Mercy, not sacrifice
“If you knew what this meant – I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
Coming from Jesus in today’s Gospel, we’ve heard it before (it shows up in other Gospels, and Jesus is quoting Hosea when He says it). But we still don’t really get it.
Is this just Jesus telling people to stop doing something and start doing something else? Time to switch from Old Testament stuff to New Testament stuff?
Maybe. But it always seemed to me like there was more to it than that.
It’s something I’ve prayed with over the years as it’s come up in the cycle of daily readings. And it’s never really clicked for me.
Until I ran into something in the diary of St. Faustina (the Apostle of Divine Mercy). Her revelation that “mercy is the greatest attribute of God.”
And then the light went on. Jesus isn’t calling us to stop doing something and start doing something else. Jesus is calling us to stop doing something.
So that we can start being like someone. God.
Not in terms of omniscience or perfection or anything like that. But in the way that will have the greatest impact on us, and those around us. In the way that He has already equipped us to do.
Jesus is calling us to start being like God in His greatest attribute, His mercy.
God calls us to come to Him, not just when we’re crushing it, but even more so when we’re not. When things aren’t going our way. When we’re being our own worst enemy. When we’re hurting others because we’re hurting.
That is exactly the time that God is calling us to Him. To receive His forgiveness, His healing, His mercy.
And in receiving God’s mercy, God fills us with His grace and sends us out. To be instruments of His forgiveness, His healing, His mercy.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice” is God’s call to be like Him. To live out the most difficult line in the Our Father, Lord’s Prayer, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Today’s Readings
