March 9/Third Saturday of Lent
For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.~ Ps 51.18-19
I often end my morning prayer by praying that I will meet the day’s challenges in ways that please God. As eighteenth-century French Jesuit priest Jean Pierre de Caussade wrote, “In the morning, you can anticipate the various situations, interior and exterior, in which you will probably find yourself during the day, and then set yourself this question: At that juncture or in this or that situation what shall I say to God, what act shall I perform?” Depending on our respective faith traditions, discerning how to please God may lead us in varying directions. God wants us to obey the Ten Commandments, or to cover our heads in church. He wants us to go to weekly Mass, or to tithe. He wants us to know the Bible backwards and forwards. As demonstrations of our willingness to serve God, there is nothing wrong with any of these practices. But sometimes we make them the ends of our devotion, rather than the means to loving God. We regard pious behavior as the substance of our faith, not merely its outward expression. We follow the letter of God’s law without seeking authentic interior holiness. In going through the motions, we miss the meaning. These are the modern-day equivalents of the Israelites’ “burnt offerings,” the highest form of Old Testament sacrifice – and God does not delight in them. What delights God is for us to offer him hearts broken by awareness of our shortcomings. What delights God is for us to give him our spirits crushed (the Hebrew is emphatic) by a sense of our sinfulness. What delights God is to restore those broken hearts and shattered spirits with his mercy, setting us back on our feet to go out to the world and spread his love.
Merciful and loving God, Accept with compassion and kindness all the brokenness that I offer up to you today, and turn it into joy. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030924.cfm
To hear the Bevan Family Consort sing Giovanni Croce’s “In Spiritu Humilitatis” (translation below), click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov1V_hUU86U
(Translation: In the spirit of humility and in a contrite heart may we be accepted to thee, O Lord,
and let it thus be done in our sacrifice in thy sight this day that it might please you, O Lord God.)
