Sacrifice

Sacrifice

All through history, human beings have known about the worth of Sacrifice. A mother has always been willing to go without some of her own food – or all of it – to ensure her children were fed. The hunters and farmers surely knew that to be fit for the job, they had to diet and exercise to make themselves fit for the chase. And a warrior has always known he might need to sacrifice his own life in the protection of the Tribe.

But there has always been another kind: sacrifice to God or the gods. It is very interesting that the word ‘sacrifice’ comes from the Latin for “Make holy”. that is its true meaning. [sacer - sacred; facere – to make]

Every culture has had some tradition of sacrificing to the gods. Yet they didn’t love the gods: they just felt that it was necessary to placate them, to please them, so that they would send good luck or protect from harm. In Greece and Rome it was taken absolutely seriously as a civic duty. It was not just fear: I think they had some intuition that justice is done when we give thanks for the gifts of life by a sacrifice. And the victim, by being dedicated to the gods, became holy by that action.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans: would sacrifice an animal – the best of the flock or herd. Part would be burned as the offering to the gods; then the rest would become part of a great feast, with singing, dancing and even athletic games. They were happy because they had honoured the gods once again.

Many pagan tribes practised: Human Sacrifice. Often it was the most beautiful girls or the most handsome young men. The clear idea was: the more valuable the sacrifice, the more likely it would placate the gods. Some pagan civilisations made it a major pre-occupation. The Aztecs believed that the sun would stop shining if the gods were not given an endless supply of fresh human blood. They enslaved whole tribes just to keep up the supply.

The Hebrews, at the First Passover, on the night of the Tenth Plague – the Death of the Firstborn – sacrificed the Lamb Without Blemish, and smeared the blood on the doorpost, so that the angel would “pass over” that family.

The Catholic understanding of Sacrifice is that we give up something good as an offering to the Blessed Trinity. We believe it to be the Will of God the Father that many Graces will be given, but only on condition that we take a first step. This step is normally by prayer or sacrifice. We talk about doing Penance, Fasting & Abstinence, and the Sacrifice of Christ Himself.

There are those who abstain from alcohol because they think it is bad. But in the psalms, praise is given to God ‘who made wine to cheer men’s hearts’. the Catholic attitude is shown by the Pioneers – who abstain from alcohol, not because it is bad, but because it is good. Their sacrifice is made to draw down God’s Grace to help those too weak to avoid excess.

Some religions have condemned married love as something bad, and so their holy men abstain from marriage. But Catholic Priests and Religious: – abstain from human marital love and family joys and ties in the full belief that marriage, and the love between man and woman, is a great good, blessed by God. But there is a higher good, to those whom God calls: to sacrifice the particular loves and responsibilities of a human family give all their love to Him directly, so that their family can be the whole human race. The married man or woman is an expert in one family: the sacrifice of the priest allows him to have the personal wisdom that comes from knowing hundreds of different home situations. The parent must always put his own children first. But the religious have no such divided loyalties. The nun is Everybody’s sister. The priest has no personal stake in any particular family. And they are given this special Grace after they sacrifice ‘particular’ loves as an offering to God.

Many pagans practised human sacrifice. When the Hebrews entered the Holy Land at first they too took this practice from their neighbours. But God told them through the prophets: “This is something I never asked, nor did it enter into My Mind”. Yet God the Son said, “Any sacrificing that is necessary, I will do it Myself”. God the Father said, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”.

Jesus on Calvary: is The Ultimate Sacrifice. We are “saved by the Blood of the Lamb – the Lamb of God.

In the Pagan days, the Sacrifice was killed, and then eaten: either fed to the god by burning, or in the Feast of the worshippers.

The Body of Christ is our Food from Heaven.

Are we giving something to God? When we receive Our Lord at Mass and then go out “to love and serve the Lord” in our neighbour, then yes, we are. God explained this to S. Catherine of Siena, “You realise that you cannot, by yourself, give Me anything: I have already given you all you have, starting with your very existence. But that is why I have given you your neighbour. When he is unkind and ungrateful to you and you do him a kindness even then, for My sake as I asked, then you truly give something to Me and I accept it as a true Gift to Myself.”