Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput V: De sacrificiis, quae deus non requirit, sed ad significationem eorum offerri uoluit, quae requirit.

Quis autem ita desipiat, ut existimet aliquibus usibus dei esse necessaria, quae in sacrificiis offeruntur? quod cum multis locis diuina scriptura testetur, ne longum faciamus, breue illud de psalmo commemorare suffecerit: dixi domino, deus meus es tu, quoniam bonorum meorum non eges. non solum igitur pecore uel qualibet alia re corruptibili atque terrena, sed ne ipsa quidem iustitia hominis deus egere credendus est, totumque quod recte colitur deus homini prodesse, non deo. neque enim fonti se quisquam dixerit consuluisse, si biberit; aut luci, si uiderit. nec quod ab antiquis patribus alia sacrificia facta sunt in uictimis pecorum, quae nunc dei populus legit, non facit, aliud intellegendum est, nisi rebus illis eas res fuisse significatas, quae aguntur in nobis, ad hoc ut inhaereamus deo et ad eundem finem proximo consulamus. sacrificium ergo uisibile inuisibilis sacrificii sacramentum, id est sacrum signum est. unde ille paenitens apud prophetam uel ipse propheta quaerens deum peccatis suis habere propitium: si uoluisses, inquit, sacrificium, dedissem utique; holocaustis non delectaberis. sacrificium deo spiritus contribulatus; cor contritum et humiliatum deus non spernet. intueamur quemadmodum, ubi deum dixit nolle sacrificium, ibi deum ostendit uelle sacrificium. non uult ergo sacrificium trucidati pecoris, sed uult sacrificium contriti cordis. illo igitur quod eum nolle dixit, hoc significatur, quod eum uelle subiecit. sic itaque illa deum nolle dixit, quomodo ab stultis ea uelle creditur, uelut suae gratia uoluptatis. nam si ea sacrificia quae uult - quorum hoc unum est: cor contritum et humiliatum dolore paenitendi - nollet eis sacrificiis significari, quae uelut sibi delectabilia desiderare putatus est: non utique de his offerendis in lege uetere praecepisset. et ideo mutanda erant opportuno certoque iam tempore, ne ipsi deo desiderabilia uel certe in nobis acceptabilia, ac non potius quae his significata sunt crederentur. hinc et alio loco psalmi alterius: si esuriero, inquit, non dicam tibi; meus est enim orbis terrae et plenitudo eius. numquid manducabo carnes taurorum aut sanguinem hircorum potabo? tamquam diceret: utique si mihi essent necessaria, non a te peterem, quae habeo in potestate. deinde subiungens quid illa significent: immola, inquit, deo sacrificium laudis et redde altissimo uota tua et inuoca me in die tribulationis, et eripiam te et magnificabis me. item apud alium prophetam: in quo, inquit, adprehendam dominum, adsumam deum meum excelsum? si adprehendam illum in holocaustis, in uitulis anniculis? si acceptauerit dominus in milibus arietum aut in denis milibus hircorum pinguium? si dedero primogenita mea inpietatis, fructum uentris mei pro peccato animae meae? si adnuntiatum est tibi, homo, bonum? aut quid dominus exquirat a te nisi facere iudicium et diligere misericordiam et paratum esse ire cum domino deo tuo? et in huius prophetae uerbis utrumque distinctum est satisque declaratum illa sacrificia per se ipsa non requirere deum, quibus significantur haec sacrificia, quae requirit deus. in epistula, quae inscribitur ad Hebraeos: bene facere, inquit, et communicatores esse nolite obliuisci; talibus enim sacrificiis placetur deo. ac per hoc ubi scriptum est: misericordiam uolo quam sacrificium nihil aliud quam sacrificium sacrificio praelatum oportet intellegi; quoniam illud, quod ab omnibus appellatur sacrificium, signum est ueri sacrificii. porro autem misericordia uerum sacrificium est; unde dictum est, quod paulo ante commemoraui: talibus enim sacrificiis placetur deo. quaecumque igitur in ministerio tabernaculi siue templi multis modis de sacrificiis leguntur diuinitus esse praecepta, ad dilectionem dei et proximi significando referuntur. in his enim duobus praeceptis, ut scriptum est, tota lex pendet et prophetae.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 5.--Of the Sacrifices Which God Does Not Require, But Wished to Be Observed for the Exhibition of Those Things Which He Does Require.

And who is so foolish as to suppose that the things offered to God are needed by Him for some uses of His own? Divine Scripture in many places explodes this idea. Not to be wearisome, suffice it to quote this brief saying from a psalm: "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God: for Thou needest not my goodness." ¹ We must believe, then, that God has no need, not only of cattle, or any other earthly and material thing, but even of man's righteousness, and that whatever right worship is paid to God profits not Him, but man. For no man would say he did a benefit to a fountain by drinking, or to the light by seeing. And the fact that the ancient church offered animal sacrifices, which the people of God now-a-days read of without imitating, proves nothing else than this, that those sacrifices signified the things which we do for the purpose of drawing near to God, and inducing our neighbor to do the same. A sacrifice, therefore, is the visible sacrament or sacred sign of an invisible sacrifice. Hence that penitent in the psalm, or it may be the Psalmist himself, entreating God to be merciful to his sins, says, "If Thou desiredst sacrifice, I would give it: Thou delightest not in whole burnt-offerings. The sacrifice of God is a broken heart: a heart contrite and humble God will not despise." ² Observe how, in the very words in which he is expressing God's refusal of sacrifice, he shows that God requires sacrifice. He does not desire the sacrifice of a slaughtered beast, but He desires the sacrifice of a contrite heart. Thus, that sacrifice which he says God does not wish, is the symbol of the sacrifice which God does wish. God does not wish sacrifices in the sense in which foolish people think He wishes them, viz., to gratify His own pleasure. For if He had not wished that the sacrifices He requires, as, e.g., a heart contrite and humbled by penitent sorrow, should be symbolized by those sacrifices which He was thought to desire because pleasant to Himself, the old law would never have enjoined their presentation; and they were destined to be merged when the fit opportunity arrived, in order that men might not suppose that the sacrifices themselves, rather than the things symbolized by them, were pleasing to God or acceptable in us. Hence, in another passage from another psalm, he says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" ³ as if He should say, Supposing such things were necessary to me, I would never ask thee for what I have in my own hand. Then he goes on to mention what these signify: "Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me." ⁴ So in another prophet: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Hath He showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" ⁵ In the words of this prophet, these two things are distinguished and set forth with sufficient explicitness, that God does not require these sacrifices for their own sakes, and that He does require the sacrifices which they symbolize. In the epistle entitled "To the Hebrews" it is said, "To do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." ⁶ And so, when it is written, "I desire mercy rather than sacrifice," ⁷ nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another; for that which in common speech is called sacrifice is only the symbol of the true sacrifice. Now mercy is the true sacrifice, and therefore it is said, as I have just quoted, "with such sacrifices God is well pleased." All the divine ordinances, therefore, which we read concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbor. For "on these two commandments," as it is written, "hang all the law and the prophets." ⁸