Newsletter - April 2006

JESUS, THE PERFECT SACRIFICE

In the days of old, many sacrifices were offered to God by men.  We read in the Old Testament of the Patriarchs who used to erect a pile of stones, as a makeshift altar, and sacrificed their selected victims upon it. They did this especially after a meaningful event in their lives or for their clan, or after a divine revelation, or a victory over their enemies.  Later on, after the building of the Temple of Jerusalem, sacrifices were done only there and by the priests.  Usually these sacrifices were offered in thanksgiving for something that God had granted, or in expiation for sins committed, or as supplication in order to receive a grace.

In the Old Testament there were various and different sacrifices:
The holocaust, when the victim was entirely burnt, as a sign of total offering to God (Lev 1: 1?).

The sacrifice of atonement or reparation for sins, in order to be forgiven (Lev 4: 1?; 5: 14?).

The sacrifice of communion, when part of the victim was burnt, part was given to the priest, and part was eaten (Lev 3: 1?).

The sacrifice of praise, to remember the benefits received, or to remember the great deeds performed by God for the people of Israel (Lev 7: 12).

The sacrifice of cereals and vegetables , especially the first fruits.
The libation, when a beverage was offered, wine, oil, etc., often shed over the burning of an animal.

When the Roman army, in the year 70 A.D., destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple with it, the sacrifices ceased to exist.  Then the exhortations of the old prophets became true: a pure conscience, a contrite heart, the pursuit of good, obedience to God, were more acceptable to God than a thousand sacrifices.

Christians started to gather together, especially on the first day of the week, to speak about Jesus, to remember his life, his words, his miracles, and, above all, renewing ?the Lord Supper?, when he broke the bread with his apostles. This gathering and this renewal of what had happened in the Cenacle, was always considered a sacrifice. In fact, Jesus offered the bread, as his body, given up as an offering to God the Father; and he offered the wine, as his blood, shed for all. In Jesus? very words there is the meaning of sacrifice, where he is, at the same time, priest and victim.

This sacrifice of the new and eternal covenant, abolishes the sacrifices of old and remains the only one accepted by God.  The Letter to the Hebrews well explains this doctrine, when the author compares the ineffectiveness of the old sacrifices, with the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus: ?...he has no need to offer sacrifices every day, as the high priests do?: this he did once and for all by offering himself? (7: 27).

OUR LORD?S HEART

Take thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder.

It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open Christ?s sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture must be fulfilled: ?They shall look on him whom they pierced?. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from that secret abyss of our Lord?s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.

Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove that nests in a hole in the cliff, keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a home. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the well of your Saviour; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.

Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God?s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart.  O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal life! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time!  Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows the river which gladdens the city of God and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light.

(St. Bonaventure, Lignum Vitae)

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