Beating one’s breast
We last heard these words proclaimed to us on Palm Sunday in the solemn reading of the Passion from Luke, this year's Evangelist. Beating or striking one’s breast is gesture of repentance, a symbolic indication of a penitent heart, longing in humility for forgiveness; it is an external signal of the desire for ongoing conversion, so as to live one's life and vocation in the joy of God’s mercy. As one hymn puts it There is a wideness in God's mercy. The desire to live in that mercy of God is expressed again and again in the Gospel and it is a thread running through all liturgical celebration in our Church.
At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Saint Mark records that Jesus appears in Galilee and announces: The time is here, the kingdom of God is at hand. REPENT and believe the Good news (1:15). In the face of salvation and the Good News of redemption, repentance and conversion arise spontaneously. To those who have encountered Jesus and allow him into their hearts the response is the desire to be at one with him, to be in communion with him.
When we recite together the I confess at Mass, the rubric is that we strike our breast as we say “that I have sinned through my own fault”. The striking of the breast is really a striking of the heart, for the Lord affirmed in Mark 7:21 that the root of sin lies in the heart of the human being. A Christian community such as ours, gathering on Sunday joyously, as a family, to await in hope the return of the Lord in glory, is all
Most of us who are reflective don’t need much in the way of telling that we are sinners! We recognise our human weakness, our habitual sins, and all the things that bring us down. The Liturgy, very gently yet powerfully in the course of the year attunes our minds and heart to the things of grace. The Liturgy steadfastly refuses to condemns the sinner, but in its prayers, songs, gestures and rituals it seeks to raise our spirits in certain hope of a future where sin does not hold sway!
In the gesture of the striking of our heart or breast, the hand becomes our language for accusing the human heart. In that movement of our hand it is like ridding the heart of the old self in order to leave room for the new and spirit, given by God as the prophet said:
A new heart I will give you and a new spirit, and I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh instead! (Ezekiel 36:26)
This gesture infers our true faith in the Lord and especially in his paschal mystery through which we are drawn into an everlasting communion with him. So there is nothing depressing about beating the breast! It is not a sign of worthlessness, it is a moment when the certain hope which is implanted by the Spirit in the heart of the believer has attention drawn to it. This hope becomes the focus or eye through which we can celebrate the liturgy's present grace and future promises. The placing of the hand over the breast shows our desire to knock down the walls of division that would block the word of God from truly living in us, and truly setting us on fire with love.
The prayer of the community in the I confess, which is an act of humility and repentance not only to God but also “to you my brothers and sisters” is responded to with strong language by the Presider when he pronounces May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. The humility of the community in its prayer assures the gathered assembly that God hears them, and will recreate his life within us. For, just as the crowds beating their breasts while leaving the scene of Calvary had seen divine love’s true measure, indeed so in the liturgy, at the moment of confession and forgiveness, the penitent person, gathered with the assembly of believers, knows he or she is saved by sheer divine goodness and generosity.
Bookmark or Share This!
