(With all this COVID-19 stuff, I’m a little behind in the posting. Since we are livestreaming our liturgies, I will only be posting the text of the homilies. The video recording of daily Mass can be found at our parish Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/stpatsak/
We also post the video of the Sunday Masses on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCce6fxZKR1vqgyhuTO7e7VA )
One Perfect, Eternal Sacrifice
I have never done a palm-less Palm Sunday before. Then again, I’ve never had to celebrate without a congregation before either. We live in “interesting times.” The reason we are not blessing or distributing palms this year is that because this microscopic monster can live on their surface for up to 24 hours, they could very easily become a means of transference of the virus. The common good, including the health and safety of others is still our primary concern.
Of course, the proper name of this day is Passion Sunday, where we commemorate the Passion and Death of Our Lord. This remains the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ in the primary sense of the term, meaning the last and greatest of its kind.
The people of ancient Israel were very acquainted with ritual sacrifices. We read about them throughout the Old Testament. Essentially you needed four things for a ritual sacrifice: a victim or offering, an altar, a priest, and a reason. In general there were four reasons for offering a sacrifice: 1) to establish covenants, 2)to remember, 3) to give thanks, and 4) for the atonement and forgiveness of sins.
How did it work? Let’s look at sacrifices with a victim. Basically, the one offering sacrifice would bring the victim to the priest. The victim had to be unblemished, meaning that it could not have any flaw or defect such as a busted hoof or mange or anything else that would make you want to get it out of your flock anyway. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be sacrificial. The priest would then lay his hands on the victim, dedicating it solely to God for sacred use. The victim was then slaughtered in the proscribed fashion depending on what kind of sacrifice you were performing. Usually, certain parts such as the fat on the kidneys and the lobe of the liver, etc., were burned on the altar. For his services, the priest received the front left quarter for his family. Then you took the rest home for a ritual meal known as the sacrificial banquet to celebrate with your family and friends. Note that from the earliest times the idea of ritual sacrifice and ritual meal are inextricable.
From its very beginning, the Church has always understood that the one, perfect, eternal sacrifice of Christ on the Cross brought to fulfillment all previous sacrifices ever offered. This is most apparent in the words of consecration over the chalice.
…and GIVING YOU THANKS, he said the blessing, and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying:
Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the chalice of my blood,
the blood of the new and eternal COVENANT.
which will be poured out for you and for many for the
FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
Do this IN MEMORY of me.
Our participation in the Eucharist is our real, substantial participation in the one, perfect, eternal sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. With Christ the Great High Priest, the gift of our lives and the first fruits of our labors in this true sacrifice and ritual meal are offered as a pleasing offering to the Father. . Here we have the altar, the priest, the sacrifice and the best of all reasons.
Thankfully, especially in these uncertain times, Christ’s sacrifice is eternal and its universal effects for the forgiveness of sins and sanctification of the world and everyone in it transcend the vicissitudes of our present predicament. No virus, no lockdown, no “social separation” can separate us from the love of Christ, and the forgiveness of sins won for us in his one, perfect sacrifice.
Not now, not ever.