OFFERING AN UNENDING SACRIFICE OF PRAISE


SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 

Heb 13:15-17,20-21; Ps 23; Mk 6:30-34

The unending Sacrifice of Praise

Still dwelling on the epilogue of the letter to the Hebrews, the author brings to our awareness the simple sacrifice we all can and should be offering God daily. The sacrifice is our praise and thanksgiving to God. It seems simple and easy, but praise and thanksgiving are the best outpouring of our spiritual life and vitality. The offering of praise and thanksgiving to God is indicative of the spiritual well-being of a soul and also causative of such well-being in our souls. The offering of this sacrifice is made possible by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The author rightly states that we offer the verbal sacrifice through Jesus Christ. “Through Christ, let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise, verbal sacrifice that is offered every time we acknowledge his name.” Praise and thanksgiving are expressions of the outflowing of the font of living water that Christ has opened in us by his sacrificial death, which cleanses us of sins, evil, and its tendencies. Thus, it is a clear expression of the sacrificial orientation of the Son that we have received. It is also the easiest way to maintain the sacrificial orientation in us. Praise and thanksgiving are not just expressions but also cause our re-entrance into the joy of our salvation in the Holy Spirit.

The source of the verbal sacrifice is a heart gladdened by an understanding of God’s bountiful gift to us in his Son. Thus, the verbal sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is a prelude to the outpouring of our lives in response to God’s self-outpouring in his Son for our salvation. The author, therefore, adds to the unending verbal sacrifice of praise, the continuity in good works and charity. “Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are sacrifices that please God.” By joining the two together, he shows that the two complete each other and form a unity of a Christian’s sacrifice of his life. The two constitute the meaning of our consecration. Our prayers, meditations, and contemplations, both in private and in the community, initiate the flow of the verbal sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Our total commitment to good works prompted by the Holy Spirit follows as the completion of our verbal sacrifice. The words and works of the ordained priests and ministers are the means God uses to foster the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. We must listen and follow them as instruments in God’s hand. “Obey your leaders and do as they tell you, because they must give an account of the way they look after your souls; make this a joy for them to do, and not a grief—you yourselves would be the losers.” If the lives of the ministers are not expressing the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, it would be difficult for the people to follow suit.

The gospel illustrates the mediated ministration of God’s word, love, and providential care. Our Lord works through his disciples, whom he sent out to preach the Good News, to reach out to more souls and bring them to share his life of consecration to the Father’s will. These disciples were coming back from the ministration of the love and care they received from the Lord himself. “Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’; for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves.” The Lord intends to guide and shepherd his flock, but he can only achieve this through us when we have fully imbibed his sacrificial orientation. By sharing in the Lord’s consecration to the Father through the sacrificial orientation disposing us to work with the Holy Spirit, we extend his presence and goodness to many who enter the fold through our sacrifices. A sure way of quickly reaching the restful waters where the Lord refreshes our spirits is by offering an unending sacrifice of praise. The Blessed Virgin Mary was in the habit of doing this; we ask for her prayers to form this holy habit.

Let us pray: Grant, Lord God, that we, your servants, may rejoice in unfailing health of mind and body, and, through the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, may be set free from present sorrow and come to enjoy eternal happiness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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