Wisdom of Augustine: A Sacrifice to God is a Contrite Spirit

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, Bishop

I acknowledge my transgressions, 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 criticize, 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 upon himself.  

He did not merely stroke the surface, but he plunged inside and went deep down within 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 to offer nothing?  Will you please God without offering?  

King David

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 spirit.  

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 to 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 than you will be  in harmony with God’s Will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

Beg His Mercy and He will come and lift you up.

Self-Will vs Surrendering All to God

Self-Will

from the book, Uniformity with God’s Will & the Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ

Page 178 Detachment from Human Respect and from Self-Will

“… Unhappy the man that lives the slave of self-will!  For he shall have a yearning for many things distasteful and bitter to his inclinations:  From whence are wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence? From your concupiscences, which war in your members? You covet, and have not." (James, iv.1,2). 

The First War springs from the appetite for sensual delights.  Let us take away the occasion; let us mortify the eyes; let us recommend ourselves to God, and the war ill be over.

The Second War arises from the covetousness of riches: let us cultivate a love of poverty, and this war will cease.

The Third War has its source in ambitiously seeking after honors:  let us love humility and the hidden life, and this war too will be no more.

The Fourth War, and the most ruinous of all, comes from self-will: let us practice resignation in all things which happen by the will of God, and the war will cease.

St. Bernard tells us that whenever we see a person troubled, the origin of his trouble is nothing else but his inability to gratify self-will.  “Whence comes disquiet,” says the saint, “except that we follow self-will?” 

S. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi

Our Blessed Lord once complained of this to St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, in these words: “Certain souls desire My Spirit, but after their own fancy; and so they become incapable of receiving it.”

We must therefore love God in the way that pleases God, and not that pleases us.  God will have the soul divested of all, in order to be united to Himself, and to be replenished with His Divine love.  

St. Teresa writes as follows: “The prayer of union appears to me to be nothing more than to die utterly, as it were, to all things in this world, for the enjoyment of God alone.  Once this is certain, that the more completely we empty ourselves of creatures, by detaching ourselves from them for the love of God, the more abundantly will He fill us with Himself, and the more closely shall we be united with Him.” (Interior Castle, chapter 1) 

Many spiritual persons would attain to union with God; but then they do not desire the contrarieties (oppositeness, contradiction) which God sends them: they fret at having to suffer from ill-health, from poverty, from affronts; but, for want of resignation, they will never come to a perfect union with God. 

St. Catherine of Genoa

Let us hear what St. Catherine of Genoa said: “To arrive at union with God, the contrarieties which God sends us are absolutely necessary; His purpose is, to consume in us, by means of them, all irregular movements, both within and without.  And hence all contempt, ailments, poverty, temptations, and other trials, are all indispensable, to give us the opportunity of fighting; that so, by the way of victory, we may eventually extinguish all inordinate movements, so as to be no more sensible of them; furthermore, until we begin to find contradictions sweet for God’s sake, instead of bitter, we shall never arrive at Divine union.”

I here subjoin the practice of it, taught by St. John of the Cross.

St. John of the Cross

  The Saint says, that in order to perfect union, “a thorough mortification of the senses and of the appetites is necessary.  On the part of the senses, every single relish that presents itself to them, if it be not purely for the glory of God, should forthwith be rejected for the love of Jesus Christ; for example, should you have a desire to see or hear something in no wise conductive to the greater glory of God, then refrain from it.  As to the appetites also, endeavor to force ourselfs always to choose the worst, the most disagreeable, or the poorest, without fostering any other wish than to suffer and to be despised.”

In a word, he that truly loves Jesus Christ loses all affection for things of earth, and seeks to strip himself of all, in order to keep himself united with Jesus Christ alone.  

Jesus is the object of all his desires, 

Jesus the subject of all his thoughts; 

for Jesus he continually sighs; 

in every place, at every time, 

on every occasion, 

his sole aim is to give pleasure to Jesus.  

But to reach this point, we must study unceasingly to rid the heart of every affection which is not for God.  

And, I ask, what is meant by giving the soul entirely to God?  

It means, first, 

to shun whatever may be displeasing to God, 

and to do what is most pleasing to Him; 

secondly, it means to accept unreservedly all that comes 

from His hands, how hard or disagreeable soever it may be; 

it means, thirdly, to give the preference in all things 

to the will of God over our own; 

this is what is meant by belonging wholly to God.