““On the divine model, sin is a bad decision in the eyes of God. Penance is the expiation of sin through suffering in the service of God, or the mortification of the worldly desires that put us in conflict with God's plan. Redemption, the goal of penance, is forgiveness in the eyes of God - God's acceptance of our sins. In a secular vocabulary, these concepts might look something like this: anxiety is regret over a past bad decision, or of a future bad one, either in the eyes of our future selves or in the eyes of our community. Austerity...is the expiation of anxiety through suffering in the service of simplicity. It is the mortification of the human desires that put us in conflict with ourselves, the world, and the people we love...Forgiveness is an acceptance of the inevitability of conflict, of the costs of our decisions...On pilgrimage, privation is endured, shared, and collectively encourage as part of the aspiration to want less, at least for the moment - and not only to want less for ourselves, but perhaps even more important, to need less from others and, at the same time, to be able to recognize their suffering and give them more. The experiences of wanting less, needing less, and giving more allow us to withdraw from the psychic conflicts that cause so much pain for ourselves and those around us.””
