March 10/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
What does God want of us? Depending on the Christian faith tradition that we come from, we may answer the question differently. God wants us to obey the Ten Commandments. He wants us to cover our heads in church or to forbear from dancing, card-playing, and drinking. He wants us to tithe. He wants us to know the Bible backwards and forwards. He wants us to go to Mass each Sunday. He wants us to give up chocolate for Lent. As external sacrifices, or demonstrations of our willingness to serve God, there is nothing wrong with any of these practices (with the possible exception of giving up chocolate!). But sometimes we succumb to the temptation to make these outward actions the end point of our devotion, rather than the means to loving God. We begin to think that our sacrifices and acts of piety are the substance of our faith and not its outward expression. So we follow the letter of God’s law, as we understand it, 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,” which were the highest form of sacrifice in the Old Testament, and God does not delight in them. What pleases God is for us to offer him hearts broken by our knowledge of our own shortcomings. What pleases God is for us to give him our spirits crushed (and the Hebrew here is emphatic) by a sense of our own sinfulness. What pleases God is to restore those broken hearts and shattered spirits with the joy of his forgiveness.
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: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031018.cfm
