July 25, 2012 – 1 Samuel 15

The Lord wants obedience more than sacrifice.  I was thinking about that and how we call the Mass a Sacrifice.  There are many people that think going to Sunday Mass every week is really their only obligation to being Catholic.  Wouldn’t this line of obedience and sacrifice shake them from that reality.  You can go and offer all the sacrifices and go to every Sunday Mass your entire life, but if you are not obedient in your life, it counts for nothing.  Saul wanted to offer the best sacrifice he could, but in so doing he disobeyed God, thus making the sacrifice worthless.  In a similar way, if you go to Sunday Mass, but have been disobedient, the Mass loses some of its effect.  (I was trying to put that is a way that makes sense, because I think the Mass always allows Grace to flow, so it is never worthless)  But the Mass could be harmful to a disobedient person in that if you have mortal sin and receive the Eucharist, you are committing another mortal sin.  God wants obedience more than sacrifice (He wants sacrifice as well, but with obedience). 

Maybe this is a way to think of it.  If I stole 100 dollars and put it in the collection at church, does that sacrifice aid my soul.  No.  Only if the sacrifice is in line with God’s command and done in obedience will it bring fruit.  Thus, as it seems almost every topic does, we come back to the question of authority and who do we obey in order to be obedient.  How can you obey a God when you believe God can give different rules to different people.  How can a Christian feel they are being obedient when their parish or group allows different moral beliefs among the different individuals and allows all individuals to interpret things on their own, as long as the profess Christ as Lord.  You cannot obey rules that are shifting, thus there are Rules that will never change, there is Truth that will always be, and there is a Church that God gave us to guide us in regards to both.  One Church, One Truth, One set of Rules.  Without that, obedience is impossible.