Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus directs his disciples to “go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13). He is asking them to reflect on the Greek Septuagint text of Hosea 6:6. Later he challenges the Pharisees: they would not have erred if only they knew what these words meant: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 12:7). So, let’s take that on board for ourselves and ask what do these words mean: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
When St. Ignatius Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, says that “we ought to praise the frequent hearing of mass,” it is because he knows how important proper sacrifice is. Mass is the true sacrifice that saves the world. It is the same sacrifice that Christ offered on the cross, made present in an unbloody way. Daily participation in the sacrifice of the altar is an essential part of Ignatian spirituality.
But were it not for God’s mercy, we would have no gifts to offer in sacrifice, and, even if we did, God would not accept them. Even more fundamentally, were it not for God’s mercy, we wouldn’t even be here at all. We would all have been destroyed long ago. That is why it is more important for us to practice mercy than it is to offer sacrifice. Without practicing mercy ourselves, our sacrifices would be hypocritical. When Jesus cites Hosea’s text “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” he is warning us not to get so tied up with the theory and the practice of sacrifice that we lose sight of mercy, the concept upon which true sacrifice rests.