Luke 9:11b - 17
When I was learning my catechism in grade school, I learned that the Mass was the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary. I understood “unbloody”. I knew about Calvary. But I had a very limited appreciation of sacrifice. To me, sacrifice meant giving up candy for lent. But if you read the Old Testament or have a little knowledge of world history, you know that human beings have always been sacrificing something to God. And in this sense, sacrifice is not giving up candy, it’s destroying a possession as a sign that you are offering something of value to God. Once destroyed, you and no one else can ever use it again.
We read in Genesis that Cain and Abel offered sacrifices; Abel’s was accepted, Cain’s was not. It doesn’t say how they knew or why. Noah offers sacrifice when the flood recedes as a way of thanking God. Abraham offers his son to God, but an angel restrains him from putting his son to death and a ram caught in bushes is substituted. And on and on it goes, down to the time of Christ and beyond. Joseph and Mary offer two pigeons in the temple ritual as a way of buying back their first-born, who according to Jewish law, belongs to God.
It’s a natural human instinct. Buddhists, Shinto, Hindu and Confucionist religions all have sacrifices – sometimes it's incense, a flower, or some delicacy made by human hands. Muslims, at least some, offer animal sacrifices, causing no little anger among their neighbors when they do this from their balconies in European cities.
One of the4 main reasons the Israelites offered sacrifices was because it was a reminder of the seriousness of sin. It was felt that God accepted the animal’s death instead of that of the sinner. Sacrifices for sin were so common in Jesus’; time that it was said blood ran from the temple into the valley below.
We Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus, and that the bread and wine no longer exist after the consecration. Of course not all Christians, or unfortunately even not all Catholics, believe this. We talk about the Eucharist as heavenly food, as food for the soul and the body – but Jesus can enter the soul if he wants, right? According to the gospel of John, Jesus promised that he and the father would make their dwelling in those who love him and keep his word. Doesn’t say anything about the Eucharist. Of course Jesus did say that “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you cannot have life in you.” resulting in the turning away of many of his followers. But later he said, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail”. And we certainly know of many very holy people who seem to get by just fine without participating in the Eucharist.
But I think there is another reason for holding on to the doctrine of transubstantiation, the teaching that the Eucharist becomes the real presence of Jesus. It has to do with sacrifice, sacrifice for sin.
If you had been an Israelite around the time of Christ, not all sacrifice ended with the destruction of the victim. After a while, people began to see the actual taking of the life of the animal as the focus of the sacrifice. In the book of Genesis, it says that God really liked the odor of the sacrifice that Noah offered. That is a pretty primitive idea, and we can see that as time went on the people’s idea of God changed from that primitive conception to something far more sophisticated; from the vengeful tyrant of a God who killed people for even a slight mistake to a God who loved the people enough to forgive them over and over, and never leave them. And the notion of sacrifice changed as well; once the life was taken from the sacrificial animal, its destruction could be by ritual consumption. Even though the Jews no longer sacrifice animals, in the Passover Seder in Jesus’ time the meat would often come from an animal offered in the temple.
Do we humans need to sacrifice to God? We are still sinners, like our ancestors in faith, the Jewish people. And of course if we didn’t then there would have been no reasons for Jesus to sacrifice himself for us. So what can I offer to God in thanksgiving for all he has done for me? What can I offer to make up for my sins, which are many, and even if small, still are great because of whom I offend? The answer is, The Father gives us the Son to be our sacrifice, and we offer this sacrifice when we consume his body and blood.
In the olden days, it was more apparent that the Mass was a sacrifice. The priest faced the tabernacle – where God was, and led the people. The Eucharistic prayer was clearly a prayer of sacrifice. Participation by the people was elicited when the priest turned and spoke to the congregation, who would reply in the person of the altar servers. And then, when God had given his son to us in the bread and wine, we would consume his flesh and blood. To consume a symbol would have nothing to do with a real sacrifice. And to consume the Son is to join in the sacrifice of Calvary.
No comments:
Post a Comment