THERE is no mistaking about this. If we study our
Christian faith, it
is quite clear that our life ought to be a sacrifice, that is, to be
made holy. That’s what sacrifice etymologically means. It comes from
the Latin “sacrum,” sacred, and “facere,” to make or to do.
And that’s because that’s how we originally were made. Even in the
state of original justice when our first parents had not yet sinned,
they were supposed to make things and themselves holy by following
God’s will freely and responsibly. We always need to refer everything
to God, who is our all.
That’s because even if God made us to be like him, he wants us to
want to be holy like God also on our own volition. God is treating us
the way he treats himself, precisely because we have been made in his
image and likeness. He does not force us to be like him. He wants us
to do that freely.
But our first parents disobeyed, and thus, sinned. It’s a sin that
all of us would inherit. And even if erased through baptism, we would
still be left with some scar that would dispose and tempt us to get
attracted to evil instead of good that comes from God.
And so the duty to make things and ourselves holy or to make
sacrifice now involves greater effort on our part and also the direct
intervention of God himself, for we cannot make things and ourselves
holy without both our effort and God’s grace. The two have to be
together.
So from the beginning of our salvation history, this idea of
sacrifice was already inculcated in a steady fashion, starting with
Abel and Cain down to the patriarchs and prophets like Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, a mysterious character called Melchizedec, till Christ, who is
both the perfect priest for the perfect sacrifice.
This sacrifice of Christ is perpetuated till the end of time in the
sacrament instituted by Christ himself called the Holy Eucharist, one
aspect of which is precisely the Holy Mass.
In the Mass, what is actually taking place is not just some ritual,
some dramatization of a past event. It is the very sacrifice of Christ
on the Cross. This is a truth of faith, a mystery, that unites time
and eternity, earth and heaven. It also makes all of us contemporaries
of Christ, inextricably involved in his continuing work of redemption.
Because of how God’s plan is for us, we are supposed to make our
whole life a sacrifice by uniting it to Christ’s sacrifice on the
Cross made available to us through the Holy Mass. This is the
underlying framework of our life.
Our every thought, desire, intention, word, judgment, reasoning, and
our action in all its variations and levels ought to be a offered to
God through the Christ on the Cross, perpetuated at Holy Mass.
But I wonder how many of us realize this, and more importantly, how
many of us know how to convert this truth of faith into tangible
reality in our life. What we see around most of the time is wanton
self-pursuit, self-seeking, self-absorption.
In the world of entertainment, for example, how many are the artists
we see around who truly have great talents but who fail to offer their
talents to God. In fact, many are those who ridicule the idea of
offering their talents to God, who don’t see the connection between
God and them, between God and their talents.
It gives me an experience more bitter than sweet, because while I
greatly enjoy those talents, I also feel terrible at the outright
expropriation of those talents from God to make them their own
entirely. This may not be quite obvious in our country, but try to see
the decadent West where you have many talents, and you know what I
mean.
The area of politics is even worse. Here we see many political
animals only paying lip service to faith and religion when such
service is at their advantage, but who blatantly, without any seeming
qualms of conscience at all, violate basic religious and moral tenets
just to attain their personal goals.
The values of charity, magnanimity, mercy, compassion, patience,
truthfulness, etc., are shamelessly trampled upon. If ever some
aspects of these values and virtues are present, you can be sure they
are more caricatures than the real things.
We need a strong reminder about the true purpose and character of our
life. It is supposed to be a sacrifice, to be made holy by offering it
to God through Christ.
is quite clear that our life ought to be a sacrifice, that is, to be
made holy. That’s what sacrifice etymologically means. It comes from
the Latin “sacrum,” sacred, and “facere,” to make or to do.
And that’s because that’s how we originally were made. Even in the
state of original justice when our first parents had not yet sinned,
they were supposed to make things and themselves holy by following
God’s will freely and responsibly. We always need to refer everything
to God, who is our all.
That’s because even if God made us to be like him, he wants us to
want to be holy like God also on our own volition. God is treating us
the way he treats himself, precisely because we have been made in his
image and likeness. He does not force us to be like him. He wants us
to do that freely.
But our first parents disobeyed, and thus, sinned. It’s a sin that
all of us would inherit. And even if erased through baptism, we would
still be left with some scar that would dispose and tempt us to get
attracted to evil instead of good that comes from God.
And so the duty to make things and ourselves holy or to make
sacrifice now involves greater effort on our part and also the direct
intervention of God himself, for we cannot make things and ourselves
holy without both our effort and God’s grace. The two have to be
together.
So from the beginning of our salvation history, this idea of
sacrifice was already inculcated in a steady fashion, starting with
Abel and Cain down to the patriarchs and prophets like Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, a mysterious character called Melchizedec, till Christ, who is
both the perfect priest for the perfect sacrifice.
This sacrifice of Christ is perpetuated till the end of time in the
sacrament instituted by Christ himself called the Holy Eucharist, one
aspect of which is precisely the Holy Mass.
In the Mass, what is actually taking place is not just some ritual,
some dramatization of a past event. It is the very sacrifice of Christ
on the Cross. This is a truth of faith, a mystery, that unites time
and eternity, earth and heaven. It also makes all of us contemporaries
of Christ, inextricably involved in his continuing work of redemption.
Because of how God’s plan is for us, we are supposed to make our
whole life a sacrifice by uniting it to Christ’s sacrifice on the
Cross made available to us through the Holy Mass. This is the
underlying framework of our life.
Our every thought, desire, intention, word, judgment, reasoning, and
our action in all its variations and levels ought to be a offered to
God through the Christ on the Cross, perpetuated at Holy Mass.
But I wonder how many of us realize this, and more importantly, how
many of us know how to convert this truth of faith into tangible
reality in our life. What we see around most of the time is wanton
self-pursuit, self-seeking, self-absorption.
In the world of entertainment, for example, how many are the artists
we see around who truly have great talents but who fail to offer their
talents to God. In fact, many are those who ridicule the idea of
offering their talents to God, who don’t see the connection between
God and them, between God and their talents.
It gives me an experience more bitter than sweet, because while I
greatly enjoy those talents, I also feel terrible at the outright
expropriation of those talents from God to make them their own
entirely. This may not be quite obvious in our country, but try to see
the decadent West where you have many talents, and you know what I
mean.
The area of politics is even worse. Here we see many political
animals only paying lip service to faith and religion when such
service is at their advantage, but who blatantly, without any seeming
qualms of conscience at all, violate basic religious and moral tenets
just to attain their personal goals.
The values of charity, magnanimity, mercy, compassion, patience,
truthfulness, etc., are shamelessly trampled upon. If ever some
aspects of these values and virtues are present, you can be sure they
are more caricatures than the real things.
We need a strong reminder about the true purpose and character of our
life. It is supposed to be a sacrifice, to be made holy by offering it
to God through Christ.
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