During this Year of Faith, we will blog reflections and stories to accompany you on your faith journey.
I was watching a football game and the quarterback threw a perfect end zone pass to a waiting receiver. The fans were on their feet, but the ball slipped out of the receiver’s hands. The repentant football player fell to his knees and beat his chest three times.
No words were necessary as the meaning of his gesture was clear to everyone in the stadium: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Even I, a hard-nosed sports fan, felt my heart soften.
This gesture—striking the breast three times as a sign of repentance, accompanied by the words “through my fault”—has been reintroduced to the Confiteor (“I confess”) in the new edition of the Roman Missal.
The Confiteor is one form of the Penitential Act, a public communal acknowledgment of our sinfulness through word and gesture that prepares us to more humbly receive Christ in both word and sacrament.
However, its purpose is not to keep us bent over with heads bowed but rather to move us from beating our breasts to lifting up our hands and hearts in gratitude for the superlative nature of God’s mercy and forgiveness and, in turn, to become the mercy of God for others.
A tax collector and a Pharisee
The Penitential Act reflects what Jesus taught in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14).
The tax collector, despised by the people of his day, beats his breast relying solely on God’s mercy. Meanwhile, unaware of his sinfulness, the Pharisee relies on his power and status in society to ensure his right standing before God.
This parable also connects the Pharisee’s overconfident posture before God with his looking down on the tax collector and anyone else he deems to be a sinner. Thus Jesus teaches us about the nature of God’s grace and mercy—God’s mercy can be received only by those who have empathy for others.
We come to Eucharist bringing our losses, our sorrows, our sinfulness, and the pain of a suffering world. We are sent forth from Eucharist renewed in hope, immersed in God’s unconditional mercy, and charged to bring that same hope and mercy to others.
Suggestions for Prayer:
- This month, you may wish to pray daily, striking your breast: “Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”; then, lifting up your heart and hands, pray: “Through your mercy, through your mercy, through your healing mercy.”
- As a Church community, for what do we need to ask forgiveness?
Reprinted with permission from Living with Christ. For more information or to subscribe, visit www.livingwithchrist.us or call 1-800-214-3386.
Sr. Terry is the Executive Director of RENEW International and a Dominican Sister from Blauvelt, NY.