Chapter — Koch–Preuss
Chapter I: Sacrifice
- SACRIFICE AS A RELIGIOUS ACT.—Sacrifice (oblatio, sacrificium) is an element of natural religion that is as old as humanity itself. It is an essential part of divine worship and, together with prayer and adoration, constitutes the most ancient and universal form of latria.
Broadly speaking, a sacrifice is a religious act by which we segregate a material gift from the rest of our possessions and alter it for the purpose of relinquishing its use and returning it to God.
Every sacrifice is inspired by the conviction that we are indebted to God for whatever we are and possess and by the intention of showing Him the homage and reverence due Him.1
1 St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 85, art. 1: “Natural reason dictates to man that he should be subject to some superior because of the defects which he feels in himself, in which he needs to be assisted and directed by some superior; and whatever that may be, this is what among all is called God. Just as in natural things inferiors are naturally subject to superiors, so also natural reason dictates to man, according to his natural inclination, that he should exhibit sub- jection and honor, according to his manner, to that which is above man. Now it is a manner suited to man that he use sensible signs to express certain things, because he receives knowledge from sensible things. And therefore it proceeds from natural reason that man should use certain sensible things, offering them to God as a sign of due subjection and honor, after the likeness of those who offer certain things to their lords in acknowledgment of dominion. But this belongs to the nature of sacrifice. And therefore the offering of sacrifice belongs to the natural law.”
Sacrifices therefore, can be offered only to God, to whom man owes his being and in whom he has his last end.2
2 St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. X, c. 4: “Of those things which belong to the service of religion by which God is worshipped, there is surely no man who would dare to say that sacrifice is owed to any but God.” (Migne, P. L., XLI, 281).—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 85, art. 2: “The offering of sacrifice is made to signify something. Now the sacrifice offered outwardly signifies the inward spiritual sacrifice by which the soul offers itself to God (Ps. L, 19), because outward acts of religion are ordered to inward acts. But the soul offers itself to God in sacrifice as to the principle of its creation and as to the end of its beatification.... And therefore, just as we owe the offering of spiritual sacrifice to the supreme God alone, so also to Him alone ought we to offer outward sacrifices.” Cfr. 1a 2ae, qu. 102, art. 3.
The primary and essential object of sacrifice is the acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion over His creatures. Since the Fall there is also a secondary object, namely, to appease the divine wrath. This secondary object, though in itself purely accidental, has become inseparable from the notion of sacrifice in consequence of the sin of our first parents.3
3 Pohle-Preuss, The Sacraments, Vol. II, p. 287.
“Man has need of sacrifice for three reasons,” says St. Thomas. “First, to obtain forgiveness of his sins, which separate him from God.... Secondly, in order that he may persevere in the state of grace by always adhering to God.... Thirdly, that his soul may be perfectly united with God.”4
4 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 22, art. 2: “Man has need of sacrifice for three reasons: first, to obtain remission of sin, by which he is turned away from God.... Secondly, that man may be preserved in the state of grace, always adhering to God.... Thirdly, for this, that the spirit of man may be perfectly united with God.”
That the human race was always conscious of being in a state of grievous sin, appears from the fact that precious objects, such as the blood of beasts, and even of men, were offered as sacrifices to God at a very early date. Human sacrifices were no doubt a terrible aberration, but they clearly indicate that even before Christ appeared on earth, man felt that he could atone for his guilt only by sacrificing himself or his fellowmen.5
5 A. Stöckl, Das Opfer nach seinem Wesen und seiner Geschichte, Mayence 1861; A. H. H. Kamphausen, Das Verhältnis des Menschenopfers zur israelitischen Religion, Leipsic 1896; E. Mader, Die Menschenopfer der alten Hebräer, Freiburg 1909.
The acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion over His creatures culminates in adoration; the effort to appease His wrath centres in contrite expiation, for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness of sin. Hence the distinction between sacrifices of praise and sacrifices of propitiation. And since man is indebted for many benefits to God, sacrifices have the additional purpose of thanksgiving and petition.
The imperfect sacrifices of the Old Testament were merely types foreshadowing the one perfect sacrifice of the New Dispensation, which was offered by Jesus Christ upon the Cross. “Being in themselves imperfect and inefficacious,” says Pohle, “the sacrifices of the Levites could effect ‘a legal cleansing of the flesh,’ but no remis- sion of sins. Their very insufficiency made them prophetic types of the perfect sacrifice of the New Law. If sins were forgiven in the Old Testament, it was not by the blood of goats or calves, but by the blood of the promised Redeemer. Hence the variety of the Levitic sacrifices and their incessant repetition. They were mere types, expressing the constant need of propitiation through the bloody sacrifice of the Cross.”6
6 Pohle-Preuss, The Sacraments, Vol. II, pp. 291 sq.
Hence sacrifice may be adequately defined as the external offering of a sensible gift, which is destroyed, or at least submitted to an appropriate transformation, by an authorized minister, in recognition of God’s supreme dominion and in order to appease His anger.7
7 Op. cit., p. 286.—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 85, art. 3, ad 2: “Man’s good is threefold. The first is the good of the soul, which is offered to God in a certain interior sacrifice through devotion and prayer and other interior acts of this kind, and this is the principal sacrifice. The second is the good of the body, which in a certain way is offered to God through martyrdom and abstinence or continence. The third is the good of external things, concerning which a sacrifice is offered to God, directly indeed when we immediately offer our possessions to God, but mediately when we communicate them to our neighbors for God’s sake.”—Ibid., ad 3: “Sacrifices are properly so called when something is done to things offered to God, as animals were killed and burned, and bread is broken and eaten and blessed. And the name itself signifies this, for sacrifice is so called from the fact that man makes something sacred. But an oblation is directly so called when something is offered to God, even if nothing is done to it, as coins or loaves are said to be offered on the altar, concerning which nothing is done. Hence every sacrifice is an oblation, but the converse is not true.”—Cfr. qu. 86, art. 1; 1a 2ae, qu. 102, art. 3; 3a, qu. 22, art. 2; qu. 48, art. 3, where St. Thomas says: “Sacrifice is properly said of something done in the honor properly due to God in order to appease Him.”
There is but one such sacrifice under the New Dispensation, namely, the perfect sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ. “By one oblation he hath per- fected for ever them that are sanctified.”8
8 Heb. X, 14.—St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. XVIII, c. 20, n. 2: “For by all the sacrifices and oblations [of the Old Testament] His [Christ’s] body is offered and is ministered to the participants.” (Migne, P. L., XLI, 556).
“Christ,” says St. Thomas, “in His human capacity, as man, was not only a priest, but also a perfect gift or victim, i. e., a sacrificial gift for sin, a peace offering, and a burnt offering.”9
9 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 22, art. 2: “Christ Himself, inasmuch as He was man, was not only a priest, but also a perfect victim, being at once a victim for sin, a peace offering, and a holocaust.”
His whole life was a continuous sacrifice of humiliation and self-abasement (exinanitio),10 which reached its climax when He died on the Cross.11 It is by this supreme act that He redeemed the human race from sin.
10 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Christology, pp. 95 sqq.
This sacrifice is continued in the Mass, which is intrinsically and essentially a representation and commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross,12 the pivot and centre of Catholic worship, and the only liturgical act in which every member of the Church is in duty bound to participate at regular intervals.
12 Pohle-Preuss, The Sacraments, Vol. II, pp. 332 sqq.—Conc. Lateran. IV, c. 1: “In which [the Church] the same One is both priest and sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the appearances of bread and wine.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiridion, n. 430).—Conc. Trident., Sess. 22, c. 1, can. 1–4.—N. Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, 4th ed., St. Louis 1914.—J. Grimault, La Doctrine de la Sainte Messe, Paris 1905.—For additional literature on the Mass see Pohle-Preuss, The Sacraments, Vol. II, pp. 273 sq.
Sacred Scripture censures the heathen, not because they offered sacrifices, but because they sacrificed to idols instead of to the one true God, and says their sacrifices were rejected because they were inspired by a wrong intention and therefore could not be pleasing to God. To perform acts of external worship without due regard to the moral law of nature, is not to honor God, but to dishonor Him.13
13 1 Kings XV, 22; Ps. XXXIX, 7; L, 18; Os. VI, 6; Am. V, 21–27; Mich. VI, 6 sqq.; Is. I, 10–17; Matt. IX, 13; 1 Cor. X, 19 sq.; Heb. X, 5.—M. Wiener, Die Anschauungen der Propheten von der Sittlichkeit, Berlin 1909.
- THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SACRIFICE.—Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for men, and spiritual self-immolation is the essence and climax of every Christian’s life. External gifts, even though they consist of the very life-blood of the giver, are worthless if unaccompanied by interior contrition and penitence. To participate in the benefits of the Redemption, the individual must add to the objective sacrifice offered once for all by Jesus Christ on the Cross, a subjective and interior sacrifice, by entering into and adopting as his own the intention and purpose for which our Lord laid down His life.14
14 Gen. IV, 4; 1 Cor. XI, 26; XIII, 1–8.
This interior union with the sacrificial intention of Christ may manifest itself in various external acts, which are called sacrifices in a figurative sense, but partake of the true sacrificial character only in so far as they are consciously referred to the Sacrifice of the Cross.
In this sense, sacrifice consists in humbly sub- mitting to the will of God and patiently accepting the sufferings and tribulations of everyday life, which are not inappropriately called the “daily cross” of the Christian believer.
If one has this disposition, it is not sinful for him to wish conditionally that a certain thing may or may not happen in some particular case,15 and the expressions of pain or impatience that sometimes escape the lips of even pious persons, when sorely tried, are signs of weakness rather than sins. Resignation to God’s will is a duty, and to refuse it deliberately, or wilfully to entertain feelings of positive repugnance, is a mortal sin.
15 Matt. XVI, 24; XXVI, 38 sq.; Luke XXIV, 27; Heb. XII, 1 sq.
The sacrificial intention which every Christian must harbor in his soul manifests itself, secondly, in voluntary works of self-denial and humiliation, submission to the will of God, abstention from licit pleasures, in various works of mercy, and, generally, in doing good. These are all sacrifices acceptable to God, provided they come from a pure, or at least from a contrite heart, and are inspired by charity for one’s fellowmen.
One of the noblest sacrifices a man can offer to God is a meek and grateful disposition even in adversity. The verbal manifestation of this disposition has fittingly been called the language of the Saints and it ought to be in the mouth of every Christian without exception.16
16 Tob. II, 10, 14; Matt. V, 23 sqq.; Eph. IV, 2; V, 20; Col. III, 15, 17; 1 Thess. V, 18.—St. Jerome, Comment. in Epist. ad Ephes., l. III, c. 5.
The oft-repeated dictum: It is the Mass that matters! was coined by Augustine Birrell, a Baptist. “The Mass,” he says, “is a mystery so tremendous, so profoundly attractive, so intimately associated with the keystone of the Christian faith, so vouched for by the testimony of Saints ... If the Incarnation be indeed the one divine event to which the whole creation moves, the miracle of the altar may well seem its restful shadow cast over a dry and thirsty land, for the help of man who is apt to be discouraged if perpetually told that everything really important and interesting happened once for all, long ago, in a chill, historic past. It is the Mass that matters. It is the Mass that makes the difference, so hard to define—so subtle is it, yet so perceptible—between a Catholic country and a Protestant one, between Dublin and Edinburgh, between Havre and Cromer.”17
17 Nineteenth Century, Apr., 1896; quoted by H. T. Henry, Catholic Customs and Symbols, N. Y. 1925, pp. 133 sq.
On the duty of attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, on Sundays and holydays of obligation, see infra, pp. 336 sqq.
READINGS.—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 85–87.—F. X. Linsenmann, Lehrbuch der Moraltheologie, Freiburg 1904, pp. 325 sqq.—J. B. Wirthmüller, Die moralische Tugend der Religion, Freiburg 1881, pp. 478 sqq.—Pohle-Preuss, The Sacraments, Vol. II, pp. 277 sqq.