Theology 1 Summer 2017 Homily Thoughts
Friends, let’s talk about sacrifice.
In today’s 2nd reading, St. Paul says:
¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Raise your hand if you want to present your bodies as a living sacrifice today?
So what’s the deal with sacrifice?
Fr. Peter Cameron says that Christian sacrifice is not about “giving up things”; it is about doing whatever is possible to get as much love as we possibly can. Sacrifice is the way that we eagerly adjust our lives so that our greatest desires come true.
The novelist and Christian essayist Dorothy Sayers observes that when there is something that we supremely want, we never consider the difficulty involved as “self-sacrifice.” We view it in that negative way only when we do not supremely desire the thing in question. As she comments, “at such times you are doing your duty, and that is admirable, but it is not love. But as soon as your duty becomes your love the ‘self-sacrifice’ is taken for granted.”
The Eucharist is a sacrifice because the Eucharist is Christ’s gift of self to the Father in the Passion…
Reflection Questions:
- What is my conception of sacrifice? Is it essentially something negative?
- What role has sacrifice played in gaining what I supremely desire?
- How have I received back a more perfect self by offering myself to God and others in sacrifice?
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