Isaiah condemns empty rituals now replayed online

Isaiah condemns empty rituals now replayed online

The reading from Isaiah 1:10-17, which opens the gospel thread for Monday, July 13, contains one of the Old Testament's most radical denunciations of religious formalism: "Bring no more vain offerings… your solemn assemblies I hate." Yet that very passage is embedded in a perfectly structured digital ritual: the same header, the saint of the day, the homily by Father Santiago Martín, the Chaplet at 3 p.m. A performance that seems to defy the prophet.

Gospel in series mode: devotion or habit

The thread reproduces, without variation, the daily Catholic liturgy. The user who posts it acts as a lay officiant: copying the readings, adding the saint of the day and the homily, and closing with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. The replies are limited to morning greetings or, as in the case of CommiePig, glosses on the offering of a sincere heart. But the whole thing is a predictable machine, where content matters less than repetition.

The paradox the thread ignores

Isaiah does not attack worship itself, but the disconnect between ritual and social justice: "Seek justice, relieve the oppressed." In the thread, that call is buried under third-party quotes, thank-yous and links. The passage from the Apophthegmata of the Desert Fathers, brought in by Trófimo, points in the same direction: the spiritual life is not repetition but inner struggle. Yet the format conspires against the message.

Is this digitization of piety a new form of communal prayer or, as the prophet warns, a way of dodging real commitment? The thread does not answer: it carries on, faithful to its routine.