Lesson 3 - Sacrifice

We use words to express the thought that is in our minds. When we pray we use the words to express our sentiments of adoration. It is possible, however, to show what we mean by methods other than words. If a person frowns and turns his back on us we do not need words to tell us that he is displeased with us. When Friday placed Crusoe's foot on his neck, in the story, the castaway knew at once what the poor savage meant. Such actions we call signs or ceremonies. They bring home to us clearly and emphatically what words could express but faintly and weakly. They are especially common in the worship of God, because in speaking with God we naturally feel inclined to express our thoughts as thoroughly as we are able.

One of the commonest object lessons or ceremonies to express adoration is known as "sacrifice." Nothing makes such an impression on men as death. Even the gay and careless will turn grave and sad at the sight or even the thought of death. The highest power in the State is the power of life and death. No private person may use this power. Only the judges and the supreme executives are empowered by the law to exercise it. This mastery of life and death, of course, belongs to God in the last resort, and it is natural that we who are mortal men should somehow acknowledge it. "It is appointed unto man once to die." Moreover, for our personal sins we have deserved death many times. In order to manifest this truth, men of every race have been accustomed from the earliest times to use a ceremony or an object lesson called sacrifice. They offered a life to God. An animal was killed and its body burned to show by actions that speak louder than words that God is the master of life and death.

When animals such as oxen, sheep or goats were offered in sacrifice the killing was effected by the shedding of blood. Such a sacrifice was called a "bloody sacrifice." Sometimes the "victim," or the thing killed, was entirely burned, and the sacrifice was known as a "holocaust." At other times the principal parts were burned and the remainder of the victim furnished a meal to those who offered the sacrifice. The following is a summary of the regulations for a sacrifice among the ancient Hebrews.

"When any man among you offers an oblation to the Lord ye shall offer your oblation of the herd and of the flock. If his oblation be a holocaust, that is, a whole burnt offering, he shall offer a male with out blemish at the door of the tabernacle, that the Lord may be favorable to him. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the victim, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the calf before the Lord, and the priests shall put fire upon the altar and shall lay wood in order upon the fire. And they shall lay thereupon the head and the fat in order. But the vitals and the legs shall he wash with water, and the priest shall burn the whole upon the altar for a holocaust and a sweet savor to the Lord."

As we have said, the ceremony of sacrifice in some form or other was universal. It was used by the pagans as well as the Jews. The first book of the "Iliad" thus describes a sacrifice to Apollo, the Far-Darter:

"Anon, they set in order for the god, the holy tomb about his well-built altar; next washed they their hands and took up the barley meal. Then Chryses, the priest, lifted up his hands and prayed aloud for them, and Phoebus Apollo heard him. Now, when they had prayed and sprinkled the barley meal, first they drew back the victims heads, and slaughtered them, and flayed them, and cut slices from the thighs and wrapped them in fat, making a double fold, and laid raw collops thereon, and the priest burned them on cleft wood, and made libation over them of gleaming wine; and at his side the young men in their hands held five-pronged forks. Now, when the thighs were burned, and they had tasted the vitals, then sliced they all the rest, and pierced it through with spits, and roasted it carefully, and drew it all off again. So, when they had rest from the task and made ready the banquet, they feasted, nor was their heart aught stinted of the fair banquet. But when they had put away from them the desire of meat and drink, the young men crowned the bowls with wine, and gave each man his portion after the drink offering had been poured into cups. So all day long they worshiped the god with music, singing the beautiful paean, the sons of the Achaians making music to the Far-Darter; and his heart was glad to hear."

Besides animals, the fruits of the earth and the things that are made from the fruits of the earth, such as flour, oil and wine, were offered in sacrifice. Of course, plants have life and their products go to sustain life, and their destruction, therefore, can symbolize God's mastery of life and death, but the main idea connected with these sacrifices is gratitude or thanksgiving. God gives us the fruits of the earth, and we offer them to Him as an acknowledgment of His bounty. Thus, the Jews lifted up the first sheaf of the harvest to God "who is the Lord of the harvest." They offered the first fruits as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Such sacrifices are" called "unbloody sacrifices," "clean oblations," "eucharistic offerings." Eucharist is a Greek word which means giving thanks.

For every sacrifice three things are necessary a "priest," a "victim" and an "altar." The priest performs the rite. The victim is the object offered to God. The altar is the place on which the victim is offered. Formerly, altars were mounds, heaps of rocks or structures of hewn stones, but they were also made of wood and metal, and varied in shape from square to round. The following is the description of the altar used by the Israelites in the wilderness:

"He made also the altar of holocausts of setim-wood, five cubits square and three in height, the horns whereof went out from the corners, and he over laid it with plates of brass. And for the uses thereof he prepared divers vessels of brass, cauldrons, tongs, flesh-hooks, pot-hooks and fire-pans. And he made the altar grate of brass in the manner of a net, and under it in the midst of the altar a hearth. And he cast four rings for the four ends at the top of the net, and put in bars to carry it. These bars he made of setim-wood, and covered them with plates of brass, and drew them through the rings that stood out on the sides of the altar. And the altar itself was not solid, but hollow, made of boards and empty within." - Exodus 38

- taken from The Mass, by Father Peter Christopher Yorke