I. Introductory Rites
A.
God's Mercy and Glory
In our first lesson, we saw how the
Introductory Rites of the Mass draw us into the biblical world of
worship.
We saw how the Mass was given to us by Jesus in order to
"actualize" - make real in our lives - the salvation and new life promised in
the pages of the Bible.
Those introductory rites continue with a
confession of sins and a singing of God's praises. Our penitential prayers and
the singing of the Gloria are shot through with biblical language and
meaning.
The phrase "Lord, have mercy" appears often in Scripture, in
both the Old and New Testaments (see Sirach
36:12; Baruch 3:2;
Psalm
51:1; Matthew
15:22; 17:15).
The Scriptures teach again and again that mercy is among God's greatest
attributes (see Exodus
34:6; Jonah
4:2).
The "Gloria" is the prayer of the angels, sung on the
first Christmas night (see Luke 2:14).
To that angelic prayer, the Church has added echoes of the angelic songs the
Apostle John heard in the heavenly liturgy (see Revelation
15:3-4; 4:11;
5:11-14).
Again
in the Mass we find ourselves praying and singing with the very words of
Scripture. But there is an even deeper biblical dimension to this moment in the
Mass.
The confession of sin, accompanied by the offering of sacrifices,
was a staple of the Israelites' worship (see Leviticus
5:5-6). So was the giving of praise and glory to God (see Psalms
86:12; 147:12).
In fact, we could say that at this moment of the Mass we enter into the
very heart of biblical worship.
In the next two lessons we will look
in-depth at the way God is worshipped in the Bible.
In this lesson, we
will look at worship in the Old Testament. In our next lesson we will look at
how biblical worship culminates in the worship commanded by Jesus at the Last
Supper - which we continue today in the Mass.
B.
Our Sacrifice
In a word, biblical worship is the offering of
sacrifice. Our worship in the Mass is likewise a form of sacrificial
offering.
We hear this repeatedly in the Mass, although we may not notice
it or fully understand what it means.
For instance, after the priest
prepares the altar, he addresses us with these words: "Pray, brethren, that our
sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father."
We
respond: "May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise
and glory of His Name, for our good and the good of all His Church."
What is sacrifice? Generally speaking, to sacrifice is to make an
offering to God of something of value - an animal, vegetable, food, drink or
incense. This offering can have many meanings but underlying every sacrificial
act is a recognition of the debt we owe to God as the source of life and
blessing.
Sacrifice was a universal practice in the religions of the
ancient world and it is of the essence of the religious devotion and practice
found in the Bible.
II. Origins of Worship
A. The
First Priest
The Bible never explains sacrifice or its origins. But
we see it in practice from the first pages of Scripture.
Adam and Eve's
children offer sacrifices - Cain from the fruits of the earth, Abel from the
firstlings of his flock (see Genesis
4:3-4). Noah, too, seems to have inherited a tradition of worship that
includes burnt offerings of animals (see Genesis
7:2; 8:20).
Abraham, the father of the chosen people, responds to God's call by
building an altar and offering sacrifices (see Genesis
15:8-10; 22:13).
Throughout the early part of the Bible, Abraham's sons are frequently seen
building altars and offering sacrifices (see Genesis
33:20; 35:1-7).
Of the sacrifices of Genesis, two are particularly important for our
understanding of the Mass: that of the mysterious priest-king Melchizedek (see
Genesis
14:18-20) and Abraham's in Genesis
22.
Melchizedek is the first priest mentioned in the Bible. He
is a "priest of God Most High." He is also King of Salem, a land that would
later be called "Jeru-salem," meaning "City of Peace" (see Psalm 76:2).
This combination of priest and king is rare in the Old Testament. But
later we will see this designation applied to the royal son of David (see Psalm
110:4) and, in the New Testament, to Jesus (see Hebrews
7).
Melchizedek's sacrifice is also extraordinary in that it
involved no animals. He offered bread and wine, as Jesus would at the Last
Supper.
B. Offering the Beloved
Son
Melchizedek's sacrifice concluded with the priestly blessing of
Abraham. And Abraham would later return to Salem to make his own offering.
At the mountain of Moriah, a site that would later be identified
with Jerusalem's Temple (see 2
Chronicles 3:1), Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only beloved son,
Isaac.
As we will see in our next lesson, in the story of the "binding"
of Isaac, the New Testament writers saw a foreshadowing God's offering of his
only beloved Son on the Cross (see Genesis
22:12,15; John
3:16).
Notice the language in the story told in Genesis 22. The
words "his son" or "the boy" are used 11 times in 15 verses. The only words that
Isaac speaks begin with the word, "Father." As if to drive home the point even
further, the narrator of the story says, "Isaac spoke to his father..."
All of this will become even more important when we study our Lord's
sacrifice in our next lesson.
C. Passover
Sacrifice
It is clear that by the time of their captivity in Egypt,
sacrifice was central to the Israelites' worship.
Moses' original
request to Pharaoh was permission to travel into the desert "that we may offer
sacrifice to the Lord, our God" (see Exodus
3:18; 5:3,8,17).
And
sacrifice marks the pivotal moment in Israel's history - the Passover which
precipitates the people's exodus from Egypt.
The Passover story (see Exodus
12:1-30) is the defining drama of the Old Testament. It is crucial to
understanding both the Crucifixion and the memorial of that event, the Mass.
Notice an echo of the story of Abraham and Isaac. God calls Israel "my
son, my first-born" (see Exodus
4:22). At the Passover, God instructed each family to take an
unblemished lamb, kill it, and sprinkle its blood on the door post with a branch
of hyssop. Then they were to eat the lamb's roasted flesh along with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs.
God promised that if the Israelites did this
their first-borns would be spared - He would "pass over" their houses when He
came to strike down the first-borns of Egypt.
The sacrificial lamb died
so that the first-born of the people - and God's first-born son, the nation of
Israel - might live.
On the night of the first Passover, God fixed its
observance as a "memorial feast" and a "perpetual institution" for future
generations (see Exodus
12:14,24).
Moses commanded that the Passover memorial include a
narrative recalling the reason for its institution - "When your children ask
you, 'What does this rite of yours mean?' you shall reply, 'This is the Passover
sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt;
when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.'" (see Exodus
12:26-27).
When the Israelites reach Mount Sinai, they ratify
their covenant with God with sacrifice (see Exodus
24:3-11).
Moses builds an altar with twelve pillars and
orders that young bulls be sacrificed and their blood put in large bowls and
splashed atop the altar. Then he writes down the words and ordinances of God in
a "book of the covenant" that he reads aloud to the people.
When the
people vow to live according to the words of the book, Moses sprinkles the
sacrificial blood on the people, saying "This is the blood of the covenant which
the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his." Following
this, Moses and the elders eat a sacrificial meal in the presence of God.
This scene too will be important for our study of the Last Supper and
the Mass.
Daily sacrifice was the defining characteristic of the
Israelites' worship as they entered the Promised Land.
In fact, much of
the Law or Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) is devoted to ritual
laws and regulations that set out in precise detail the ways in which Israelites
are to offer their sacrifices (see for example, Leviticus
7-9; Numbers
28; Deuteronomy
16).
Sacrifices were to be offered at the "tent of meeting" -
the portable shrine that housed the Ark of the Covenant, the site of God's
glorious presence (see Exodus
25:8-22; Joshua
3:8-11).
The Ark contained signs of God's covenant (see Hebrews
9:4) - the tablets of the 10 commandments (see Exodus
40:22), Aaron's priestly staff (see Numbers
17:25) and some of the manna upon which the Israelites fed in the desert
(see Exodus
16:32-33).
The ordination of Aaron and his sons as Israel's
priests, along with the beginning of the daily sacrifices, is a crucial juncture
of the Old Testament.
At the tent of meeting, Aaron and Moses blessed
the people and then made a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering,
as prescribed by God. Then fire came forth from the Lord's presence and consumed
the offering on the altar (see Leviticus
9:22-24; Exodus
29:38-42).
In the priestly offering of sacrifices, the goal of
God's covenant is realized: "At the altar, I will meet the Israelites...I will
dwell in the midst of the Israelites and will be their God" (see Exodus
29:43,45).
D. Temple of the
King
When Israel becomes a kingdom under David and his son, Solomon,
the Ark is given a permanent home in the Temple.
The Ark is restored to
Jerusalem in joyous religious feast marked by the sacrificial offerings of seven
bulls and seven rams and priestly blessings (see 1
Chronicles 15:1-16:3; 2 Samuel
6:11-19).
The Temple was built according to a divine blueprint
(see 1
Chronicles 28:19). God told Solomon it was to be "My house of sacrifice"
(see 2
Chronicles 7:12).
In a scene very similar to what we saw with
the inauguration of the daily sacrifices, the dedication of the Temple was
marked by fire from heaven coming down upon the altar and the people prostrating
themselves in adoration (see 2
Chronicles 7:1-4). On that day, the king and the people offered 22,000
oxen and 120,000 sheep.
From that moment forward, Israel's sacrificial
life was centered around the Temple.
Like his father, Solomon offered
priestly sacrifices in accordance with Moses' laws (see 2
Chronicles 7:4; 8:12).
Indeed, Israel's monarch was compared to the priest-king Melchizedek (see Psalm
110).
The Temple, according to tradition, was built in "Salem"
where Melchizedek was high priest and king (see Psalm 76:3).
It was also said to be built on same mount, Moriah, where Abraham had offered
his son and where God had sworn His oath to save all the nations (see 2
Chronicles 3:1; Genesis
22:2,18).
III. House of Sacrifice
A. Seasons of Sacrifice
The Temple liturgy brought
together all the strains of sacrifice that had gone before. Israel's ritual life
consisted of a variety of sacrificial offerings:
• The Holocaust
- an entire animal burnt on the altar as a "sweet smelling oblation to the Lord"
(see Leviticus
1:3-17; 6:8-13).
• The Cereal or Grain Offering - milled wheat mixed with oil and
incense and usually offered in conjunction with other sacrifices (see Leviticus
2:1-16; 6:14-23;
Numbers
6:14-17; 28:3-6).
• The Peace Offering - an animal sacrifice in which the fatty
parts and kidneys are burnt on the altar and the meat is consumed by the offerer
and the priests (see Leviticus
3:1-17; 7:11-36).
• The Sin Offering - an animal (young bull, goat, lamb, turtledoves,
etc.) offered to atone for sin and to purify the sinner (see Leviticus
4:1-5:13; 6:24-30).
•
The Guilt Offering - a ram offered in atonement for desecration or some
offense against a neighbor (see Leviticus
5:14-6:7; 7:1-10).
Israelites measured their days, their weeks, and their years by
sacrifices.
Each day began and ended with sacrifice - one lamb as a
holocaust, flour and oil, and a libation of wine (see Exodus
29:38-42; Numbers
28:3-8; Ezra 3:5; Nehemiah
10:34). Every seventh day, on the Sabbath, these sacrifices were doubled
(see Numbers
28:9-10).
At the beginning of every month, Israel celebrated the
New Moon Feast, offering God holocausts, cereal offerings, a sin offering
and a libation (see Numbers
28:11-15). Each new year was celebrated as Rosh Hashanah with
ritual sacrifices (see Numbers
29:1-6).
And Israel's calendar included other annual
celebrations, each marked by specifically prescribed ritual sacrifices - the
Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (see Numbers
29:12-38; Leviticus
23:33-34); the Feast of Pentecost (see Numbers
28:26-31); and the Day of Atonement, known in Hebrew as Yom Kippur
(see Numbers
29:7-11; Leviticus
23:26-32).
The liturgical center of Israel's year remained the
Feast of Passover (see Numbers
28:16-25; Leviticus
23:4). In the time of Jesus, more than 2 million pilgrims from around
the world would throng Jerusalem.
Josephus, the first-century Jewish
historian, reported that on Passover in the year A.D. 70, roughly 40 years after
the Crucifixion, the Temple priests offered 256,500 lambs in sacrifice (Wars of the
Jews, Book 6, Chapter 9, no. 3)
Though Israel's Law
required that priests make the sacrifices in the Temple on behalf of individual
Israelites and the nation, these sacrifices were nonetheless deeply personal
affairs.
Imagine having to take an unblemished animal from your own
flock, travel to the Temple, kill it, skin and gut it, and present it to the
priest to be burnt on the altar. That was the reality of sacrifice in Israel.
B. What Sacrifice Means
Why did
God institute sacrifice as the means of worshipping Him?
Certainly, God
did not "need" sacrifices, as the prophets and psalmists make clear (see Psalm
50:9-13).
Early on, God seems to have required Israel to make
certain kinds of animal sacrifices to teach the people a lesson and to purge
them of their worship of false idols.
Moses seemed to recognize this
when he told Pharaoh the Egyptians would be gravely offended by the Israelites'
sacrifices (see Exodus
8:25-27). The three animals that God commanded Israel to sacrifice -
cattle, sheep and goats - were all considered deities by the Egyptians.
God, in effect, was asking Israel to ritually slaughter the "gods" the
Israelites once served in Egypt. Sacrifice was to be a form of penance for the
Israelites' idolatry (see Joshua
24:14; Ezekiel
20:7-8; Acts
7:39-41).
There were other meanings attached to the sacrifices
of Israel as well.
As we observed in considering the "guilt" and "sin"
offerings, sacrifice often served as an act of renunciation and sorrow for sins.
The "blood" of the animal symbolized the life of the one offering the sacrifice.
Recognizing that his sins deserved death, the person offered the animal's life
in place of his own.
Elsewhere, sacrifice was a "gift" that acknowledged
God's sovereignty over creation.
By making a sacrifice from the
first-fruits of the earth and their flocks, worshippers were giving a part of
themselves - something they needed to live - to thank God for His blessings
(see Leviticus
23:10-14; Deuteronomy
26:1-11; Exodus
13:1-2; Numbers
3:11-13,44-51).
C. The Thank Offering
In the Temple
liturgies reflected in the Book of Psalms and in the prophets' writings we see a
growing understanding - that holocausts were not all that God required; that He
demanded an "interior" or "spiritual" sacrifice as well.
Spiritual
sacrifice was not opposed to animal sacrifices. Ideally, the sacrifices the
Israelites offered in the Temple were to reflect their offering of themselves
with a contrite and humble spirit to do God's will.
For the prophets,
however, there was a "disconnect" between the sacrifices the people offered in
the Temple and the condition of their hearts.
Isaiah said their lack of
faith and justice made their offerings "worthless" (see Isaiah
1:10-16; also Amos 4:4-6;
Malachi
1:10,13-14).
Jeremiah reminded them that God did not command
holocausts upon freeing the people from Egypt. Instead he desired His people to
walk in His ways and listen to His voice (see Jeremiah
7:21-24; Micah
6:6-8).
Over time, Israel came to see that love, not sacrifice,
is what God truly desires (see Hosea 6:6).
Psalm 40 specifically mentions the animal sacrifices, grain offerings
(oblation), holocausts and sin offerings. God did not want or seek these, the
psalmist sings. Rather, He wants "ears open to obedience" and hearts that
delight in doing God's will.
Psalm
40:1-11 is classified as one of the todah (pronounced
tow-DAW) psalms (for example, Psalms 18;
30; 32; 41; 66; 69; 118; 138).
Todah is a Hebrew word that means "thank offering" or
"thanksgiving." In fact, it is often translated by the Greek word
eucharistia, which is where we get our word, "Eucharist."
Many of
the psalms were written to accompany the offering of the todah sacrifice,
a specific type of "peace offering" involving a sacrificial meal of bread, meat
and sometimes wine, offered with friends and family in the Temple (see Leviticus
7:1-21).
A person made this "sacrifice of thanksgiving" and
offered the "cup of salvation" (see Psalm 116:13-14,17-18)
for having been delivered by God from some life-threatening circumstance - a
serious illness, persecution, or any mortal danger.
In singing the
todah psalms, the worshipper glorifies God and celebrates the new life
granted to him by God's saving deeds.
Psalm 69 is
a good example of a todah psalm. It begins with a plea for God's help
("Save me, O God!"), includes a long lament about the afflictions the believer
faces, and ends by glorifying God with thanksgiving, praising His name and
exhorting others to hope in the Lord.
Psalm 22,
which Jesus prayed on the Cross, is another todah psalm. The psalm starts
with a cry of dereliction ("My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"),
recounts the torments at the hands of evildoers, and concludes on a note of
triumph - praising God for hearing and saving the psalmist.
Many other
psalms were composed as "processional hymns" to accompany the Israelites'
sacrifices in the Temple. And they, too, disclose a similar "inner meaning" of
these sacrifices.
In these psalms, sacrifice is joined with praise to
God for delivering the Israelites from their foes and oppressors (see Psalms
54:6-9; 66:5-9,13-20;
107:21-22;
116:
3-4,8-9,17-18).
In offering praise and thanks, the worshipper
was pledging to give His life to God in thanksgiving: "I am bound, O God, by
vows to you; your thank offerings I will fulfill. For you have rescued me from
death...that I may walk before God in the light of the living" (see Psalms
56:13-14; 40:6-8;
51:16-17;
50:14,33;
141:2).
Later Old Testament texts even offered "role models" for the sacrifice
of the heart that God requires (see 1 Samuel
15:22; Proverbs
21:27; Sirach
34:18-19).
Isaiah prophesies God sending a "servant," who will
offer his life for the people (see Isaiah
42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9;
53:11)
This
servant is compared to a sacrificial lamb upon whom God "laid...the guilt" of
all the people. Crushed for the sins of the people, pierced for their offenses,
he "gives his life as an offering for sin" (see Isaiah
53:1-11).
In the heroic witness of its martyrs, Israel
also developed a notion of people freely handing themselves over in obedience to
God's law and to make atonement for the sins of the nation (see 2
Maccabees 6:12-7:40).
D. Everywhere
They Bring Sacrifice
Sacrifice moves in the direction of praise and
spiritual worship in the Old Testament. But sacrificial worship is not expected
to disappear from Israel.
Even the prophets, who sharply criticize the
Israelites' for their hypocrisy, saw a place for sacrifice in a new and
everlasting kingdom of David (see Jeremiah
17:25-26; 33:16-18).
Isaiah
even foresaw "an altar to the Lord" in the land of Israel's arch-nemesis, Egypt.
In the kingdom to come, he said, even the Egyptians would offer sacrifices and
oblations and fulfill vows to the Lord.
On the threshold of the New
Testament, in the final book of the Old Testament canon, Malachi prophesies the
same thing - but on a far grander scale. He sees people the world over bringing
sacrifice to God:
"For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting,
My name is great among the nations. And everywhere they bring sacrifice to My
Name, and a pure offering." (see Malachi
1:11).
IV. Discussion Questions
• What is the first
sacrifice recorded in the Bible?
• Who is the first priest mentioned in
the Bible?
• Why did Moses originally ask Pharaoh for permission to
leave Egypt?
• What did the Ark of the Covenant contain? Where was the
Ark housed when Israel became a kingdom?
• What are the five basic types
of sacrifice prescribed in the Old Testament?
• What is the todah
sacrifice?
For personal reflection:
• Do
you understand your worship in the Mass as a form of sacrifice?
Try preparing for Sunday Mass by reading some of the todah psalms
(for example, Psalms 22; 69; and 116).
See if this helps to deepen your appreciation of the Mass.
•
Do you understand life as an offering of obedient sacrifice to God?
Read and pray over Psalms 40 and 50 and the story of the Maccabeean martyrs
(see 2
Maccabees 6:12-7:40). Ask for the strength to make yourself an ever more
acceptable offering to the Lord.