Meditation of July 7th "A contrite spirit is sacrifice to God"

A contrite spirit is sacrifice to God

David confessed: "I recognize my guilt" (Ps 50: 5). If I recognize, then you forgive. We do not assume at all that we are perfect and that our life is sinless. Praise be given to conduct that does not forget the need for forgiveness. Hopeless men, the less they look after their sins, the more they deal with those of others. In fact, they seek not what to correct, but what to blame. And since they cannot excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others. This is not the way to pray and implore forgiveness from God, taught to us by the psalmist, when he exclaimed: "I recognize my guilt, my sin is always before me" (Ps 50: 5). He did not pay attention to the sins of others. He cited himself, he did not show tenderness with himself, but he dug and penetrated more and more deeply into himself. He did not indulge in himself, and therefore prayed for forgiveness, but without presumption.
Do you want to be reconciled with God? Understand what you do with yourself, for God to reconcile with you. Pay attention to what you read in the same psalm: "You do not like sacrifice and, if I offer burnt offerings, you do not accept them" (Ps 50, 18). So will you remain without sacrifice? Will you have nothing to offer? With no offer can you appease God? What did you say? "You do not like sacrifice and, if I offer burnt offerings, you do not accept them" (Ps 50, 18). Go on, listen and pray: "A contrite spirit is sacrifice to God, a heart broken and humiliated, God, you do not despise" (Ps 50:19). After rejecting what you offered, you found what to offer. In fact, among the ancients you offered victims of the flock and were called sacrifices. "You don't like sacrifice": you no longer accept those past sacrifices, but you are looking for a sacrifice.
The psalmist says: "If I offer burnt offerings, you will not accept them." So since you don't like burnt offerings, will you be left without sacrifice? Never be. "A contrite spirit is sacrifice to God, a heart broken and humiliated, God, you do not despise" (Ps 50:19). You have the matter to sacrifice. Do not go in search of the flock, do not prepare boats to go to the most distant regions from where to bring perfumes. Seek in your heart what is pleasing to God. You must minutely break your heart. Are you afraid that he will perish because he is shattered? On the psalmist's mouth you find this expression: "Create in me, O God, a pure heart" (Ps 50:12). So the impure heart must be destroyed for the pure one to be created.
When we sin, we must feel sorry for ourselves, because sins feel sorry for God. And since we find that we are not sinless, at least in this we try to be similar to God: in feeling sorry for what displeases God. In some way you are united to the will of God, because you are sorry for what your Creator hates.