TO be very realistic in life, we have
to be ready and
eager to become a sacrificial lamb. This is not bad news. This is Good
News. Let me explain.
Our problem is that, unfortunately, the expression,
sacrificial lamb, has suffered a great diminution of appreciation in
the world today. It is simply considered in the context of practical
advantages and disadvantages of a given situation.
Obviously, with that frame of mind and only and
exclusively with that attitude without any other higher consideration,
no one would like to be a sacrificial lamb. Even the commonest of
common sense would be averse to that idea. Everyone would like to flee
from that predicament as much as possible.
But the phenomenon of sacrificial lamb actually has a very
wonderful significance. Our Christian faith tells us that given who
and what we are, we have been taught right from the beginning of
humanity, that we need to offer a sacrifice as a way of expressing and
affirming the truth that we come from God and we also belong to him.
God, our Father and Creator, has been the one who teaches
us about this duty. He has also equipped us in our nature so that we
can comply with this duty that only shows the intimate relation we
have with God. In short, God, who is love, has been teaching us, who
are his image and likeness, how to love.
This whole business of offering sacrifices is actually the
language of love. It acts out the dynamics of love which is that of
mutual self-giving between the lover and the beloved. Each party
becomes both lover and beloved in the ideal state of love.
In the beginning, the sacrifice was made by offering
things. This started, when man was still in the state of original
justice, as something easy and spontaneous to do. But with the entry
of sin, this offering of sacrifice became more and more difficult and
complicated to do.
In spite of sin, God continued in the flow of time to
tutor humanity about this duty of making sacrifices. This process of
divine tutelage passed through tumultuous route given man’s wounded
condition. All sorts of resistance and rejection, distortion and
confusion, tended to empty the meaning of sacrifice.
But God persisted by sending us his only Son who became
the perfect and ultimate sacrifice, the true sacrificial lamb, who out
of completely gratuitous love, and without deserving to suffer in any
way, assumed all our sin, died to them and offered us a way to
reconcile ourselves with God in a perfect way.
It was John the Baptist who pointed out Jesus to us,
calling him the Lamb of God. “Behold, the lamb of God, behold him who
takes away the sins of the world.” (Jn 1,29) Christ is the one who
bore all the sins of man, showing us the way of perfect love.
We have to understand from all this that the life and
death of Christ, especially the supreme sacrifice of his life on the
cross, should be the model and motive of our life and death as well.
This is when the worst thing that can happen to us, that
is, to be in sin, alienated from God, can turn into the best thing for
us as well, as long as we know how to unite ourselves with Christ.
That is why we have to learn to make sacrifice, first of
all, because, it is the most natural thing for us to do considering
who and what we are in relation to God. Then, we have to make a
sacrifice because we have to make up for our sins and mistakes. And
ultimately we have to make sacrifice because we have to follow the
example of Christ all the way.
That is why, if for some reason or another we find
ourselves in situations and predicaments that make us feel like
sacrificial lambs, that is, made to suffer though we feel we don’t
seem to deserve it, we should actually feel happy and privileged,
because in that way, we are being conformed to Christ in his best act
of love in a most intimate manner.
It is good, therefore, that we condition ourselves to aim
at being sacrificial lambs. We ought to welcome every opportunity to
be so and somehow be happy with it. The saints and holy men and women
through the ages have always felt that way.
Thus if we suffer some extraordinary difficult problems
and conditions, we should never fail to see the great blessing we are
actually receiving.
eager to become a sacrificial lamb. This is not bad news. This is Good
News. Let me explain.
Our problem is that, unfortunately, the expression,
sacrificial lamb, has suffered a great diminution of appreciation in
the world today. It is simply considered in the context of practical
advantages and disadvantages of a given situation.
Obviously, with that frame of mind and only and
exclusively with that attitude without any other higher consideration,
no one would like to be a sacrificial lamb. Even the commonest of
common sense would be averse to that idea. Everyone would like to flee
from that predicament as much as possible.
But the phenomenon of sacrificial lamb actually has a very
wonderful significance. Our Christian faith tells us that given who
and what we are, we have been taught right from the beginning of
humanity, that we need to offer a sacrifice as a way of expressing and
affirming the truth that we come from God and we also belong to him.
God, our Father and Creator, has been the one who teaches
us about this duty. He has also equipped us in our nature so that we
can comply with this duty that only shows the intimate relation we
have with God. In short, God, who is love, has been teaching us, who
are his image and likeness, how to love.
This whole business of offering sacrifices is actually the
language of love. It acts out the dynamics of love which is that of
mutual self-giving between the lover and the beloved. Each party
becomes both lover and beloved in the ideal state of love.
In the beginning, the sacrifice was made by offering
things. This started, when man was still in the state of original
justice, as something easy and spontaneous to do. But with the entry
of sin, this offering of sacrifice became more and more difficult and
complicated to do.
In spite of sin, God continued in the flow of time to
tutor humanity about this duty of making sacrifices. This process of
divine tutelage passed through tumultuous route given man’s wounded
condition. All sorts of resistance and rejection, distortion and
confusion, tended to empty the meaning of sacrifice.
But God persisted by sending us his only Son who became
the perfect and ultimate sacrifice, the true sacrificial lamb, who out
of completely gratuitous love, and without deserving to suffer in any
way, assumed all our sin, died to them and offered us a way to
reconcile ourselves with God in a perfect way.
It was John the Baptist who pointed out Jesus to us,
calling him the Lamb of God. “Behold, the lamb of God, behold him who
takes away the sins of the world.” (Jn 1,29) Christ is the one who
bore all the sins of man, showing us the way of perfect love.
We have to understand from all this that the life and
death of Christ, especially the supreme sacrifice of his life on the
cross, should be the model and motive of our life and death as well.
This is when the worst thing that can happen to us, that
is, to be in sin, alienated from God, can turn into the best thing for
us as well, as long as we know how to unite ourselves with Christ.
That is why we have to learn to make sacrifice, first of
all, because, it is the most natural thing for us to do considering
who and what we are in relation to God. Then, we have to make a
sacrifice because we have to make up for our sins and mistakes. And
ultimately we have to make sacrifice because we have to follow the
example of Christ all the way.
That is why, if for some reason or another we find
ourselves in situations and predicaments that make us feel like
sacrificial lambs, that is, made to suffer though we feel we don’t
seem to deserve it, we should actually feel happy and privileged,
because in that way, we are being conformed to Christ in his best act
of love in a most intimate manner.
It is good, therefore, that we condition ourselves to aim
at being sacrificial lambs. We ought to welcome every opportunity to
be so and somehow be happy with it. The saints and holy men and women
through the ages have always felt that way.
Thus if we suffer some extraordinary difficult problems
and conditions, we should never fail to see the great blessing we are
actually receiving.
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