Eucharist as Sacrifice

1. Introduction:

2. What is Sacrifice?

From a general survey of the elements found in all the different kinds of sacrifice we know of, we find that the most essential elements are the following three:

[1] The Victim and its Immolation. This refers to the ‘thing’ or ‘life’ that is offered in sacrifice. What is involved in sacrifice is the destruction of the sacrificial victim whose blood is then sprinkled or poured out. The significance of the blood, however, is slightly different in each of the three main kinds of sacrifices.
(a) In the Passover Sacrifice (Ex. 12), the blood of the Lamb is meant to obtain God’s protection over the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert into the Promised Land.
(b) The Covenant Sacrifice (Ex. 24:3-8 is not protective but unitive: it unites God and the human being in the closest possible manner.
(c) The Yom Kippur Sacrifice (Lev. 16) in which, as a result of a complex blood-sprinkling ceremony, the sins of both the officiating High Priest himself and of the people are forgiven. In this case forgiveness is the key point brought out by the blood that is shed.
[2] Oblation by the one sacrificing. In every sacrifice, a person offers something (a victim) to God as a symbol or carrier of his personal (or communitarian) devotion, surrender and desire for communion.
[3] Acceptance by God. God accepts the victim (and with it the offerer whom it represents) into a deep, personal communion with himself. Whatever the form in which divine acceptance is expressed, the same objective is invariably achieved: a manifestation that God is pleased with the offering (and offerer/s), or that the sacrifice is agreeable to him.

The thrust of every Sacrifice, then, is to unite the offerer with God by means of a victim whose role is only symbolic, for its destruction signifies the total surrender of the offerer into the hands of God.

3. Important Conditions

Fundamental to Old Testament thinking is the clear witness to one of the basic points of a mature theology of sacrifice: what really counts is not so much the material size or economic value of the offering as the dispositions of the offerer.

Later the theology of acceptance underwent a further development of great importance for the Christian theology of sacrifice. Sacrifice came to be looked on less and less as the ritual performance of an external act. Rather, it was seen more as an act of obedience to the will of Yahweh. We are all familiar with the expression: “What I want is obedience, not sacrifice,” which is used more than once in the Bible. (See 1 Sam. 15:22; Ps. 40:6; Hos. 6:6; 8:13:9:4; Amos 5:22; Isa. 1:11; Jer. 6:20; Mic. 6:7 also Ps. 51:17.) The root of this gradual but significant shift in understanding, of course, was the experience of the Babylonian exile. There the exiles had no possibility of offering a sacrifice as we read in the prophet Daniel (3:37-41).

So, in this contrite and humble frame of mind, the exiles increasingly had recourse to the Berrakah or ‘Prayer of Praise’ in which they blessed God for all that happened in their lives. This kind of prayer was based on obedience to and acceptance of God’s will. And they were required to make such prayers of praise at least a hundred times each day, with the result that it came to be called a ‘sacrifice’ of praise. It was the easiest yet surest way of maintaining an effective contact with God. Thus, almost out of necessity they embarked on a process of spiritualization of the idea of sacrifice.

The culminating point of this process of spiritualization would be the deep conviction that observance of the law and other acts of piety, notably the praying of the Berrakah, could be considered as having the same religious value as a cultic sacrifice. This was especially true when, for example, in the diaspora or at Qumran, they could not participate in the sacrifices officially offered in Jerusalem. This prayer of praise not only made it possible for Judaism to survive the loss of its Temple; it also established a theological principle by which Christians later could look upon the various aspects of Christian living, as sacrificial. Thus, St. Paul would later admonish the Christians at Rome: “I appeal to you … to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1-2).

3. Eucharist as Sacrifice

What is important in the Eucharist as sacrifice, is not the sufferings of Jesus primarily, as his loving obedience to the Father’s will … the Resurrection is the positive sign of the Father’s acceptance … for us too then, the Eucharist must express our readiness to surrender to God’s will … to break of ourselves in favour of our needy neighbour …

What is the evidence of new risen life in us as a result of our ‘sacrifice’? Joy, peace, contentment, fellowship, unity, love, generosity … definite changes in our approach to life and to others … (see Gal. 5:22-23).

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