“beat his breast and prayed”

 
De Profundis “from the depths” are the first words of Psalm 130.  The tax collector, “beat his breast and prayed”.  His prayer, unlike the Pharisee was from the depths and was full of sincerity and passion.  We only know a few words of the tax collectors prayer, but we do know that he prayed with humility. 
 
Psalm 130 is the perfect prayer to foster an attitude of humility.  This prayer is the cry of our heart, the cry of the humble, the cry of the poor.  To pray this psalm and to live its words, which are the words of Christ and His Church is to practice humility.  The Church prays this psalm every Wednesday night during Night Prayer of the Liturgy of Hours.  “Wednesday is the middle of the week’s fight.  The Church and the individual souls both use this hour to present all their most pressing needs, and to be more and more deeply rooted in their trust in God.”[i]  The Church also prays the De Profundis during great feast of hope, expectation and thanksgiving for answered prayer.  The De Profundis is prayed on Christmas Day (Christ the savior has come, the light in the midst of darkness); on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Simeon says that he can now go in peace and that his eyes have seen the salvation which God had prepared in the sight of every people[ii]) and the Feast of the Annunciation (the world awaits the answer of the humble Blessed Virgin Mary and then rejoices as her yes users in the Salvation of the world).  The De Profundis is proof that God, hears the cry of the poor.  A pray that is prayed from the heart and with sincerity and humility is not a pray for despair but of dependence, a dependence which is the seed of hope, a hope that is answered by the mercy of God.
 
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
To the voice of my pleading.
 
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
For this we revere you.
 
My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count of his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
More than watchman for daybreak.
Let the watchman count on daybreak
And Israel on the Lord.
 
Because with the Lord there is mercy
And fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
From all its iniquity.
 
VIDEO – “De Profundis” by Oscar Wilde
The words from the video were taken from an Oscar Wilder poem.  The full text can be found here: http://www.upword.com/wilde/de_profundis.html  
 
All men have a cry from the depth from their heart.  What makes one man despair, while another depends?  What does this video, the words of this poem say about humanity, the human condition?  Wilder says, “the sun and moon have been taken from us”.  It is when all is taken from us that we are truly humble, that we are “spiritually poor” and rely on God alone.   Does this poem video end in despair or dependence?  This video and the words of the poem are in a cycle of sorrow with no way out of the despair.  The beauty of the Psalms are that they are written in such a way that there is always a way out of despair.  “The plea in time of crisis crescendos into a peal of jubilation at being heard, then returns to a description of the most painful abandonment and once again takes up the happy certitude of being heard.  But throughout, it is confidence in God, the greatest value of prayer.”[iii]  The difference between a person of faith and that of no faith is confidence in God, a way out of sorrow or rather a meaning a salvific purpose for suffering.  For the Christian, from the darkness of the cry from the depths arises the dawn of Christmas day, the dawn of the Presentation in the Temple and the dawn of the Annunciation, all feasts of great hope and jubilation. 
 
MOVIE – The Passion of Christ Judas’ Death [Stop at 6:30 mark.]
Judas had a choice whether to reach out to God for repentance for what he had done, or give in to despair and the devil. Many people question what if Judas had repented, and had seen the risen Lord, and was forgiven? The testimony that he could have shared would had been invaluable if he had not given into despair.
 
“His [the tax collector] experience of limitation and failure has led him, not to despair, but to depend.  He remains certain that there is something beyond ‘every evil threat’ and that the Lord will rescue him.  Maybe it was his sin that jogged his memory of the promise of Sirach: ‘The Lord hears the cry of the oppressed.  The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds.’”[iv]

[i] Officium Divinum; page 121
[ii] Luke 2:29-32
[iii] Officium Divinum; page 80
[iv] Magnificat; Vol. 12, No. 8; page 327-328