Office Of Readings | Week 14, Sunday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Augustine | A Contrite Heart Is A Sacrifice To God

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Office Of Readings | Week 14, Sunday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Augustine | A Contrite Heart Is A Sacrifice To God

‘A contrite heart is a sacrifice to God.’

Historical And Liturgical Context

Saint Augustine’s sermon offers a profound meditation on Psalm 51 (‘Miserere mei, Deus’), a penitential psalm attributed to King David after his fall into sin with Bathsheba. In the early Church, Psalm 51 was foundational in catechesis on repentance and featured prominently in the liturgy, especially during Lent. It was often recited or sung by those preparing for baptism or undergoing public penance. By the time Augustine preached this sermon in the late 4^th or early 5^th century, the Church had already begun to develop a rich theology of repentance that would eventually blossom into the sacrament of confession. Augustine himself was a pivotal figure in shaping the Church’s understanding of the inner dimensions of conversion—a turning not just of actions, but of the heart and will.

Saint Augustine’s emphasis on inward contrition over outward sacrifice reflects a significant development from Old Testament ritualism to a New Covenant interiority. Whereas Israel had once offered animal sacrifices at the Temple, Augustine, following the line of the prophets (cf. Hosea 6:6: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’), points his listeners to the ‘broken and contrite heart’ as the new locus of worship. The sermon thereby links the psalmist’s words to the lived Christian life, especially to the newly baptised or those seeking reconciliation with God.

Patristic And Theological Insights

Augustine’s reflection shares a central concern with many of the Church Fathers: how the human person responds to grace. Like Origen and John Chrysostom, Augustine calls for introspection not as an end in itself but as a pathway to divine mercy. His admonition not to focus on the sins of others but to look deeply into one’s own conscience is characteristic of his broader theology. It echoes his Confessions, where self-knowledge is the precondition for knowing God.

What Augustine says about sacrifice is of great theological significance. He contrasts the now-obsolete system of burnt offerings with the inward, spiritual sacrifices that God truly desires. This is a theme also explored in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in Romans 12:1, where Paul exhorts Christians to offer their bodies as a ‘living sacrifice’. Augustine integrates this into his own doctrine of grace: the contrite heart is not a human achievement alone but a gift prompted by divine mercy.

In the Incarnation, God had already made the supreme sacrifice. Now the Christian must echo that self-giving by offering a heart broken open to divine healing. Augustine’s theology insists that we can never merit this grace by our own strength; our only claim is our need. Thus, the offering of a contrite heart is both an act of humility and a response to God’s initiative.

Philosophical And Spiritual Dimensions

From a philosophical standpoint, Augustine’s call for interior honesty aligns with the Socratic imperative to ‘know thyself’. But unlike Greek introspection, which often sought knowledge for its own sake, Augustine’s is moral and relational: to see one’s sins clearly is to open oneself to the healing gaze of God. The contrite spirit, then, is not merely ashamed but hopeful; it acknowledges fault not to wallow in guilt but to appeal to mercy.

Moreover, his metaphor of ‘crushing’ the heart so that a clean one may be created is both poetically powerful and spiritually challenging. The Hebrew understanding of the heart as the seat of both thought and desire underscores how total this transformation must be. Sin distorts not just what we do, but how we see and will; hence, the need for the creation of a new heart (Psalm 51:10).

Augustine warns against hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Many, he says, prefer to point fingers at others rather than confront their own inner disorder. This spiritual immaturity not only blinds one to the truth but hardens the heart against grace. True contrition, by contrast, involves both sorrow and longing—sorrow for sin and longing for God.

A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Augustine | A Contrite Heart Is A Sacrifice To God

I acknowledge my transgression, says David. If I admit my fault, then you will pardon it. Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticise, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others. This was not the way that David showed us how to pray and make amends to God, when he said: I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. He did not concentrate on others’ sins; he turned his thoughts on himself. He did not merely stroke the surface, but he plunged inside and went deep down within himself. He did not spare himself, and therefore was not impudent in asking to be spared.

Do you want God to be appeased? Learn what you are to do that God may be pleased with you. Consider the psalm again: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. Are you then to be without sacrifice? Are you to offer nothing? Will you please God without an offering? Consider what you read in the same psalm: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. But continue to listen, and say with David: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart. Cast aside your former offerings, for now you have found out what you are to offer. In the days of your fathers you would have made offerings of cattle – these were the sacrifices. If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it. These then, Lord, you do not want, and yet you do want sacrifice.

You will take no delight in burnt offerings, David says. If you will not take delight in burnt offerings, will you remain without sacrifice? Not at all. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart.

You now have the offering you are to make. No need to examine the herd, no need to outfit ships and travel to the most remote provinces in search of incense. Search within your heart for what is pleasing to God. Your heart must be crushed. Are you afraid that it might perish so? You have the reply: Create a clean heart in me, O God. For a clean heart to be created, the unclean one must be crushed.

We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him. In some measure then you will be in harmony with God’s will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

Prayer With Jesus Christ

God of mercy and compassion,
You do not despise the contrite and humble heart,
But receive it as a pleasing offering.
Give us grace to know our sins,
To turn inward in truth rather than outward in judgement,
And to seek the healing only You can give.

Cleanse us from pride, from complacency, and from bitterness.
Crush the stony heart, and create in us a new heart,
Softened by Your love and shaped by Your Spirit.
Make us like David, honest and broken,
And restore to us the joy of Your salvation,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

• Contrite: Feeling or expressing deep remorse and penitence for sin; in a biblical sense, it refers to a heart that is ‘broken’ or humbled before God, recognising the weight of personal wrongdoing.
• Transgression: A deliberate act of disobedience or offence against divine law; a synonym for ‘sin,’ with a nuance of crossing a moral boundary.
• Burnt offering: A type of ritual sacrifice in ancient Israel in which an animal (typically a lamb, goat, or bull) was completely consumed by fire on the altar as an act of worship, atonement, or dedication to God.
• Sacrifice (spiritual): In Christian theology, an interior offering to God, especially of repentance, praise, or a humble heart. Unlike material sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices are acts of devotion from the soul.
• A contrite and humble heart: A phrase drawn from Psalm 51 that describes the true offering God desires—sincere sorrow for sin accompanied by humility, as opposed to empty ritual.
• Create a clean heart in me: A line from Psalm 51, a penitential psalm of King David. It is a plea for God to purify the soul and renew the inner person after sin.
• Hypocrisy: The act of pretending to be morally upright or religious while concealing inner sin or dishonesty; Augustine warns against focusing on others’ faults while ignoring one’s own.
• Harmony with God’s will: Living in alignment with God’s purposes and values. In this context, it means grieving over what displeases God, particularly one’s own sins.
• Displeased at what displeases Him: A spiritual sensitivity to sin, where one’s conscience echoes God’s moral judgement—not out of guilt alone, but out of love and reverence.