SACRIFICE

SACRIFICE – To offer something up to God. In the Old Covenant, God commanded His people to sacrifice animals, grain, or oil as an act of thanksgiving, praise, forgiveness, and cleansing. However, these sacrifices were only a foreshadowing of the one perfect sacrifice – Christ, the Word of God, who left the heavenly glory to humble Himself by becoming Man, giving His life as a sacrifice on the Cross to liberate humanity from the curse of sin and death. In the Eucharist, the faithful participate in the all-embracing, final and total sacrifice of Christ. ^{(Lev. 1:1?7:38; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 9:1?10:18.)} See also REMEMBRANCE.