An Act of What?

Hello Dear Reader!

As a Catholic Christian I participate in the beautiful and fulfilling sacrament of Reconciliation, otherwise known as “confession”. As we are coming into the season of Lent, a time of reflection and repentance, I think it’s important that we as Catholic Christians think about something that I (and I imagine many others) have often overlooked or taken for granted as something that is just a part of the process of the sacrament… I’m referring to a prayer commonly said as our act of contrition. Now, nothing says we have to say the exact prayer that I’m about to reflect on, but it is certainly a worthy model for anyone who desires to say their own and I think it’s important to keep in mind that there are several variations of this prayer out there that people use.

Webster’s Dictionary defines the term “contrite” as “feeling regret and sorrow for one’s sins or offenses; penitent. It comes from the Latin word conterere meaning “grind down” or “wear away”. The fact is that when we sin, and especially over a long period of time, we feel worn or ground down into a lowly state…

So what is this prayer? I will lay it out below and then I’ll share with you my thoughts on it line by line… It goes like this…

So do we realize what it is we’re saying and doing when we recite this prayer? Let’s take a look, shall we?

“Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee…”

Here we are acknowledging our Creator, our Father. To start off this way, we are saying that we know He is of highest authority for He is God. There is no higher authority in heaven or on earth. But what else? We are coming to Him in humility and with a full and contrite (there’s that word again) heart… One of my favorite verses on humility comes from the book of Sirach…

“My son, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. For great is the power of God; by the humble he is glorified.”

Sirach 3:17-19

Does this verse not capture the essence of this great opening line to this prayer? But the next important question we have to ask ourselves is, WHY are we sorry for having offended Him?

“…I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but MOST OF ALL because they offend thee my God…”

What are we saying here? Let’s look at the ever popular parable of the prodigal son for our answer… This parable can be found in Luke 15:11-32.

What are we doing when we go to confession? We ARE the prodigal son returning to our Father after being away and separated from Him by our sins… And it doesn’t matter if we’ve been away for a day, a week or if this is our very first confession!

The Father has run to us with open arms by opening the door for us to receive this sacrament… This line in our prayer IS US as the son in the parable saying… “…Father I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (vs. 21).

As we recite this line of the prayer, we are saying to our Father in heaven, as we have acknowledged who we are in relation to Him already, “I don’t care what punishment you have in store for me because I deserve it! That’s not why I’m here on my knees before you!” We are, in fact, saying “I am sorry for having offended heaven and you because of WHO YOU ARE! I am sorry, I’m CRUSHED and WORN DOWN because I have wronged you, my Father and I love you!”

“…who art all-good and deserving of all of my love…”

What’s the purpose of these words here? Why do we say this to God? I mean, of course He knows who He is! He doesn’t need US to tell Him who He is… I think that Romans 10:10 provides an answer to what this line means for us…

“For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.”

Romans 10:10

Paul writes that we are justified by what we believe in our hearts, but we are SAVED by our confession with our lips! God is pure goodness, pure light, pure love! We are not only confessing what we have done wrong before we recite this prayer, we’re not only confessing through the act of our being present in the sacrament of reconciliation of our belief in Christ as our redeemer and the power of this sacrament… We are saying here in this moment: “God you are ALL-GOOD! YOU are of the highest order and YOU ALONE deserve RIGHT PRAISE from me!” In other words, “all of my love…”.

“…I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.”

Okay, there are two parts to this last line that are somewhat subtle and so escaped my understanding at first until I sat down and really took at good look in Sacred Scripture…

“…I firmly resolve with the help of your grace…”

What do we mean here by “grace”? Let’s look at Ephesians 2:8-9…

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

In this passage, grace is the biblical term for both God’s favor (the condition of its bestowal) and God’s supernatural life (the content of the gift that we receive a.k.a a share in the divine nature). Now, as Catholic Christians, we have had salvation conferred on us through the instrument of our Baptism (1 Peter 3:21) while it is received through the instrument of faith.

Next, let’s look at 2 Peter 1:3-4…

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.”

2 Peter 1:3-4

Here we see that Peter is referring to our participation in the divine life of God, a mystery of grace also described by Paul as the “indwelling” of the Son (Rom 8:10, Gal 2:20).

Okay, so here’s my point… When we pray that last line and say “I firmly resolve with the help of your grace” we are calling on Christ’s divine life within us! We are saying to God that the next time we face the temptation to sin, that we will call upon and ALLOW Christ to work in our lives! Now, this does not mean that the next time we face a temptation that we don’t have to work at avoiding or denying that temptation… This means that while we realize we can shut God out and willfully chase the sin by the choices we make, we won’t!

To summarize, here’s the best way to say it… “I firmly resolve with the help of your grace within ME oh Lord… that I will FIGHT! I will NOT GIVE IN! I will CALL upon YOUR DIVINE LIFE that dwells within me for help because I cannot do it alone!”

“…to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.”

When I say this last line, the first four words stand out to me above the others… “to sin no more…”. Where have we heard this before? Ah, yes! The story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery… Let’s look at John 8:10-11…

Jesus looked up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one Lord.’ and Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again’.”

John 8:10-11

So what’s the easiest way to avoid sinning… To avoid the possibility of the temptation arising at all, right? When I finish my act of contrition with this line… I cannot help but put myself in this woman’s place… I cannot keep my eyes from watering up as I think in that moment about the fact that Jesus, through this sacrament, has spared me from punishment even though I am not worthy…

So, in closing, what does the Act of Contrition do for us? We humble ourselves before our Father and acknowledge that He is all-good and deserving of our praise and love! It places us in the arms of the Father of the prodigal son! It puts us in the shoes of the woman about to be stoned to death as she was spared! And finally, in this prayer we acknowledge that we cannot live our lives as our own as we call upon Christ’s shared divine life within us to help us in our times of temptation!

The act of contrition is NOT just another prayer… It is a WAR CRY to Satan that we are sons and daughters of God, Brothers and Sisters in Christ… And WE WILL NOT be lead into temptation but we will be delivered from evil! For God’s is the kingdom! God’s is the power! And to God belongs all Glory forever and EVER! AMEN!

Your Humble Servant in Christ,

William