Repentance and the Eucharist (Bread for the Journey 12)

 

‘Repent, and believe the Good News.’ Says Jesus to his new disciples at the very beginning of the Gospel of Mark in today’s reading of the gospel at mass.  This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when he provides a stark choice to the disciples.  

In each celebration of the eucharist we begin with the sign of the cross when we invoke the blessed trinity. The mass then opens up with a short liturgy of reconciliation where we recall that we are, all of us, sinners and that God’s love invites us to here to repentance, renewal and conversation.  

In response to a collective and individual act of repentance and confession the priest gives an absolution in the name of Christ saying 

‘May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life’ 

This is possible because on the evening of his resurrection Jesus declared to the apostles: 

‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’, John 20:23. 

To hear the Word of God, to believe and to repent marks the beginning of the sacred liturgy and prepares us to receive ‘grace upon grace’ (John 1:16).