Chapter
III.- Sacrifice in the Old Testament during the time of the natural law.
The intervention of the Priestly Souls of Christ and Mary.
1. The Most Divine
Soul of Christ united to the Word, and the Divine Soul of Mary, - future
real and bloody victims on Calvary, - offered themselves in virtue of
their priesthood, as Spiritual Victims, whilst they inspired fallen
mankind through the wisdom of the Cross to offer figurative sacrifices
acknowl-edging their guilt and expressing faith and hope in the one
sacrifice that could expiate and blot out the sins of the world. In this
way they guided the steps of fallen mankind towards Calvary.
2. Since men no longer
enjoyed the indwelling of the Holy Ghost - save for privileged exceptions
- there was hardly room for any but outward interventions of the Divine
Souls among men, and this with special preference for the chosen people,
among whom they manifested their spiritual presence in sensible signs and
covered them with a vital dew that imbued them with divine inspirations
and profound sentiments of virtue and contrition for their sins.
This moved men to give to these inspirations outward expression in
visible sacrifices with sacred rites performed by legitimate ministers of
sacrifice. And O how fruitful
the in-fluence of the Espoused Souls of Christ and Mary on the Church of
the Old Testament!
3. On many occasions,
God revealed to His chosen people His Glory, most usually hidden in the
Cloud, through which He made known His will and transmitted His orders. This veiled Glory of God was the Most Divine Soul of Christ,
revealing Him-self from within the Cloud.
The mysterious Cloud was the Divine Soul of Mary, Temple of the
August Trinity, Tabernacle of the Soul of Christ, mediating bridge between
Him and mankind, gateway to the glory of God visible, though veiled.
The Divine Soul of Mary is the worthy and fair abode chosen by the
Most High to conceal and enclose the Divinity in Her heart, as the Cloud
that bears His Glory, the necessary clothing of the action of God.
What an eloquent and sublime figure of the future Incarnation of
the Word! What an admirable
manifestation and wondrous vestment of the glory enclosed!
Another particular manner in which the Divine Soul of Christ
appeared to the spiritual leaders of His people was in the form of an
Angel, accompanied always by the sensible presence of the Soul of Mary.
Very beautiful and in-structive are the passages of the Sacred
Books that relate these various interventions, all full of deep meaning
with rich variety of expression.
4. If we examine the
Book of Wisdom, we shall find in a profoundly significant passage (Chap.
X, 1-2) a clear revelation that God, through the Souls of Christ and Mary
- who are the true Wisdom - reminded Adam, after his fall, that he
still was head and father of the world with power to govern all
things, - and moreover that God gave him the strength to do so. Whence it
follows that God, through positive revelation, exacted bloody sacrifices
which, at one and the same time, would bear witness to man's offence, to
his personal helplessness to expiate it, and as well to God's promise of
redemption. We affirm then the logical consequence that the first man,
Adam, as model and example of penitence for all his descendants to follow,
complied with the obligation to offer to his God and Creator the first
bloody sacrifice of expiation. Hence
too Adam taught his sons to offer bloody sacrifices, since he knew that
without the shedding of blood there would be no Redemption and that it was
necessary therefore to offer sacrifice which would symbolize the Bloody
and Expiatory Sacrifice of the Cross.
5. And why the need of
bloodshed? Man, by his
offence against the Creator, conscious of having lost his right to life,
both natural and supernatural, feels the need to make good his offence
through the sacrifice of his own existence.
But since, by Divine law, no one has the right to take his own
life, either himself or through another, he offers to God as substitute an
animal victim, sheds its blood, bearer of life, and destroys it partially
or totally. In this manner,
in their sacrifices, it was their own selves which they offered, because
it was not the victim which they wished to bring to God, but rather
themselves signified by the victim which they immolated.
6. And those
sacrifices not only were inspired by the Most Holy Souls of Christ and
Mary but as well were accepted by them, purified and presented to the Most
High. And God, taking
pleas-ure in them, was moved to pity and, through the Divine Souls showed
men His mercy, forgave them their sins, provided them with actual graces
for their progress in virtue, and preserved them from many evils.
Such was their efficacy, in anticipation, of the Sacrifice of
Calvary, the "sweet savour" that God smelled rising from the sacrifice
of Noe.
7. In the Sacred Books
there is no reference to the sacri-fices offered by Adam.
The first bloody sacrifice mentioned in Genesis is that of Abel,
figure of the eternal sacrifice of Christ to come, and sign that God
especially desired and accepted this form of sacrifice, which included all
the elements that He demanded: the choicest victims, upright heart, pure
and holy intention, and profound faith of the offerer in the efficacy of
the Sacrifice of the Cross. Abel
in his own martyrdom is figure also of the Victim of Calvary.
8. Let us refer now to
the extraordinary manifestation of the Divine Souls Espoused of Christ and
Mary in the Ark of Noe, that splendid and striking Sanctuary which
harboured the Church amidst the errors of flood and storm,- and to the
most special manner in which the Mystical Soul of the Church helped to
guide the Ark safe and sound amidst the universal upheaval, - and to the
manner also in which the Holy Ghost, uncreated Soul of the Church, covered
with the fire of Divine Love and filled
with actual graces the Church sheltered in the Ark, - sign of His
assistance, and anticipation of the promise of Christ.
Truly there are no words to express the richness, meaning and depth
of this mystery, which exceeds human intelligence.
9. In the Ark of Noe,
it is not the Cloud that indicates the presence of the Soul of Mary, but
the figure of the Dove. And
how remarkable and expressive the manifestation of the Soul of Christ as
an olive branch with green leaves held in the beak of the Dove.
Silent but eloquent is His voice in this hidden manifestation of
His glory, with the divine spiritual Espousal beautifully signified, as
also the intervention and mediation of the Divine Soul of Mary.
10. Further on in
Sacred Scriptures we find the detailed and telling description of the
sacrifice of Noe, - how, on leaving the Ark he built an altar unto the
Lord and upon it offered holocausts of all cattle and fowl that were
clean. Noe thus showed his
gratitude to God for all the good he had received, "and
the Lord smelled a sweet savour", as the Sacred Test re-veals,
sign of the pleasure He took in the faith and purity of heart with which
the sacrifice was offered. And
He showed him the sign of that of that first Covenant: the Rainbow in the
Cloud - as in the Hebrew and Greek texts.- manifestation of the Souls of
Christ and Mary, as well as figure of the Church with the Wisdom of the
Seven Sacraments.
11. We pass now to
consider the deep meaning of the most impressive sacrifice of the Old
Testament, vivid image of Calv-ary: the sacrifice of Abraham.
12. Exalted figure as
he is of the Eternal Father, Abraham, who did not spare his son Isaac, but
rather delivered up to death him who was the object of his pleasure and
hope in the promise to be fulfilled, - Abraham is yet, in a more special
and deeply significant manner, figure of Mary, since he accepted the
divine decree of death for his son, and he willingly led him to
slaugh-ter. Isaac, carrying
the wood of the holocaust, is, as he ascends that mount of sacrifice,
figure of Christ who, with supreme obedience accepted his own immolation
without complaint.
13. If we penetrate
more deeply the very essence of this sacrifice we shall find a truly
bloody sacrifice; since although there was no material bloodshed, there
was in the will that whole-heartedly accepted it.
And there too, in the will,was the immolation of self which only
divine intervention impeded. Isaac
is therefore the most vivid figure of Jesus Christ in the Sacri-fice of
Calvary. And here as on
Calvary, there could not be absent the figure of Mary, nor that of Saint
John. Here Abraham is figure
of Mary, in heroic obedience, his heart rent, uniting his own sacrifice to
that of his son in spiritual immolation.
Whereas the ram caught by the horns among the briars prefigures
Saint John on Calvary united to the sacrifice and completing the
holocaust.
14. The sacrifice of
Abraham is majestically crowned by the double intervention of the Angel,
who first impedes the death of Isaac and substitutes the ram.
Then, in recompense for their heroic obedience, He gives the
blessing and promise of a count-less posterity, from which would be born
the Redeemer of the world. The
Angel was the Most Divine Soul of Christ, calling to Abraham from Heaven.
And that Heaven to which Genesis refers, was the Divine Soul of
Mary, veiling the Glory of God. In
the book of Wisdom (Chap. X, 5) we see with perfect clarity, that the
Souls of Christ and Mary kept Abraham firm, so that he could overcome the
natural compassion of a father for his son.
Abraham had received this extraordinary strength in the Sacrifice
of Melchisedech.
