Isa 1, 10-15 Bring no more worthless offerings

(Isa 1, 10-15) Bring no more worthless offerings

[10] Hear the word of the LORD, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah! [11] What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure. [12] When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you? [13] Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me. New moon and sabbath, calling of assemblies, octaves with wickedness: these I cannot bear. [14] Your new moons and festivals I detest; they weigh me down, I tire of the load. [15] When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood!

(CCC 2100) Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit...." (PS 51:17). The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor (Cf. Am 5:21-25; Isa 1:10-20). Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (Mt 9:13; 12:7; Cf. Hos 6:6). The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation (Cf. Heb 9:13-14). By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.