The Christian Life as a Living Sacrifice of Love

In the Second Reading, after St. Paul described God’s redemptive works in Christ in his letter to the Roman Christians, he defined what should be the human response to God’s love. The answer, Paul wrote, was to: Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Paul reminded the Roman Christians and us not to conform to the norms of a sinful world. Instead, Christians must be transformed by living in the image of Christ as His witnesses of hope and faith to a world lost in sin. When worshiping in His Divine Presence, we must prepare ourselves by being cleansed of all sin (mortal sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and venial sins in the Penitential Rite of the Mass). We present ourselves to Him with purified souls so that, as we walk forward in the Eucharistic procession, we come prepared to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, just as Jesus offers His sinless life to us in the Eucharist.

St. John Chrysostom identified the necessity for living in a state of grace to ensure the perfection of our personal living sacrifice: “How is the body to become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil thing, and it has already become a sacrifice. Let the tongue say nothing filthy, and it has become an offering. Let your hand do nothing evil, and it has become a whole burnt offering. But even this is not enough, for we must have good works also. The hand must do alms, the mouth must bless those who curse it, and the ears must find time to listen to the reading of Scripture. Sacrifice allows no unclean thing. It is the first fruits of all other actions” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, 20).

Therefore, we must be ever mindful that, in the celebration of the Mass, once the presiding priest speaks the prayer over the gifts with his hands extended, greeting us with the words, “The Lord be with you,” to which we respond in unison, “And also with you.”  With these words, the moment to prepare for the gift of our living sacrifice is upon us. The priest then invites us with uplifted hands to offer the holy and living sacrifice of our lives with the words, “Life up your hearts,” recalling the Book of Lamentations 3:41, Let us stretch out our hearts and hands to God in Heaven; to which we respond with uplifted hands and a cry from the heart, “We lift them up to the Lord.” In Scripture, one’s heart symbolizes everything that one thinks, feels, and believes; it represents the total essence of a person. At this moment, each of us prepares to offer ourselves, in a state of grace, as a pure and holy sacrifice to the Lord!

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Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission

Jesus Predicts His Passion and States the Conditions of Discipleship

In the Gospel Reading, Jesus gave His disciples the first prophecy of His coming Passion, which Peter tried to reject. The passage reminds us that Christians must demonstrate an undivided commitment to their divine calling as citizens in Christ’s Kingdom of the Church. We must claim Christ’s redeeming sacrifice of love and willingly take up our crosses of suffering to follow Jesus’s example of self-sacrificial giving. The secret of happiness for the Christian is not to avoid suffering and sacrifice but to embrace God’s call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ on a path that leads us to Heaven and life among the congregation of the blessed.

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Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission