The most beautiful and insightful depiction of penance I know does not feature hairshirts, whips or tears. It does not even depict amends for any personal sin.
There are some deeply moving depictions of that kind of penance: think of the armour falling from the penitent slave trader in the 1986 film The Mission. And suffering willingly accepted, as reparation for things we have done wrong, can heal both individuals and communities. When we humble ourselves before another person we’ve harmed, we give up the power we attempted to wield over them. When we sacrifice ourselves to restore a person or community we’ve harmed, the fact that this is hard and humiliating for us shows the depth of our respect for our victims.
