The wages of neglect

One of the characteristics or recurrent themes of repentance is that when the subject decides to make up for the things they had till then shirked , the means to do so are removed as though held back.

Sometimes a subject (a person with a sense of self) neglects reneges or shirks a certain duty be it an act of piety or one of sacrament or ritual. The subject does so even though the opportunity requisite for carrying the act is present. It may occur that when the subject decides to perform the neglected duty, the opportunity for doing so is removed. Be it mobility, health, money, food, water, the presence or access to a person or an object, whatever the means or opportunity are, they are removed and the sujbect is no longer capable of 'making amends' as they had intended.

To give an (imaginary) example the case of someone who neglects acts of charity while they can afford them and who once they resolve to fork out the requisite charity find they are no longer able to afford it. Or someone who is not good to their parents, but only realizes it or resolves to treat them well , after their death; a resolution that of course comes too late, and becomes more remorse than compensatory / action.

one way to verify whether this indeed is a recurrent theme (or case) would be the presence of popular or canonical proverbs that refer to such a situation. Such proverbs would be loosely along the line of "if you don't use you lose it."

Finally, this pattern is not necessarily true for every subject, but only in certain cases.