance.
Yet, with all these preachers of penance constantly admonishing us to penance there seem to be fewer and fewer true penitents.
Many delude themselves into thinking that they do not need to do penance. They imagine that because they have not robbed, murdered, or committed adultery, etc. that they have no need for penance. They have never taken the time to carefully examine their conscience and truly compare their lives to the model that Christ has given us in Himself and in His words. Many forget to examine their sins of thoughts or omissions. Our examinations of conscience are most often limited to words and actions, but this is only the beginning. There are probably many times more sins committed in thoughts than we ever imagine. God accepts the desire for the deed. And how often do we fail to do that which we should do?
There are many who think that they will have time later to do penance and that they can live on in their sin until that time. Young people often think that they can continue to live in sin and then when they are married they will then begin to live virtuously.
No one of us knows how much time we will have left on this world. Many are the sinners that are taken from this world in the very acts of sin by which they seal their eternal damnation.
And those who desire to live in their sins until later continue to heap sin upon sin. And as they continue in this way they develop a habit that becomes harder and harder to break. As a man lives so it is that he will likely die. If we live in sin we are likely to die in sin.
The time of penance is now. We can become a friend of God at this very moment if we so choose. He is always receptive to our true penances. The only thing that holds us back is ourselves. We will ultimately one day meet our Saviour face to face and we will either be welcomed with open arms by Him or we will be rejected by Him and cast into the infernal furnace of Hell. The choice is ours; we can either find a forgiving, loving Father or an exacting Judge.
All who at the coming of our Lord are not purified by true repentance and reconciled with God must hear those terrible words: "I know you not". Therefore do penance speedily, and save your immortal souls.