This brings us to a conclusion on another matter of great importance. The observances regarding sacrifices, sabbaths, new moons, and all such things prescribed by the Jewish way of life of that day—they are not essential. Even when they were observed they could make no great contribution to virtue; nor when neglected could they make the excellent person worthless or degrade in any way the sanctity of his soul. People of old, while still on earth, manifested by their piety a way of life that rivals the way the angels live. Yet they followed none of these observances, they slew no beasts in sacrifice, they kept no fast, they made no display of fasting. They were so pleasing to God that they surpassed this fallen human nature of ours and, by the lives they lived, drew the whole world to a knowledge of God.
I am pierced by one wound and tortured with much grief, the bond of bitterness does not permit the tongue to perform its function, and it is easier to weep than to talk. Lo, one affliction comes upon another affliction and contrition upon contrition, “as if a man were to flee from a lion, and a bear should meet him,” or howl at being struck by a scorpion, “and a snake should bite him,” so completely am I dejected and afflicted with the misery of sorrow. I confess, madam, that every time I try to write to you about the passing of our lady Basilla of blessed memory, I am overcome with bitterness and experience a dullness in my mind, a heaviness in my sense and slowness in my tongue, because while I was occupied with grief, my mind was moved by death.
According to Jeremiah, “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to you fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And we hear similarly through Isaiah, “ ‘To what purpose do you bring me a multitude of sacrifices?’ says the Lord. ‘I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and I will not accept the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and of goats. Nor do you come and appear before me; for who has required these things at your hands? Do not go on to tread my courts any more. If you bring me fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination unto me; your new moons, and your sabbaths, and your great day, I cannot bear them. Your fasts, and your rests, and your feasts, my soul hates them; I am overfull of them.’ ” And he says by another: “Depart from me; the sound of your hymns, and the psalms of your musical instruments, I will not hear.” And Samuel says to Saul, when he thought to sacrifice: “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of rams. For, behold, the Lord does not so much delight in sacrifice as in obeying him.”
What shall I say to those who worship Astarate or Chemosh, the abomination of the Sidions, or the likeness of a star, a god a little above them to these idolaters, but yet a creature and a piece of workmanship, when I myself either do not worship two of those into whose united name I am baptized, or else worship my fellow servants, for they are fellow servants, even if a little higher in the scale; for differences must exist among fellow servants.
(Verse 23) Take away from me the tumult of your songs, and I will not listen to the music of your harp. LXX: Take away from me the sound of your songs, and I will not listen to the melody of your instruments. Beautiful songs of the Levites, with which they praised God, he calls tumult and confused sound, because there is no beautiful praise in the mouth of a sinner, and they were accustomed to offer these same things to idols as well (Eccles. 15). The prayer and psalms of the Jews, which they sing in the synagogues, is a composed praise of heretics to the Lord, and, if I may say so, the grunts of their own and the braying of donkeys, whose songs are more comparable to the works of the Israelites. But receive psalms and songs, lyre and organs, either literally understood among the people of Israel, which were once made in the image of things to come, or spiritually understood in us and in heretics, which are heard by the Lord if we direct them with good works; if with evil, He closes His ears and does not deign to hear the songs of the wicked.
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Amos 5:20-24