“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”1 This is the heart of today’s readings. In this passage, the inspired author of Matthew’s Gospel has Jesus invoking a passage from the Book of the Prophet Hosea.2 This is also the message of our reading from Exodus.
In this passage about the institution of the Passover, how were the Israelites saved? By putting some of the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost of their houses. Of course, this is a parallel to how we are saved by the blood of Christ, our Passover.
The very fact that you and I need to be saved is a testimony that we’ve done something, or some things, that have put us in some kind of jeopardy, perhaps even a life-threatening situation. These days, this is a reality we tend to gloss over: “all have sinned…”3
Another aspect of being saved that emerges from our readings this morning is that we cannot earn our salvation through rule-keeping. Whether it is strict adherence to the Law’s instructions as to when and how to sacrifice the Passover lamb, or when and how to eat it after it has been sacrificed and prepared,and to properly dispose of leftovers, or whether it is adhering to all the rules governing how to observe the Sabbath.
It’s interesting that Jesus points to the fact that a priest serving in the Temple on the sabbath must break the sabbath rules to perform his priestly ministry. As any member of the clergy can tell you, Sundays are not days of rest! The Lord then alludes to his messiahship when he tells his interlocuters “something greater than the temple is here.”4 At the end of the passage, he lets them know that the one whom they were admonishing was no one other than the Lord of the Sabbath.5
Indeed, Jesus is greater than the Temple. While this may seem like no big claim to us, it was blasphemy to Jews of the Second Temple period, or for the First Temple period for that matter. It’s something akin to John Lennon’s claim in the Sixties that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
You see, Jesus is both the priest and the sacrificial lamb. The whole purpose of the Temple was to have a divinely designated place where Israel, God’s chosen people, could worship God offering him the sacrifices the Law commands. Carrying over into the New Covenant, which is nothing other than the extension of God’s original covenant to all people, churches serve this same purpose.
For Catholics, a church isn’t just a building where we happen to meet. Churches are not incidental gathering spaces. It is a consecrated place where we worship God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord remains present in the tabernacle.
Fridays remain, even now, days of penance. This is why the first psalm for Morning Prayer on Friday is Psalm 51, known as “the Miserere.” As we know from our singing of the Agnus Dei at Mass, we translate the Latin word miserere as mercy.
In Psalm 51 we acknowledge that, due to our sins and failings, it maybe that God takes no delight in our sacrifices and may even refuse our offerings.6 What does God want? As the psalmist tell us the sacrifice God wants is “a broken spirit: a broken humbled heart.” 7 These are the offerings that please God.
The reason we begin Mass and even our Communion Services with a penitential rite is because we know that God is merciful. In fact, the name of God is Mercy. God’s mercy is the best and perhaps only starting point.
In order to receive God’s mercy, you must acknowledge your need for it. In confession, we do this quite explicitly by naming our sins in kind and in number. In the Sacrament of Penance, by God’s grace, our sins become the very stuff of our salvation. If that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.
As recipients of God’s mercy, we are to become ministers of that same mercy to others. This is what it means to live by Jesus’ hard sayings about forgiving 70x7, which means forgiving without limit, loving and praying for the good of your enemies, etc. Living in this way is how we show forth the blood of the Lamb that saves us.
1 Matthew 12:7.↩
2 Hosea 6:6.↩
3 Romans 3:23.↩
4 Matthew 12:6.↩
5 Matthew 12:8.↩
6 Psalm 51:18.↩
7 Psalm 51:19.↩
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