The Bloody Sacrifice of the Cross

5. Jesus Christ—The Representative Head of the Human Race

1. In the sacrifices of the Old Law irrational creatures—objects of possession and enjoyment belonging to the animal or vegetable kingdom—were substituted for man and offered to God in place of human life. Such a substitution was imperfect, inefficacious and, consequently, inadequate. The blood of animals could not atone for sin or relieve man of its debt; but rather kept up “the remembrance of unatoned sin continually alive in those who offered these sacrifices” (Heb. 10, 3, 4), thus awakening the desire of the promised Sacrifice which would, in an incomparably more exalted way, take man’s place with God and offer a perfect atonement for the guilt of all sin. This vicarious sacrifice the God-Man, Jesus Christ, offered, inasmuch as He, the Head of the human race, gave His life by a bloody death to present to God not merely a strictly equivalent or fully sufficient, but even a superabundant and overflowing satisfaction for the sins of all mankind.

2. Jesus Christ answered for us and represented us before God, that is, He performed all that God demanded in order to grant us pardon and restore us to grace,—and He indeed performed it for us, that is, in our stead. Hence that which we were obliged to do and yet unable to accomplish, Jesus Christ, as our substitute, performed for us;—He appeased the Divine Justice and Majesty. The fruits of His sacrifice were to redound to our benefit; His satisfaction and merits He wished to make over to us, to present them to us that we, being released from sin and its punishment, should also be enriched with the gifts of grace.

It was in order to become, in the most perfect manner imaginable, our substitute or Representative, and to satisfy and merit for p. 28us, that the Son of God assumed human nature by being born of our race. According to the flesh He was truly, though indeed in a supernatural manner, of our race; He was one of us, He was our Brother. As Christ “gave Himself a redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2, 6), He did not give Himself for strangers, but for His own, for His brethren. “O wonderful exchange,” exclaims the Church; “the Creator of mankind takes a body animated by a soul, and deigns to be born of the Virgin; and proceeding as man, supernaturally conceived, He imparts to us His divine being!” — From this it follows that Jesus is the spiritual, supernatural Head of mankind; this constitutes the mystical body, for which Christ, the Head, offered satisfaction and gained merit. Christ is the second Adam; as such He superabundantly repaired what the first Adam had destroyed and corrupted. “Therefore as by the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation; so also by the justice of one, to all men unto justification of life” (Rom. 5, 18), that is, as the sin of Adam has come by inheritance upon all his posterity, because God established him the head of the human family, so, in like manner, the merits and satisfaction of Christ are beneficial to all, because in the order of grace God placed Him at the head of the human race.

3. This consoling truth of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ is frequently alluded to in the writings of the Old and New Testaments; it is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion.

How clearly does the Prophet behold and announce (Is. 53, 1–11 ) the vicarious sacrifice of the sufferings and life of the coming Redeemer! He calls Christ “the man of sorrows,” and says of Him that “He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows,” and that “He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins,” and this because “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”¹1Hic peccata nostra portavit et pro nobis dolet (Resp. eccl.). Our Lord voluntarily and with generous love subjected Himself to these torments and to death, in order to make satisfaction for us; hence the prophet adds: “He was offered because it was His own will.” The fruit of Christ’s propitiatory sufferings consists in this, that “by His bruises we are healed.”

The Prince of the Apostles had these prophetic words in view when he exhorted the Christians to endure even unjustly inflicted sufferings in silence and with cheerful resignation, looking up to Christ who suffered not only innocently and patiently, but, moreover, in our stead, that is, on account of our sins. “Christ,” thus he writes, “who His ownself bore our sins in His body upon the tree (of the Cross), that we, being dead to sin, should live to justice” (1 Peter 2. 24). Christ—the Apostle would say—perfectly innocent and sinless, laid the burden of our sins upon Himself and effaced them, inasmuch as He, by the sacrifice of His death on the Cross, atoned and satisfied for them. This expiatory and healing power of the blood of Christ should urge and strengthen us to live hereafter entirely unto justice and holiness of life.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν)” (Gal. 3, 13), that is, the innocent Lamb of God took upon Himself the burden and punishment of sin in order to free us from it. “But God commendeth His charity toward us, because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5, 8). “In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us” (1 John 3, 16). “Christ died for all; that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them” (2 Cor. 5, 15). The excess of divine love is truly shown in this, that the eternal, the only-begotten Son of God, the King of glory, died the most painful death of the Cross, in order to rescue us poor sinners from the abyss of misery and eternal damnation.

4. This is that “great mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the gentiles, is taken up to glory” (1 Tim. 3, 16). O adorable mystery! what unmerited, incomprehensible favor and mercy of God radiates towards us in this marvellous decree and work of the redemption! God’s justice required a perfect, an infinite satisfaction—and His mercy gave us the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who as our Mediator offered this satisfaction for us. “God who spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?” (Rom. 8, 32.) Thus hath “God, whose mercies are without number and whose goodness is an inexhaustible treasure,” Himself bestowed on us this great atoning sacrifice, which in return He deigned to accept from us.²2Quid misericordius intellegi valet, quam cum peccatori damnato aeternis tormentis et unde se redimat non habenti, Deus Pater dicit: Accipe Unigenitum meum et da pro te; et ipse Filius: Tolle me et redde pro te? (S. Anselm. Lib. “Cur Deus homo,” cap. 9). Let us, then, gratefully acknowledge this with the Beloved Disciple: “In this is charity, not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4, 10). — Still more powerfully should we be penetrated with the desire to return love for love and with most joyful thanksgiving, when we, with full right, apply personally to ourselves what has been done for all; when we so consider the great benefit of redemption as if it had been conferred on ourselves only, as the Apostle so simply and so touchingly expresses it: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I now live in the flesh; I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me” (Gal. 2, 20).³3Licet ego in carne vivam, non tamen secundum carnis inclinationes vivo, sed spiritualiter vivo in fide Christi, Filii Dei et veri Dei qui dilexit me et tradidit semet ipsum in mortem pro me. Dilexit me amore immenso et aeterno, et in tempore obtulit se in sacrificium pro me, et licet omnes dilexerit sitque pro omnibus mortuus, dico tamen, ipsum me dilexisse et pro me esse mortuum, qui adeo me dilexit, tantumque ei debeo, quantum si me solum dilexisset et pro me solo passus esset (Arias, Thesaur. inexhaust. 1, tr. 4. cap. 18). Thus every one may and should exclaim: Christ has loved me, and for the love of me, has sacrificed His blood and life for me, for my sins; for our Saviour in the Garden of Olives and on the Cross had each one of us present to His mind and in His heart, for each one of us He suffered and died, as though each one of us had been alone in the world. This thought should inflame and inspire our heart to make every sacrifice in the service of God. Quaerens me sedisti lassus—redemisti crucem passus—tantus labor non sit cassus (Dies irae).

6. The Highpriesthood of Jesus Christ

As the Representative of the whole human race, Jesus Christ rendered to the offended majesty of God a satisfaction equalling and far exceeding the guilt, in order to take away the sin which was the cause of the separation and enmity existing between heaven and earth. Hence, as mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2, 5), He established peace, consummated the work of reconciliation, and that too, by the Cross, that is, by the bloody death of the Cross, inasmuch as He offered Himself and His life as a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ’s death on the Cross is, therefore, a sacrifice in the strictest sense of the word—truly a death offered in sacrifice and truly a victim. It follows from this that, as Christ during His mortal life on earth exercised the priestly office, i. e., as He really and truly offered sacrifice, He must also be really and truly a priest; for only a priest can and may offer sacrifice. — A closer consideration of the priesthood of Christ will prepare the way to a clearer understanding of the Sacrifice of the Cross.

1. Jesus Christ is “the great Highpriest” (ἀρχιερεὺς μέγας—Hebr. 4, 14) for the whole human race. The truth and dignity of the priesthood of Christ is circumstantially and diversely set forth by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews (Chap. 4–10). In what do the essence of the priestly office, the vocation and the mission of the priest consist? “For every highpriest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5, 1). Accordingly, the priest is destined and qualified to be a mediator between God and the people;—consequently, to render to the Divine Majesty by sacrifice and prayer due honor and suitable atonement for sin, and to purify and sanctify men by dispensing grace and heavenly blessings.⁴4All these qualifications are indicated in the name sacerdos (= sacrum vel sacra dans). Therefore by a priest is meant a consecrated person (persona sacra), who by virtue of his ordination is empowered and called to impart that which is holy (sacra dare as dispensator mysteriorum Dei—1 Cor. 4, 1). In the next place the priest is sacra dans = offerens Deo, in so far as he performs the acts of divine worship (sacrifice and psalmody);—then he is also sacra dans = ministrans vel distribuens hominibus, in so far as he imparts grace to men by administering the sacraments and sacramentals. — Sacerdos . . . quasi sacrum dans: sicut enim rex a regendo, ita sacerdos a sanctificando vocatus est; consecrat enim et sanctificat (S. Isid. Hispal. Etymolog. l. 8, c. 12, n. 17). — Cf. S. August. Enarrat. in Ps. 44, n. 17. — The proper and essential office of the priest is the offering of sacrifice; the position, rank and prerogatives of the priesthood are measured and judged by the nature of the sacrifice. Now, since Christ offered an infinitely precious sacrifice of adoration, propitiation, thanksgiving and petition, whereby He procured to God all honor and glory, and to man grace and salvation, He is “the great Highpriest” of the whole human race. Therefore, Christ is not a priest of the same order as those, who before His coming were invested with the priestly office, or who after Him exercise the same: He is, indeed, the most exalted and the most perfect priest; His priestly power is so extensive and so complete, that it cannot be imparted to a mere creature. His divine-human priesthood is the fountain of all the priestly powers and all the divine graces that ever were or may hereafter be imparted to a mere mortal; He is the eternal Highpriest who at all times saves all those who by Him approach to God. He is the Highpriest for all men and for all times. “There were of course priests before Him and there are priests after Him. But the former were destined only to prefigure, by the sacrifices they offered, the one great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in order thereby to preserve in mankind faith in the promised Redeemer. The priests of the New Law do not approach the altar in their own name and person, but in the name and in the person of Jesus Christ; and it is He who by them and in them exercises the priestly office, continually representing His great Sacrifice to the Father. Thus, He is in truth, the ONE Highpriest for the whole human race.”⁵5Kleutgen, Predigten, 1. Abth., p. 81–82.

2. It is God Himself who imparts His powers to the priest. No one can and no one may venture to exercise the priestly office, if he has not been chosen and invested therewith by God. “Neither doth any man take the honor (of priesthood) to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was” (Heb. 5, 4). It is self-evident that Christ is a priest, not according to His divine, but according to His human nature; for it is only by acts of His sacred humanity that He can perform the part of mediator and priest. “So Christ also did not glorify Himself that He might be made a highpriest” (Heb. 5, 5), but God has constituted Him a highpriest forever, and that with a solemn oath: “The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech” (Ps. 109, 4).

The vocation and selection of Christ for the dignity of highpriest was already contained in the eternal decree of God that His divine Son should redeem the world by means of the Sacrifice of the Cross. — His installation into the office of highpriest took place at the first moment of the Incarnation. Namely, as soon as the human nature was created and hypostatically (personally) united to the Eternal Word, the God-Man undertook, in cheerful obedience to the will and decree of His Heavenly Father, the task and mission of offering His precious life on the Cross as a sacrifice for the world, whereby the ancient sacrifices were not only replaced but far surpassed. This is touchingly expressed by St. Paul quoting and explaining the words of the Prophet (Ps. 39, 7–9. Heb. 10, 5–7). p. 33After depicting the impotency and the inadequateness of the priesthood of the Old Law and of its sacrifices, the apostle continues: “Wherefore when Christ cometh into the world (that is, at the first moment of the Incarnation) He saith to God: Sacrifice and oblation (these empty figures of future goods) Thou wouldst not; but a body Thou hast fitted to Me (for sacrifice). Holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then, said I, behold I come: at the head of the book it is written of Me: that I should do Thy will, O God (by the sacrifice of Myself)!” These words constitute the vow of Christ’s sacrifice, that is, the solemn formula in which He vowed to His Heavenly Father, by the Sacrifice of the Cross “to re-establish all things that are in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1, 10). Therefore, the Apostle adds: “In this will we were sanctified once for all by the Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ,”—that is, by the one offering of His bloody atoning sacrifice, which was of infinite value and merit. Christ has acquired for us all grace and sanctification, in obeying with His human will the Divine will of His Father—even to the death of the Cross.

3. Jesus Christ was infinitely worthy of being clothed and adorned with the most eminent dignity of highpriest. — The priest, by his office, is mediator between God and man: it is chiefly by the offering of Sacrifice that he is to glorify God and to reconcile man to Him, and to obtain for man in return the favor and friendship of God, applying to him the fruits and graces of the Sacrifice.⁶6Offert Deo bonus mediator preces et vota populorum: reportans illis a Deo benedictionem et gratiam (S. Bernard., Tract. de morib. et offic. episcop., c. 3, n. 10). — Cf. S. Thom. 2, 2, q. 86, a. 2. To be enabled to exercise, in a perfect manner, the office of mediator, he must also take a medium position, namely, be related and united to God as well as to men, in order to transact the affairs of both properly and successfully. The priest “is ordained for men in all things that appertain to God,” to appease God’s anger and to draw down His blessing upon the earth: therefore, he must be pleasing in the sight of God by being free from sin and by exalted sanctity; but he is also “ordained for men” to care for their salvation, to pray, to labor and to suffer: hence “he is taken from among men, that he may have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err; because he himself is also encompassed with infirmity” (Heb. 5, 1–2). In this twofold relation Christ unites in His person, in the most perfect manner, all that can render the priest acceptable to God and powerful with Him, full of compassion and mercy toward men.

a) Jesus Christ is infinitely holy; therefore, God the Father takes infinite pleasure in Him. “For it was fitting that we should have such a Highpriest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7, 26). The whole fulness of the divinity, an inexhaustible treasure of grace and truth, of virtue and wisdom, of holiness and happiness, was bestowed on the soul of Christ—and that already in the first moment of her creation and hypostatic union with “the Eternal Son of the Eternal p. 34Father.” — By virtue of the hypostatic union the humanity of Christ was deified (deificata, θεωθεῖσα), essentially and infinitely sanctified. At the same time, this “grace of union” (gratia unionis) is to be considered as the root and germ of all other supernatural privileges and perfections of the human nature of Christ: sanctifying grace, the infused virtues,⁷7Those virtues only are excepted which presuppose or include incompatibility with the unio hypostatica and the visio beatifica. With regard to the theological controversy, in and how far the habitus fidei, spei et poenitentiae may be ascribed to the soul of Christ, cf. Stentrup, S. J., De Verbo incarnato, P. 1, Christolog. thes. 81. the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the graces—in superabundance, in the fullest and richest conceivable measure—were the suitable, inamissible and inaugmentable endowment (portion) of the soul of Christ, which by its mystical union with the divinity attained an infinite dignity. In all these privileges—in the hypostatic union, in the Beatific Vision of God, in the fulness of grace—the absolute freedom of Christ from sin is based: the soul of Jesus was not only actually free from all sin, but it was incapable of committing sin, and not susceptible of even the slightest breath or shadow of sin.⁸8Dives est qui nec hereditario nec proprio unquam debito obnoxius, et ipse justus est et alios justificat Christus (S. Aug. in Joann. tr. 84, n. 2). Thus Christ as man is “the Saint of saints” (Dan. 9, 24). — From this infinite dignity and holiness of our Highpriest, Jesus Christ, proceeds the infinite value of all His labors and sufferings, of all His merits and satisfactions during His mortal life.

b) “We therefore have a great Highpriest, Jesus Christ the Son of God” (Heb. 4, 14), who is most pleasing to God by His infinite majesty and fulness of grace. On the other hand, the perfection of His priestly life and labors was greatly enhanced, in so far as He voluntarily humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, lovingly subjected Himself to the infirmities of fallen man and cheerfully assumed our weaknesses. — This self-renunciation He practised as well for the sake of penance and atonement, as for our example and consolation, that we, “looking on Him, who having joy set before Him endured the shame” (Heb. 12, 2), may neither succumb to the labors and difficulties of our earthly pilgrimage, nor despond amid the fears and anguish of death.⁹9Absque dubio congruum fuit, Christum assumere naturam nostram cum defectibus et poenalitatibus, et hoc triplici ex causa, principaliter videlicet propter pretium nostrae salutis, propter exemplum virtutis et propter fulcimentum nostrae fragilitatis. — Propter pretium nostrae salutis, quia proposuerat nos redimere non corruptibilibus auro et argento, sed pretioso sanguine suo (1 Petr. 1, 18), et animam suam ponere pro animabus nostris. Ad hoc autem non esset idoneus, nisi naturam deficientem et passibilem assumpsisset, et propterea defectus nostros et poenalitates debuit in seipso habere. — Alia etiam ex causa congruum fuit hoc ipsum, videlicet propter exemplum virtutis, specialiter autem humilitatis, patientiae et pietatis, quibus mediantibus pervenitur ad coelum, et in quibus Christus voluit nos imitari ipsum secundum illud: “Discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde” (Matth. 11, 29). — Tertia ratio est propter fulcimentum nostrae fragilitatis, ob quam natura rationalis habet in se difficultatem ad credendum vera, et irascibilis ad sperandum ardua, et concupiscibilis ad amandum bona. Et ideo voluit Christus non tantum nobis similari in natura, sed etiam in defectibus et poenalitatibus ut, manifestando in se veritatem humanae naturae, praeberet fulcimentum nostrae rationali ad credendum; ostendendo nihilominus immensitatem suae misericordiae per susceptionem nostrae miseriae, praeberet irascibili fulcimentum ad sperandum; ostendendo magnitudinem suae benevolentiae, praeberet concupiscibili incitamentum ad se amandum. — Et ideo licet incongruum videatur, hujusmodi defectus reperiri in Christo, si per se considerentur; tamen, si ad finem referantur, magna reperitur congruitatis condecentia (S. Bonav. IV, dist. 15, a. 1, q. 1). — Cfr. S. Thom. 3, q. 14, a. 1. The keen air, the cold and p. 35heat affected His delicate body; His holy soul was filled with fear and anguish, with sadness and sorrow; He was hungry and thirsty, He travelled and was fatigued, He fled and concealed Himself; He groaned in spirit and was afflicted; He wept with us poor mortals in this vale of tears. Therefore, how animating and encouraging, how refreshing and consoling, is it to glance devoutly at our Redeemer who so lovingly immolated Himself to the sufferings, infirmities and wants of our mortal life. This the apostle teaches when he says: “Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful Highpriest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people. For we have not a Highpriest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are—without sin. For in that, wherein He Himself hath suffered and been tempted, He is able to succor them also that are tempted. Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid” (Heb. 2, 17–18; 4, 15–16).

The heavenly privileges and prerogatives of the humanity of Christ, by which He approached so near to God, as well as the earthly infirmities and miseries which He compassionately shared with us, have contributed to give honor and glory to the Father, (John 8, 49; 14, 23),¹⁰10Quoniam Deus est justus et beatus, impassibilis et immortalis, homo vero lapsus est peccator et miser, passibilis et mortalis: necesse fuit, mediatorem Dei et hominum, ut posset hominem reducere ad Deum, cum Deo communicare in justitia et beatitudine, cum homine vero in passibilitate et mortalitate, ut sic habendo mortalitatem transeuntem et beatitudinem permanentem, hominem reduceret de praesenti miseria ad vitam beatam (S. Bonav. Breviloq. P. 4, c. 8). and also to redeem and sanctify mankind. Christ stooped to us, in order to raise us up; His humiliation is our exaltation, His poverty our riches; His sufferings are our joys, His wounds our cure, His death is our life. Our Lord is not only great, holy and powerful, and therefore infinitely worthy of praise; but also “for us men and for our salvation” He became little, poor, insignificant, and, therefore, infinitely deserving of love. “Tanto mihi carior, quanto pro me vilior!” Yes, we have such a Redeemer that the Church in ecstatic, overflowing exaltation of heart can sing: O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem! “O happy fault, which has merited such and so great a Redeemer!” “Truly should we be exceedingly joyful over the happy change, in consequence of which we have been transferred from earthly lowliness to the glory of heaven, through the unspeakable mercy of Him who has descended to us, in order to elevate us to Him; so that He assumed not only the form, but also the condition of our sinful humanity, and that His divinity, incapable of suffering, permitted all the misery of mortal humanity to come upon Him.”¹¹11St. Leo, First Discourse on the Resurrection of our Lord.