December 11, 2010 – Leviticus 4

The sin offering is something very important to understand for Christians because it is in this sacrifice that we see one of the clearest foreshadowing of what Christ does for us.  What I noticed in reading this is that those that sin have to slaughter the animal that the sin is laid upon.  Early we read in the Catechism about some Christians being known for hating Jews because they killed Christ.  But we saw in the Catechism that all sinners take part in the death of Jesus.  After reading this chapter you see that it was always that way.  If the priest, the community or the prince sins, they are the ones that have to slaughter the animal.  When Christ took on the sin of all the world, past, present and future, He became that sacrificial animal.  We don’t want to think of ourselves as part of Christ death, as the ones that nailed Him to the cross, but we cannot be a part of His redemption until we accept that we did nail Him to the cross.  The ones that sin must be the ones that sacrifice, that is how God instructed it.  The Israelites would slaughter the animal in the hopes of their sin being washed away.  We must accept Christ as the Sacrifice, we must accept that He took on our sins, then we must take responsibility for sacrificing Him, just as the Israelites had to sacrifice their own sin offerings. 

This idea of us offering our own sacrifice and our necessity of being an active part of it is something that is fundamental in the Catholic Mass.  Being the age I am, I only know Mass post Vatican II.  I have heard it discussed that since Vatican II, Mass has been shifting its focus from the Sacrifice aspect to a community meal gathering focus.  There has been a shift back to the focus being the Sacrifice of the Mass, which is its intention and understanding the Jewish tradition of the sin offering is a piece to the puzzle of being able to see the whole picture of the importance of the Mass.