Through His most sacred Passion, Jesus offered a sacrifice most acceptable to His Father. “Christ loved us and handed Himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (Eph.5). By this offering, Jesus paid the debt that we owed because of our sins. We were ransomed from our own futile and sinful conduct, as were our ancestors. We were ransomed not with perishable things, like silver and gold, but by the Precious Blood of Christ as a spotless, unblemished lamb.
A sacrifice is always offered by a priest, the ritual words are used as the priest offers the sacrifice. The ritual words used by Jesus to change His death from a judicial murder to an act of worship were the words that Jesus offered at the Last Supper as He instituted the Holy Eucharist. Jesus took the bread and said, “Take and eat, this is my body”. Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins”. In these words at the Last Supper Jesus expressed His intention to give His life for us on the Cross as a sacrifice. These words of offering, spoken at the Last Supper, expressed the intention to make this gift to the Father, and that intention continued on the Cross. The Last Supper then should be seen as the beginning of the sacrifice which Christ continued to offer as He hung on the Cross. This is why the Christian tradition describes the Cross as the altar.
The mysteries of the passion and death of Jesus Christ our Lord should always be present to our minds. In our homes we should have several crucifixes on our walls, to help us to keep these mysteries always before us. With God’s help we have to learn to suffer, to die, and to be buried together with our Lord. But important as the crucifix is, as a preeminent symbol of our redemption and our Christian faith, it is a mere symbol. When we look at the figure of Jesus nailed to the Cross, by the grace of God we are led to acts of love and sorrow for sin. A quick glance at Jesus depicted on the Cross can turn our minds and hearts to God frequently through the day. But important and spiritually helpful as the crucifix is, it is not Jesus Himself. The body on the Cross is marble or wood or plaster, but it is not Jesus.
The Mass
When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that have come to be, He passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands. He entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption (Heb. 9). In the Old Law, the same sacrifice had to be offered continually each year, because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. But Christ offered one sacrifice for the sins of all, and took His seat forever at the right hand of God.
By this one offering on Calvary, He has made perfect forever those who were sanctified by His grace. The sacrifice of Christ on Calvary is the one sacrifice of the New Law. Since Christ is true God as well as true man. His sacrifice has infinite value. This offering of His death is more than enough to make up for all the sins that ever were committed or ever will be committed.
