The Pinnacle of All Sacrifices

 Second Sunday of Lent Year B

The theme of sacrifice lies at the very heart of salvation history. One could, of course, summarise salvation history as the greatest love story ever told. But there can be no true love without sacrifice. There can be no true sacrifice if we cannot part with what we most love in life. From the start of this amazing story, we see God sacrificing His absolute sovereignty by granting to man the divine spark - his free will - the ability to reject God’s will and offer of love. Man lost everything (or almost everything) that had been given to him because he refused to sacrifice the one thing which God had given to him - his will in humble obedience. He had the freedom to submit to God and the freedom to disobey Him, and man chose the latter.

In a primordial age of innocence, when the taking of life whether by humans or animals (who were both vegans) was prohibited, God sacrificed the life of an animal to clothe both Adam and Eve. One could say that in this act, we do not just see a concern for the modesty of the first couple, but a sacrifice, albeit imperfect one, to redress the loss of innocence and immortality due to man’s sin. In this act, we can hear the distant rumblings of the perfect storm that will come when God sacrifices His only begotten Son to redress man’s sin. Subsequently, the tragedy of life taking, not as sacrifice, but done out of selfishness and envy continues in the killing of Abel by Cain. The sacrifice of Cain was rejected by God whereas Abel’s gift was accepted because Cain was unable to sacrifice his best to God whereas Abel could.

In the first reading, we see Abraham being told to sacrifice his first born son which was a gift from God. Isaac was Abraham’s last hope of ensuring that his legacy would not be forgotten. There is absolutely nothing more precious to Abraham than his son. Indeed, to give up his son would be to give up himself. And yet, this is what God had required of him and Abraham, though heartbroken, had willingly offered to sacrifice his son. But at the very last moment, God provides a substitute for his child. Isaac’s life is spared and the ram takes his place.

This is the true nature of a sacrifice to God. God deserves everything because He has given us everything. So ancient peoples instinctively knew that authentic sacrifice could never be just a casual nod to God. The sacrifice owed to the Creator had to be big and precious enough to represent our entire lives. And it is here that we find the true meaning of sacrifice. It is not what we can offer to God that can constitute the perfect sacrifice pleasing to Him because whatever we possess is already God’s gift to us. The truth is that we can offer nothing to God of ourselves that would be “big” enough. But the pinnacle of all sacrifices is what God had offered to us. He offered to us His only begotten Son.

That is why St Paul writes in the second reading, “Since God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that He will not refuse anything He can give.”

The compelling image of Isaac carrying the wood of the sacrifice up the slope of Mt. Moriah in the first reading should tip us off that this story points beyond itself to a future sacrifice beyond all comprehension. The ram caught in the thicket is not the true substitute, and the true sacrifice does not take place upon Moriah. It is the Lamb, not the ram, God’s Son, not Abraham’s son, who will be the ultimate offering. Like Isaac, Jesus carried the wood of the sacrifice up the slope of Mt. Calvary. But unlike Isaac, Jesus did so freely, knowing what that sacrifice would cost Him. And His sacrifice accomplishes what no animal sacrifice possibly could – the eternal salvation of all willing to accept this free gift of love.

Actually, this is what the whole story is about. From Genesis to Revelation, the theme is the astonishing love of God. The love of the Father for His Incarnate Word: “This is my Son, my Beloved” (Mark 9:7). The love of the Father who sacrifices that beloved Son for us (John 3:16). The love of the Son who leaves behind the glory of heaven and the brilliant cloud of Mt. Tabor for the agony of Calvary. Though it is we who owe everything to God, it is He who sacrifices everything for us. Our love for Him can only be a faint echo of His generous and unstoppable love for us.

This, therefore, is the true meaning of Lenten sacrifice. We renew and deepen our dedication to Him, and express that by sacrificing something meaningful to us. We should give Him not just our spare change, our left overs, our discarded possessions or our half-hearted commitments. He deserves so much more for what He has given us. He deserves our all. We can give Him our all by heeding the Father’s call in today’s gospel. Notice that God did not just demand from us something so trivial as giving up chocolates or Netflix or our favourite computer game. But, after identifying Jesus as His beloved Son, He did give us a very clear command. He said “listen to Him!” This is where Adam and Eve failed. They failed to listen to God’s command, to not eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They listened, instead, to their own pride and to the serpent’s lies, and the rest is history.

It is so simple and yet perhaps one of the most difficult things to do: to listen to Him, to the One who is the Beloved Son of God. And this is what we must do. This is what we hear at every Mass because the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the bloody sacrifice on the cross at Calvary transfigured.

Pope Francis in one of his Wednesday audience catechesis speaks of the sacrifice of the Mass in this fashion: “This is the Mass: entering into this passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus; when we go to Mass it is as if we were to go to Calvary, the same. But think: if we at the moment of Mass go to Calvary – let us think, using our imagination – we know that the man there is Jesus. But, do we permit ourselves to chatter, to take photographs, to treat it a little like a show? No! Because there is Jesus! We would certainly stay in silence, in tears and in the joy of being saved. When we enter in Church to celebrate Mass, let us think this: I enter Calvary, where Jesus gave His life for me. And in this way the spectacle disappears, the chatter disappears, the comments and these things which distance us from that beautiful thing that is the Mass, the triumph of Jesus.” At every Mass, we witness the greatest sacrifice of all - Jesus sacrifices His life on the cross and we hear the words of the Father at the transfiguration once again: “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to Him.”