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Office Of Readings | Week 18, Saturday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.’
Irenaeus reflects on the words of Hosea, repeated by Jesus, that God desires mercy rather than sacrifice. Irenaeus presents this not as a rejection of ritual worship in itself, but as a statement that God seeks faith, obedience, and righteousness as the basis for human salvation. Jesus uses the prophet’s teaching to challenge those who condemn the innocent, aligning his own authority with that of the prophetic tradition.
Irenaeus turns to the Eucharist to show how this principle is fulfilled in Christian worship. At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine—ordinary elements of creation—and declared them to be his body and blood. This was not because God required food, but so that the Church might respond with gratitude, offering back to God the ‘first-fruits’ of his own creation.
The Church’s offering is not limited to one place or people. Irenaeus links it to Malachi’s prophecy that a pure sacrifice would be offered to God in every place, and that his name would be honoured among the nations. This prophecy, he says, is realised in the Eucharist, celebrated across the world through Jesus Christ.
He also reflects on the meaning of the name of Jesus. Just as a king who paints his son’s portrait rightly calls it his own work, so the Father claims the name of his Son as his own. It belongs to him both because it is his Son’s name and because he has ‘written’ it into the life of the world for its salvation.
Finally, Irenaeus notes that in the vision of Revelation, incense symbolises the prayers of the saints. The Eucharistic offering, joined with these prayers, becomes the pure sacrifice promised by the prophets and offered by the Church in unity with Christ.
A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
God did not seek sacrifices and holocausts, but faith, and obedience, and righteousness, for the sake of their salvation. As God said, teaching his will through Hosea the prophet, What I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts. Our Lord taught the same, saying If you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless. Thus he bore witness to the truth of the prophets’ teachings while convicting the people of culpable folly.
Giving directions to his disciples to offer to God the first-fruits of his own creation — not offering them as if God needed them but so that they themselves should not be sterile or ungrateful — he took a created thing, bread, gave thanks, and said This is my body. And as for the cup, which is part of the same creation as us, he proclaimed it to be his blood and taught that it was the new offering of the new covenant. The Church received this from the Apostles and offers it to God throughout the world, to the God who gives us food, the first-fruits of his gifts under the new covenant. Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, foretold this as follows: I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of Hosts; from your hands I find no offerings acceptable. But from farthest east to farthest west my name is honoured among the nations and everywhere a sacrifice of incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering too, since my name is honoured among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. Thus he clearly indicated that the people of old (the Jews) would cease to make offerings to God, but that in every place a sacrifice would be offered, and a pure sacrifice at that; and his name would be glorified among the nations.
What other name is there which is glorified among the Gentiles than that of our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man also? Because it is the name of his own Son, who was made man by him, he calls it his own. Just as a king, if he himself paints a portrait of his son, is right in calling this portrait his own, both because it is a portrait of his son and because he himself painted it, so also the Father professes the name of Jesus Christ, glorified in the Church throughout the world, to be his own, both because it is that of his Son, and because he himself wrote it and gave it for the salvation of mankind.
The prophet’s words are doubly appropriate, both because the Son’s name belongs properly to the Father, and because the Church everywhere makes her offering to almighty God through Jesus Christ: In every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. For as John says in the Apocalypse, incense is the prayer of the saints.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord of mercy and truth,
You have called us not to empty rituals but to lives filled with love, obedience, and the knowledge of You.
In Your Son Jesus Christ, You have given us the pure offering that fulfils every prophecy—the gift of his Body and Blood, our food and salvation.
Grant that we may approach this holy sacrifice with grateful hearts, offering ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to You.
May our worship be joined to the prayer of the saints, rising like incense before Your throne, and may the name of Jesus be glorified from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Through Christ our Lord,
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Hosea – A prophet of the 8th century BC, whose writings emphasise God’s steadfast love and call for faithfulness rather than empty ritual.
Mercy, not sacrifice – A biblical phrase meaning that God desires compassion, justice, and faithful obedience more than formal offerings.
Holocausts – Whole-burnt offerings in the sacrificial system of ancient Israel.
First-fruits – The first portion of a harvest, offered to God in thanksgiving.
New covenant – The relationship between God and humanity established through Jesus Christ, replacing the old covenant given through Moses.
Eucharist – The Christian act of thanksgiving instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper, in which bread and wine are consecrated as his body and blood.
Malachi – One of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, active in the 5th century BC, who foretold a universal and pure offering to God.
Incense – In biblical worship, a fragrant smoke offered to God; in Revelation, it symbolises the prayers of the faithful.
Revelation (Apocalypse) – The final book of the New Testament, containing visions of the end times and the ultimate triumph of God.
Name of Jesus – In biblical thought, a name carries the identity and authority of the person; here, it expresses the presence and saving power of Christ.
In this reading, John the Serene reflects on Christ as light and on the change that this light brings to human life. Taking his starting point from the psalm, ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?’ he explores what it means to live in the illumination given by God [ … ]
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. I think perhaps also our faith is somewhat distant from that of the people there on that highroad into Jerusalem, and something of our sense of the meaning has shifted in vividness from what it was then. And of course the expectation of all those many people is markedly different, but in many important respects the same. There are the same essential qualities to all our faith in God, which springs complete from our humanity, and that is one and the same in value for all of us, and time is consistent on this point. So then, let us renew the fullness of Catholic faith, and let us ask the Lord’s blessing as we embark upon our Holy Week. ‘Our Lord enters into Jerusalem in order to refresh us. He is to die in order that we may have life. There is a living reality here, both spiritual and as entangled in the joy of our daily living. We have Ladies’ Day where I grew up. They still have it, and they close the roads off, and little children parade, dressed-up like spring brides. When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. Or pay a pound – I have no idea how much it was in actual fact then – it might have only been a few pennies – and we’d get all that time smashing up the crockery the man would put up for us to smash on the dressers. That was my particular favourite thing to do at these festivals, by the way, in case you were wondering. You got a little bucket of so many cricket balls. ‘I dread to think what went into those hot dogs. Probably EE rules would forbid it now. But it was a fair mix in those days. A lot of young people then were C of E. We’ve done a lot to hang onto our young people, which is a tremendous encouragement when you consider how things are, while in recent decades the Church of England hasn’t been so successful. People still want it on feast days and what are essentially now civic celebrations. It’s strange to see, though, how all the little stands there people have are run by the police and people like that along those lines. There’s no May pole. That was a sort of faith that ran and ran beneath all the theoreticals of it in the 1960s and the 1970s and into the 1980s. The May pole isn’t there now in the particular place I’m thinking of. Considering May poles were officially suppressed hundreds of years ago – as a part of the protestant reformation. One or two of you are probably thinking I’m remembering things from that time! ‘I should have liked to say that those processionals were so hardwired into us, that even after the last thirty years, when I became a bishop, they are still with us. They were […]
Help us to see ourselves as we truly are, Saint Anthony. Grant us the gift of self-awareness, that we may recognize our faults and weaknesses, and turn to God with contrite hearts. May we always remember that without God, we are nothing, and that all good things come from Him [ … ]
