From the threshold of the Sign of the Cross we enter through into the straight door of the Confiteor.
How laden with danger and judgement the whole Eucharistic journey is without a proper and truthful individual Confiteor, and yet how distracted and unengaged we become against this responsibility at Mass.
Not him, not her, not anyone, but through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!
Our ‘Mea Culpa’ becomes otherwise perilous and nothing but a vain service - with neither remorse nor transgressional disdain - when we do not live the spirit and truth of this act of contrition.
While we are spared the embarrassment of public penitence, we should not lessen the necessity to complement our sincere confession to the Father with that to our Brothers and Sisters at Mass. We are, after all a society of sinners.
Responsibility of our sinfulness is the gateway to the fruitfulness of the Eucharist. What perilous path that we expose ourselves without this truth!
How extremely beneficial the office of the Blessed Virgin is in mastering this science of our sinfulness and disproportion in the face of the loftiness of the Eucharistic journey. The Blessed Virgin reveals the truth of our nothingness, littleness and lowliness. The way up is down, and Mary is that down personified.
There are two sides to the love and truth of the Eucharist: It is that of Judgement and of Mercy. Morality cannot be our escape, our alibi is in cultivating a proper attitude, where we can look at our rottenness with courage, and without denial or despair, by the Confiteor’s gate.
The Sacrament of Penance should be multiplied. It is an efficacious act of exorcism. It’s got two big children at Mass: The Confiteor and the Agnus Dei.
It is at Penance that we learn to live and not to shy away from the Paradox within which we are saved.
