7. Mass ~ an Un-bloody Sacrifice

One way to speak of the Mass is to say it is Un-bloody Sacrifice.

• Making a sacrifice to a god is something we tend to associate with primitive people, living on a remote volcanic island.   Because we are aware that a volcano is simply a natural processes of our planet, we find such forms of sacrificial worship primitive: And when they involve the sacrifice of living human beings, we are horrified.  It is difficult for us to accept that such practices have anything to do with true religion.   Nevertheless, we must admit that Jesus’ death on the Cross had the character of a “sacrifice” to our God and Father since Jesus is referred to in the Gospels as “the Lamb of God.”
• The New Testament leads us to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the animal sacrifices practiced by Israel, and that He is the sacrifice which brings to an end all of those other sacrifices.  As it turns out, our religion does contain something which is like that primitive practice of “sacrificing to a god.”  We may ask,” Doesn’t a god who requires a sacrifice seem like a cruel and arbitrary god?”  “Why does our God need a sacrifice from us?”  “And, in what sense are we offering a sacrifice to God in our religion?”
• Within a Jewish and Christian point of view, a sacrifice is not the appeasement of an angry or arbitrary god.  We understand that our God loves us, and wants us to have life.
• Properly understood, a “sacrifice” is nothing less than a sacred declaration that God is Life itself! As the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists, our whole life and being depends on God . . . Apart from God we are nothing.
• One way Jesus helps us to understand the meaning of sacrifice is to tell us that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
• For an ancient Jew, it was a significant act of faith to sacrifice the best “lamb” of the flock, or the first wheat of the harvest:  By not keeping these vital sources of life for themselves, but rather offering them in the temple as “burnt offerings” or “blood offerings,” By offering their best to God the ancient Jews made a clear statement in their worship that God is God . . . God is Life.
• However, as we see in the history of Israel, such forms of sacrificial worship of God were subject to human pride and deceit.  They were often tainted by insincerity and disconnected from justice.  This fact make the prophets look forward to a day when God’s people would be able to offer a perfect sacrifice, (Mal.1:11).  But what would this perfect sacrifice be, and what would it look like?   In Catholic Christianity, we understand that it is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who fulfills this longing of the prophets for a perfect sacrifice.  Jesus gave his body and blood on the cross as a sacrifice which is perfect because his life perfectly corresponds to God, because he has come into the world from God’s own life.
• Moreover, Jesus made it so that, whenever we celebrate the Mass, the power of his sacrifice becomes truly present again, and by faith we offer it to God.  Jesus not only sacrificed his life for us, but he has provided us with the perfect sacrifice to offer our God in worship, thanksgiving, and praise. At the celebration of Mass, the sacrificial aspect is most evident when—on our behalf— the priest raises up the chalice of wine and the paten of bread, and looking up to heaven he says, “through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever.” This sacrifice does require that we live our lives accordingly, as Jesus teaches us: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” In a sense, we bring our personal sacrifices to Mass with us and join them to the perfect sacrifice Jesus has given us on our altar.  In this sense, we are a “priestly people” who sacrifice to the Lord our God.