Overview:

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

A Reflection for Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

“It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.” 

Find today’s readings here.

A few days ago I saw an Instagram reel featuring college students answering the seemingly simple question, “What are you giving up for Lent?”

The answers were fairly typical: chips, ice cream, social media, soda, etc.

This is how we often think about Lent, highlighting the things we’ll give up, the sacrifices we’ll make. We do this in hopes that leaving these things behind will make more space for God, that we will focus our newfound attention and time on our relationship with God, delving into a richer prayer life and tending to our spiritual needs. It was with this understanding of Lent in mind that I read today’s responsorial psalm: “It is not sacrifice that I desire, but mercy.”

So, what does that mean? 

Pope Leo explained recently that fasting “helps us to identify and order our ‘appetites,’ keeping our hunger and thirst for justice alive and freeing us from complacency. It teaches us to pray and act responsibly towards our neighbor.” 

For me, the psalm means that God is less concerned with what we give up and more concerned with what we do—how we love one another and how our hearts are transformed. If our fasting does not make space for greater compassion, if our sacrifices do not lead us to greater empathy and then action, we may run the risk of betraying the warnings here: participating in religious practices while our relationships and hearts remain hardened, unchanged. 

Mercy is relational; it cannot be lived out in the way God desires in solitude. We practice this mercy in community, in loving our neighbors, showing patience with our families and remaining attentive to the needs of those around us. Mercy begs us to see people not as annoyances or burdens, but as beloved members of the human family. They can lead us into deeper relationships and, through them, the important and vital practice of mercy. And perhaps that reframes the question we so often ask during Lent. Instead of only asking “What are you giving up?” perhaps we may also ask: How will this help me grow in mercy? How will this help me love others more fully?

Kat O’Loughlin is grant manager at America Media.