The Sacrifice of The Eucharist... 2

The Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist... 2

In ancient Israel, the ‘lamb’ had always been identified with the ‘sacrificial offering’. The burning of animals was one of the oldest mode of sacrifices offered to ‘god’, whoever that might have been conceived. Remember Cain and Abel in Genesis, in the days of Noah, Abram, Jacob amongst others. But we have to concentrate on the sacrifices offered by Melchisedeck and Abraham..Melchisedeck was the first priest mentioned in the Scripture, and he is considered as a pre-figurement of Christ. He was a king and a priest, the two missions will later on be applied to Jesus Christ. . Genesis tells us that Melchisedeck was the king of Salem, the same land which later on was to be known as Jerusalem, the City of Peace (Ps. 76,2).. Later on Jesus had to be the King of the New Jerusalem, of heaven, and like Melchisedeck, known as the Prince of Peace. One last important point is the fact that Melchisedeck’s sacrifice was not a burnt offering of animals but he offered ‘bread and wine’, that is what Jesus did during His last Supper on earth when He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Abram revisited Salem, some years later, when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was on the land of Moria. According to 2Chronicles, the hill of Moria was the same locality where later on the Temple of Jerusalem was erected. The Israelites, recall the promise God made to Abram, to make him father of a great nation, for having obeyed Him. In fact his name Abram was changed to Abraham.

We find great similarities between Isaac and Jesus; both were the only sons of their father, as Isaac carried on his back,wood for the fire of the sacrifice, Jesus also carried the wood, in the shape of the patibulum (the vertical beam), to be sacrificed on it, both of them walked up the hill of Moria, of Jerusalem, of Golgotha.

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