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An Unbloody Sacrifice

So after writing that last post I decided it might be a good idea to also make it known whats up with the Catholic faith: that we don’t sacrifice animals like the Jewish people did in the Old Testament (I’m not hating on Jewish people…I love Jewish people!).  We believe that in the New Testament, Christ sacrificed Himself for us and left us with a memorial of that sacrifice, death, resurrection, and ascension.  

That memorial we call: The Eucharist.

See that wafer thing?  We believe that it substantially becomes the Body of the Lord. Then we receive it…i.e. we eat it.  But it’s not that we’re crazy cannibals or anything, I promise!  See, the accidents of bread remain.  The accidents are the things that appeal to our human senses.  So the bread will still look, taste, feel, and smell like bread (and you can’t really hear bread unless you are some kind of super crazy hearing person).  The same goes with the wine.  Once consecrated by a priest, the substance changes, and the accidents remain.  If the accidents were to change as well, then you could call us crazy and throw things at us (like what happened in John, chapter 6, minus the throwing things).  Only the substance changes.  So, the reality is is that Catholics receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.  

Pretty awesome, eh?

Oh, and don’t worry, we don’t “re-sacrifice” Christ or anything.

When our priests offer sacrifice at mass, it is not that they are “re-sacrificing” Jesus each time at mass but rather, the one sacrifice of Christ is re-presented. It is as if we are at the Cross on Calvary with our Lord.  Then the priest leads us in prayers of thanksgiving and remembrance and finally, we receive the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of our Lord.  How awesome the Holy Mass is!

View → tages / Mass / Liturgy / Eucharist / Unbloody / Sacrifice / Jesus / total awesomeness

Feast of Tabernacles.

So, I just did a paper on a selection from the Gospel of John.  John 7:37-44 to be exact.  I wont go into all the ideas that I wrote from it, but I will share one awesome facet of this verse packed with beauty.

The Jews had one particular feast day among their many others called the Feast of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.  It seems that tabernacles could be a little misleading because a tabernacle is completely different than the makeshift booths that the Jews would dwell in during this feast. Hence the word sukkot, which translates to booths.

Anyway, what’s so interesting about a jewish feast and Jesus in this particular passage?

Well, among all of the feasts that the Jews celebrated of held, the Feast of Sukkot is the feast that required more sacrifice to be made than all the other feasts combined.  If you ever dive into a basic study of the Jewish feasts, you’ll see that this means there is A LOT of sacrifice going on during this particular feast.

With much sacrifice comes, rather gruesomely, much blood.  But what are the high-priests who are making sacrifice supposed to do with all of this blood?  It cannot be contained, nor can it be allowed to just land on the altar and flow as it pleases.  There must be a satisfactory way to dispose of all of this blood from the hundreds and hundreds of lambs being sacrificed.  So where did all the blood go?

On the Altar of Sacrifice the Jews actually had huge cisterns on either side of the altar, so that when sacrifice was made, the blood would flow from the Altar of Sacrifice into them and flow through a drainage system under the Temple building that lead out of the side of the Temple, into the Kidron Valley - a valley between the location of the Temple at Mt. Moriah and the Mount of Olives.  Now, this would solve the problem of excess blood from all of the sacrifice, but now there is another problem caused as a result.  Over time, the blood that flowed into the cisterns and through the drainage system would begin to rest and coagulate, perhaps causing clogs or offering a not so pleasing aroma.  To solve this problem, they poured large amounts of water down the cisterns as well, to wash out any blood that there remained.  

Thus, after the sacrifice of the lambs, there went forth blood and water from the side of the Temple.

So we see the fulfillment of this old testament prefiguration fulfilled by Jesus: Christ, the New Temple, is crucified, is “destroyed,” and blood and water flows from His own side. Three days later is this “temple” is to be rebuilt.  (Happy Easter!)

John 7:37-38: On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.  He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

Finally, it is here that we find Christ claiming that we ourselves, those that believe in Him and in the Scriptures, will become Temples - Temples where the Living Water of the Holy Spirit will dwell and flow.  May we truly open our hearts to this Truth, and believe in the Lord.  May we be filled with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, receiving the true peace that only comes from the Lord.

View → tages / Jewish / Feast / Tabernacle / Jesus / Catholic