SACRIFICIAL?! HUH? WHA....?

YE-S-S-S! Sanctified, Serving, Sacrificial. The four words that keep Catholic Christians aware of the special Divine favor they were given, as explained in Four Words Every Catholic Should Remember. YE-S-S-S! Mankind is again on the way to Sanctification, as written in the second article Sanctification Is A Process. With the sanctification process established a Catholic Christians can rightly take their place in the world to continue the work of God’s only Servant Son, which was explained in third article: Actual Grace — To Serve God. The article regarding actual grace explained that God’s sovereign will for His faithful servants is to grow to that Holiness as was given to Mary, mother of our Lord and Savior, our spiritual mother. That is God’s sovereign will. With regards to what we do for our physical livelihood; God leaves the decision entirely to our free will choice, though He will direct the steps of those under His sovereign will of the sanctification process.

It’s now time for the last article in this series that explains the practice of being a Catholic Christian. The first two are somewhat easy — Sanctification and Service. The third ‘S’ in YE-S-S-S! stands for Sacrificial! ‘Huh … Wha? wait a minute, SACRIFICE!?’ ‘Jesus did all the sacrificing, we just enjoy a happy life on earth and then go up to heaven!’ Okay, for those who were out of class the day Mass sacrifice was mentioned, let me refresh the memory. As stated in the Nicene Creed; the God who is ‘unseen’ came to earth in flesh, otherwise called incarnate. Remember also, with God there is no past and there is no future — only the eternal present. Recall that Jesus, God’s ONLY Son, came to earth to serve and not be served. He taught, he healed people of afflictions, he performed a few miracles to show who He was. His main purpose, of course, was to take the brunt for the disobedience that had separated mankind from God, Father and Creator of heaven and earth. For the sacrifice Jesus endured, the Father would forgive all who asked for forgiveness. God’s ONLY Son had to pick up His cross and suffer for the sake of all who sinned: past, present, and the future! Jesus did not die but was resurrected from that dark tomb and was a ‘new flesh.’ A spiritual ‘mystical’ unity would come to be, as was the union that came upon Mary, who gave birth to the Savior. Through this spiritual or ‘mystical’ unity, called the Christian church, a Holy family was formed. A new ‘paradise’ in the world but not part of that ‘material world.’

We, who were baptized and received the initiation to the Sanctification of our soul (made Holy), are to LIVE His life. We are to ‘pick up our cross’ of a still broken world of those who know not what they do for lack of knowledge of good and bad actions (virtue or sin) and we are to sacrifice the good that we get to do in the world because of the presence of God’s ONLY Son who guides us. We are to work with that one Supreme Sacrifice. We do not take from it — we are ONE with He who is the eternal God. He did take ‘the brunt’ for sins, and all we need do is show Him we do not take the grace in vain. We don’t call in our good works to the press, we don’t boast about the good we do or the blessings we have, we are humble servants who bring our good work done with Him to altar and ‘offer it up’ in sacrifice that GOD multiply it umpteen times over to a GOD GOOD. (Not unlike the feeding of the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread) Whatever we ask in the name of God’s only Son, so it will be.

YE-SSS! That’s what it is all about. Catholic Christians are Sanctified, Serving, and Sacrificial!