SAINT BENEDICT, ABBOT (MEMORIAL)

Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. 

A good baseball pitcher knows that you can’t throw a strike with just your arm. You need to step forward with the opposite foot, engage your core muscles, and follow through with your other leg. If you don’t engage your whole body like this, you’ll likely end up throwing a wasted ball that the batter will easily hit out of the park.

In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah is trying to explain a similar concept to the people of Jerusalem. He wants them to see that they are “throwing away” their sacrifices to the Lord, like the pitcher who only uses his arm. He knows that their sacrifices have not been coming from their whole hearts and minds. Yes, they have been bringing their offerings of “calves, lambs and goats” as the Law of Moses required, but they have not been pairing these sacrifices with the justice and mercy that God had demanded of them (Isaiah 1:11). And so God confronts them: “Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good” (1:16-17).

This is what a “thrown away” sacrifice looks like: an outward act of worship that doesn’t flow from a heart of gratitude for God’s goodness and a desire to be like him. It’s what happens when you’re just going through the motions in prayer, but your mind is somewhere else. It’s also what happens when your actions during the day don’t match up with your words in prayer. In the end, they become like that feeble baseball pitch—ineffective and easily batted away.

Think about the sacrifices you are making for the Lord: the time you are giving up to make it to Mass each weekend or the time you spend in daily prayer. Can you identify ways those sacrifices are moving you to live more like Jesus? Are there times when you catch yourself seeking the Lord halfheartedly in prayer? If you see a disconnect, ask the Lord to help you find a way to put more of your core—your heart and your soul—into it.

“Jesus, help me ‘learn to do good,’ both in my sacrifices for you and in the way I treat the people around me.”

Isaiah 1:10-17
Psalm 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23
Matthew 10:34–11:1