The Nature, History, and Significance of Sacrifice: Part 1
"To Thee, meek Majesty! soft King
Of simply graces and sweet loves.
Each of us his lamb will bring
Each his pair of silver doves;
Till burnt at last in fire of Thy fair eyes,
Ourselves become our own best sacrifice."
This 17th century hymn penned by Richard Crashaw celebrates the Nativity of Our Lord, drawing on the realities of the practice of sacrifice. Since the very beginning of man's existence, the offering of sacrifices to God (or gods in the case of the heathens) has been the essential center and work of religion. Thomas Aquinas writes in his Summa Theologiae that the offering of sacrifice to the Divine is indeed demanded by the natural law. He notes that throughout History and across various religions, whether heathen or orthodox, humans have recognized the innate duty and calling to express their worship of God through the practice of sacrifice.
Aquinas explains this reality by pointing out the fact that man, knowing that there is a power higher than him and also recognizing the inferiority he has in regards to this higher being, seeks then to express his own subjugation and respects of honor to the Divine. Thus, we have the practice of sacrifice, common to nearly every religion throughout History.
Because everything man has comes from the benevolence of God, especially the great gift of life, man seeks to repay God, in some little way, for everything he has received. Hence, the practice of sacrifice involves the offering of a victim (often a being of value) by a priest (the person who does the offering) to God and God alone in acknowledgement that He is supremely worthy of man's whole devotion and indeed, man's entire being.
Now, before I dive into an exploration of the nature and history of sacrifice, I must first discuss the entire reality of religion on account of the inseparable relationship it has with the practice of sacrifice. Aquinas offers the following comments about the nature of religion:
"Religion, in its original sense, meant binding yourself to God's due service through faith. Everybody undertakes this on entering the Christian religion by Baptism when Satan and all his pomps are renounced. But religion also has a narrower meaning, namely, of binding yourself to certain deeds of charity, deeds which in some special manner serve God and renounce the world: it is in this sense that we speak of the religious life, or the life of religion."
In the Summa, Thomas explains that the word 'religion' could possibly have come from the word meaning 'to rebind'. This understanding draws on the reality of man's original sin and separation from God and highlights how the virtue of religion seeks to reunite humanity to the Divine through a rejection of sin and a bond of charity. Indeed, Thomas writes that "Religion is the virtue by which men show God due worship and reverence."
Interestingly enough, in another place in his Summa, Thomas says that God does not need our worship nor our sacrifice. In fact, it is evident that God, being the complete and infinite source of all being, is perfectly sufficient in and of Himself and does not need or lack anything. However, all Christians know that God, out of His inestimable love for us, chose to create the material universe we now dwell in. He did not need to, being perfectly sufficient in Himself, yet He willed to create and hence, we have God's Creation.
This Creation consists of many different kinds of living and non-living beings, including us human beings who are made in God's image and likeness. Unlike the rest of the material order, we human creatures have a spiritual component consisting of our intellect and free will. It is because of these faculties that we are said to be made in the image and likeness of God. These two powers of the human soul were originally united in a bond of perfect and supernatural communion with God in the Garden of Eden. However, God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve, free will to either remain in communion with Him or to disobey Him by eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And so, because they chose to reject God and His sovereign will for their lives, Adam and Eve lost the original communion that they had with God, were plunged into sin, and took on all kinds of afflictions which affected the mind, body, and soul of humans thereafter. Having lost his original innocence, man now is born with what we call original sin and concupiscence. Original sin is the death of the soul, the lack of the supernatural gift of grace which is required for communion with God and entrance into Heaven. Concupiscence consists of man's inordinate appetite or desire for things contrary to God's design for human nature.
However, being the Hound of Heaven and the ever-loving Father, God did not leave man in this miserable state but sought the redemption of humanity, promising the eventual defeat of Satan, sin, and all evil in Genesis 3:15, declaring, "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." This is known as the 'Protoevangelium' or 'First Gospel' because it was the original promise of the good news of redemption for humanity by Our Lord. Also, it references the role of the woman, whom we recognize as Mary the Mother of God, and her participation with her Son in the eventual crushing of Satan and all sin.
However, despite even the disastrous consequences of the Fall, man was nevertheless called by God to seek relationship with Him through the practice of religion and indeed, the offering of sacrifice. As Saint Augustine wrote in his work De Quantitate Animae, "For true religion is that by which the soul is united to God so that it binds itself again by reconciliation to Him from Whom it had been broken off, as it were, by sin."
The practice of the virtue of religion consists of believing all the truths revealed by God and also carrying out in our lives the duties we owe to God as He demands in His Divine Revelation to humanity. Because man came from God and receives everything he has from God, he is required by all justice to practice religion. Neglect of this duty results in eternal torment in Hell. And so, all men, not just some, are demanded by Almighty God to practice religion.
As I said earlier, part and parcel of worshiping God is the act of offering sacrifice to Him in an expression of our worship. In fact, Cain and Abel, recognizing the innate duty of man to offer sacrifice to God, presented their victims, the fruit of the earth and the lambs, to God in an act of worship. We know that throughout the Judaeo-Christian tradition since this very point, the offering of sacrifice could only be directed to God and God alone under the pain of grave sin.
We know from the Scriptural text that God looked with favor on Abel and his sacrifice of livestock. On the other hand, in regards to Cain and his sacrifice, God did not look with favor. These actions on the part of God have puzzled people throughout the ages who seek to understand God's mysterious motives. In 1st John 3:12, the Apostle explains that God looked with favor on Abel rather than Cain, prompting the latter brother to act in the way he did "because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous." This most likely seems to refer to the actions of sacrifice the brothers each performed and it would appear that Cain's offerings were imperfect, either because of the inferiority of the fruit to the lambs, or because his own heart was perhaps disgruntled and rebellious as the Genesis narrative seems to convey. Regardless, we know from this text that the kind of sacrifice God desires is a pure and holy one; it must be a sacrifice acceptable to God Almighty.
And so, having explored the early significance of sacrifice in Scripture and also the nature of both religion and sacrifice, we will end this first post in our series. In the next installment, we will continue our exploration of the Biblical meaning and power of the practice of sacrifice, exploring the sacrifice offered by Melchizedek and also the sacrifices offered by the Jewish priests in the Mosaic covenant.
Aquinas explains this reality by pointing out the fact that man, knowing that there is a power higher than him and also recognizing the inferiority he has in regards to this higher being, seeks then to express his own subjugation and respects of honor to the Divine. Thus, we have the practice of sacrifice, common to nearly every religion throughout History.
Because everything man has comes from the benevolence of God, especially the great gift of life, man seeks to repay God, in some little way, for everything he has received. Hence, the practice of sacrifice involves the offering of a victim (often a being of value) by a priest (the person who does the offering) to God and God alone in acknowledgement that He is supremely worthy of man's whole devotion and indeed, man's entire being.
Now, before I dive into an exploration of the nature and history of sacrifice, I must first discuss the entire reality of religion on account of the inseparable relationship it has with the practice of sacrifice. Aquinas offers the following comments about the nature of religion:
"Religion, in its original sense, meant binding yourself to God's due service through faith. Everybody undertakes this on entering the Christian religion by Baptism when Satan and all his pomps are renounced. But religion also has a narrower meaning, namely, of binding yourself to certain deeds of charity, deeds which in some special manner serve God and renounce the world: it is in this sense that we speak of the religious life, or the life of religion."
In the Summa, Thomas explains that the word 'religion' could possibly have come from the word meaning 'to rebind'. This understanding draws on the reality of man's original sin and separation from God and highlights how the virtue of religion seeks to reunite humanity to the Divine through a rejection of sin and a bond of charity. Indeed, Thomas writes that "Religion is the virtue by which men show God due worship and reverence."
Interestingly enough, in another place in his Summa, Thomas says that God does not need our worship nor our sacrifice. In fact, it is evident that God, being the complete and infinite source of all being, is perfectly sufficient in and of Himself and does not need or lack anything. However, all Christians know that God, out of His inestimable love for us, chose to create the material universe we now dwell in. He did not need to, being perfectly sufficient in Himself, yet He willed to create and hence, we have God's Creation.
This Creation consists of many different kinds of living and non-living beings, including us human beings who are made in God's image and likeness. Unlike the rest of the material order, we human creatures have a spiritual component consisting of our intellect and free will. It is because of these faculties that we are said to be made in the image and likeness of God. These two powers of the human soul were originally united in a bond of perfect and supernatural communion with God in the Garden of Eden. However, God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve, free will to either remain in communion with Him or to disobey Him by eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And so, because they chose to reject God and His sovereign will for their lives, Adam and Eve lost the original communion that they had with God, were plunged into sin, and took on all kinds of afflictions which affected the mind, body, and soul of humans thereafter. Having lost his original innocence, man now is born with what we call original sin and concupiscence. Original sin is the death of the soul, the lack of the supernatural gift of grace which is required for communion with God and entrance into Heaven. Concupiscence consists of man's inordinate appetite or desire for things contrary to God's design for human nature.
However, being the Hound of Heaven and the ever-loving Father, God did not leave man in this miserable state but sought the redemption of humanity, promising the eventual defeat of Satan, sin, and all evil in Genesis 3:15, declaring, "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." This is known as the 'Protoevangelium' or 'First Gospel' because it was the original promise of the good news of redemption for humanity by Our Lord. Also, it references the role of the woman, whom we recognize as Mary the Mother of God, and her participation with her Son in the eventual crushing of Satan and all sin.
However, despite even the disastrous consequences of the Fall, man was nevertheless called by God to seek relationship with Him through the practice of religion and indeed, the offering of sacrifice. As Saint Augustine wrote in his work De Quantitate Animae, "For true religion is that by which the soul is united to God so that it binds itself again by reconciliation to Him from Whom it had been broken off, as it were, by sin."
The practice of the virtue of religion consists of believing all the truths revealed by God and also carrying out in our lives the duties we owe to God as He demands in His Divine Revelation to humanity. Because man came from God and receives everything he has from God, he is required by all justice to practice religion. Neglect of this duty results in eternal torment in Hell. And so, all men, not just some, are demanded by Almighty God to practice religion.
As I said earlier, part and parcel of worshiping God is the act of offering sacrifice to Him in an expression of our worship. In fact, Cain and Abel, recognizing the innate duty of man to offer sacrifice to God, presented their victims, the fruit of the earth and the lambs, to God in an act of worship. We know that throughout the Judaeo-Christian tradition since this very point, the offering of sacrifice could only be directed to God and God alone under the pain of grave sin.
We know from the Scriptural text that God looked with favor on Abel and his sacrifice of livestock. On the other hand, in regards to Cain and his sacrifice, God did not look with favor. These actions on the part of God have puzzled people throughout the ages who seek to understand God's mysterious motives. In 1st John 3:12, the Apostle explains that God looked with favor on Abel rather than Cain, prompting the latter brother to act in the way he did "because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous." This most likely seems to refer to the actions of sacrifice the brothers each performed and it would appear that Cain's offerings were imperfect, either because of the inferiority of the fruit to the lambs, or because his own heart was perhaps disgruntled and rebellious as the Genesis narrative seems to convey. Regardless, we know from this text that the kind of sacrifice God desires is a pure and holy one; it must be a sacrifice acceptable to God Almighty.
And so, having explored the early significance of sacrifice in Scripture and also the nature of both religion and sacrifice, we will end this first post in our series. In the next installment, we will continue our exploration of the Biblical meaning and power of the practice of sacrifice, exploring the sacrifice offered by Melchizedek and also the sacrifices offered by the Jewish priests in the Mosaic covenant.
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