Consecration Aids: 13: Spiritual Sacrifice
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
“G ive me something solid, something fundamental, like the Mass, the Sacraments. None of that superficial, high-falutin’ stuff you call Holy Slavery for me!”
Have you ever been given that line by a ”positively-not-interested” customer? The first time I heard that refrain, I must confess, I was nearly knocked off my pins. You see, I knew that it was the devil’s way of keeping good people away from Holy Slavery, but to this objection I did not have the answer. I was completely unaware of the close relationship between Holy Slavery and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
It so happens, however, that I am stubborn – especially when Our Lady’s glory is involved. Know why? Because you can’t subtract from her glory without taking something away from that of her Son. And so I decided, right then and there, to look into this objection more closely. The results of my investigations were really astounding: so much so that, I don’t believe I ever really understood the exact meaning of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass before I began to grasp the full meaning of Holy Slavery. In fact, I don’t see how anybody can. If you let me explain why, I have a hunch that you might agree with me, too.
I must tell you here that what made me feel so sure of myself from the very start were these words of St. Louis Mary: ”I cannot see how it (Holy Slavery) could be condemned without overturning the very foundations of Christianity.” (T.D. No. 163) Now, my interlocutor had said: ”Give me something fundamental, like the Mass.” I naturally concluded that since Holy Slavery as well as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass were both fundamentals in Christianity, there must be some connection between the two – although, as yet, I hadn’t the remotest idea as to what that connection might be.
I began to recall notions I had studied about ”sacrifice” with respect to the Mass. Sacrifice, I had learned, is an act by which a victim is offered up to God through immolation (or destruction), symbolizing that they who offer wish to signify that they are consecrating themselves entirely to God to do His will in all things, to seek His glory and to be spiritually immolated by a truly Christian life. The exterior (or ritual) sacrifice, therefore, calls for an interior (or spiritual) sacrifice, otherwise it would be a mere sham. St. Thomas, I remembered, was no less clear on this subject. ”The sacrifice that is offered exteriorly signifies the interior, spiritual one by which the soul offers itself up to God.”
Applying these notions to the Sacrifice of Calvary, I knew that it was by His death on The Cross (immolation) that Christ offered Himself up entirely as a Victim to God His Father. This was His exterior (or ritual) Sacrifice. I also knew that this death (or immolation) was represented mystically in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by the mystical separation of His Body and Blood, under the separate appearances of bread and wine. In a word, this much I knew: it was precisely because Christ was Victim, because He immolated Himself for us on The Cross that He saved us from sin.
But what I had never paid much attention to – and which is really the more important element in Christ’s Sacrifice – was the interior (or spiritual) Sacrifice of which His death was but the exterior sign. Yes, it gradually began to dawn on me that Christ’s interior Sacrifice consisted essentially in doing His Father’s will. This was what gave Christ’s Sacrifice its real meaning. In brief, I had just discovered that for Jesus to offer His Sacrifice meant simply to be a slave, entirely dependent on His Father’s will!
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the thirteenth in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
If Christ took on ”the nature of a slave” to offer His Sacrifice; if Christ submitted Himself to Mary to do His Father’s will; then I reasoned, what better way for me to imitate Him than by becoming His slave and by submitting myself to Mary to do the Father’s will? What better dispositions could I bring to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass than those of a slave of Jesus in Mary?
The words of St. Paul now flashed back to me with full impact: ”Therefore in coming into the world, he (Christ) says, ’Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not, but a body thou has fitted to me: in holocausts and sin-offerings thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, ’Behold, I come – in the head of the book it is written of me – to do thy will, O God.’ ” Explaining this text, the Apostle says: ”It is in this ’will’ that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10: 5-10)
The word ”slave” made me think of another text of St. Paul: ”. . . Christ Jesus . . . emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave . . . humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross.” (Philippians 2 : 5-9)
Since the interior and spiritual Sacrifice of Jesus consisted in doing His Father’s will, the thought then occurred to me to inquire a little further into the nature of this obedience. And, I must say, it is here that I struck a gold mine. Yes, it suddenly struck me that for thirty years Christ did His Father’s will by submitting Himself to Mary His Mother!
If Christ took on ”the nature of a slave” to offer His Sacrifice ; if Christ submitted Himself to Mary to do His Father’s will; then I reasoned, what better way for me to imitate Him than by becoming His slave and by submitting myself to Mary to do the Father’s will? What better dispositions could I bring to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass than those of a slave of Jesus in Mary?
Now isn’t that precisely what Holy Slavery asks of me? Does it not make me accomplish the will of God the Father (my spiritual sacrifice ) through union with Mary in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (my ritual sacrifice) ? Briefly, when I renew my act of consecration, or when I assist at Mass in the spirit of my consecration, do I not renew my spiritual sacrifice in a perfect manner?
May I add, in closing, that I had the curiosity to look into my Missal and see if I couldn’t find any ”trace” of Holy Slavery in the prayers of the Mass. Won’t you try this for yourself, dear reader? You’ll be amazed – though perhaps not so much as I was – at the importance the liturgy gives to this idea of our ”servitude” in every Mass. Let me quote you just one instance: the prayer of oblation just before the consecration. ”We therefore beseech thee, O Lord, to be appeased and to receive this offering of our servitude. . . ”
Do you see now why I said in the beginning that I never really understood the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass until I learned what Holy Slavery meant? Do you see, also, how closely related Holy Slavery is to the Sacrifice of Christ renewed daily on our altars?
