Bible

to win God’s forgiveness for sins committed against His love and it is offered as a prayer asking God for whatever the person needs in his daily life, family, work or efforts to serve God faithfully.

This kind of offering is called a sacrifice, puja or balidan. It expresses such a deep need in the heart of man, that sacrifice, in one form or another, is found in every part of the world and in every age where men have lived.

The sacrifice of all sacrifices was Christ’s offering of His own body and blood on the cross. He is the priest offering sacrifice on our behalf-and the victim. What He offers is not fruit or flowers or an animal. It is His own body and blood.

“We can claim a great high priest, and one who has passed right up through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. It is not as if our high priest was incapable of feeling for us in our humiliations; He has been through every trial, fashioned as we are, only without sin. Let us come boldly, then before the throne of grace, to meet with mercy, and win that grace which will help us in our needs.

“The purpose for which any high priest is chosen from among his fellowmen, and made a representative of men in their dealings with God, is to offer gifts and sacrifices in expiation of their sins. He is qualified for this by being able to feel for them when they are ignorant and make mistakes, since he, too, is all beset with humiliations, and, for that reason, must needs present sin offering for himself, just as he does for the people. His vocation comes from God; nobody can take on himself such a privilege as this. So it is with Christ. He did not raise Himself to the dignity of the high priesthood; it was God that raised Him to it, when He said, You are my son, I have begotten you this day…

“Christ, during His earthly life, offered prayer and entreaty to the God who could save Him from death , not without a piercing cry, not without tears: yet with such piety as won Him a hearing. Son of God though He was, He learned obedience in the school of suffering, and now His full achievement reached, He wins eternal salvation for all those who render obedience to him.” (Hebrews 4, 14-16 and 5,1-9)

The wonderful thing is that Christ found a way to prolong His powerful sacrifice so that we can take part in it down through the ages.

One day, some time before His death, He spoke strange words to His followers. They were so strange that some could not believe them, and sadly they left Him. He said : “The real bread from heaven is given only by my Father. God’s gift of bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the whole world. Then, Lord, they said, give us this bread all the time. But Jesus told them, It is I who am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never be hungry; he who has faith in me will never know thirst. (John 6, 32-35)

But now the people were complaining of His saying, "I am myself the bread which has come down from heaven." "Is not this Jesus," they said, "the son of Joseph, whose father and mother are well known to us: What does He mean by saying, I have come down from heaven?" Jesus answered them, "Do not whisper thus to one another. Nobody can come to me without being attracted towards me by the Father who sent me, so that I can raise him up on the last day.