Letters

Sacrifice (letter)

M.A. Ross

Contents - Aug 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Liturgy: opportunity for bishops to take control - Michael Gilchrsit What the Church can teach the secular world - Archbishp Barry Hickey News: The Church Around the World Campus Life: Cardinal Pell's program for a Catholic culture at Sydney's universities - Stephen Lawrence International poll underlines growing secularist challenge - Michael Gilchrist Media: Our Lord's name: responding to media blasphemy - Andre Van Der Linden Feminist translation: Inclusive language and the Trinity: the latest from Brisbane - Michael Apthorp Benedict XVI's pontificate: the possibilities - Damian Thompson London's Balham parish, 'an icon of liturgical hope' - Joanna Bogle John Paul II: a Jewish appreciation Anglican update: an orthodox fight-back - Fr Christopher Seton Letters: Dissenter's manifesto (letter) - Imelda Aslett Letters: Origins of the Bible (letter) - George Simpson Letters: Lay-led liturgies (letters) - M.T. Kennedy Letters: An Islamic Holland? (letter) - Henk Verhoeven Letters: Sacrifice (letter) - M.A. Ross Letters: Abortion breast cancer link (letter) - Dr Tim Coyle Letters: Real Presence (letter) - John Schmid Letters: Small Catechisms available (letter) - Fr Edward P. Evans Letters: Stem cells (letter) - Brian Harris Letters: Government review of RE in State Schools (letter) - Maureen Federico Letters: Brisbane Archbishop bans weekday Latin Mass (letter) - Tom King Letters: The Mass (letter) Letters: Appreciation from Nepal (letter) Poetry: A Heavenly Surprise Books: More Catholic Than the Pope, by Patrick Madrid and Pete Vere - Fr Glen Tattersal FSSP (reviewer) Books: More Good Reading from AD Books Reflection: How we will overcome the shortage of priests - Fr John O'Neill PP

What do a sense of the spiritual, of the sacred and of sin all have in common? They are all necessary for the sense of sacrifice.

One of the main reasons why many people don't go to Mass is that they are lacking in any number of the first three senses and therefore see no need for the fourth.

Evidence is that they, and even many of those attending, see Mass as a sacrifice only in the sense that they have to sacrifice time in their busy lives to get there. They seem to see no need in their lives for adoration, reparation, thanksgiving and petition, (the four ends of the Mass) or to "derive from [the Eucharistic celebration] the many fruits for which Christ, the Lord instituted the Eucharist Sacrifice" (Code of Canon Law, 899, 3).

Equally, there are fewer vocations because of the example of priests who, by their words and actions, appear not to believe in the sacrifice of the Mass, either.

Yet, the Code of Canon Law (904) exhorts priests to "remember always that in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the work of redemption is continually being carried out". I don't think there would ever have been a period more in need of redemption than our times. Yet many priests seem unwilling to sacrifice time from their day to offer the Supreme Sacrifice.

However, recently at daily Mass we heard again the story of Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God's call, so for a priest not to give up simply a little time each day in obedience to the directive that "priests are to celebrate [the Eucharistic Sacrifice] frequently, indeed daily, as their principal role" (ibid) is really a shameful example of the loss of the sense of sacrifice.

Where all the related senses and the understanding of the Sacrifice of the Mass have been revived, both congregation and priest numbers have increased.

M.A. ROSS (MRS)
Rockhampton, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 7 (August 2005), p. 15