Have any of you seen, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe? There is a scene where Aslan goes and sacrifices his life on the Altar for the people of Narnia. Every single time I get to this part of the movie, I tear up some. Holy. Smokes. The imagery of the big beautiful Lion being shaved & striped of its protection then being bound and sacrificed is beyond words. Then the alter breaks. I get chills just thinking of it.
If, however, a person brings a lamb as a purification offering, that person shall bring an unblemished female, and lay a hand on its head. It shall be slaughtered as a purification offering in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. The priest shall then take some of the blood of the purification offering on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the communion sacrifice. The priest shall burn these on the altar with the other oblations for the LORD. Thus the priest shall make atonement on the person’s behalf for the wrong committed, that the individual may be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:32-35)
If we bring ourselves forward during Mass and truly give ourselves to the Lord, He will do just as Aslan did in the movie. He will shed everything that we may have brought with us to Mass. He will allow us to shed all the fat, shed all the hair and behold the offering. Behold the sacrificial Lamb. Because as soon as he shed the fat and hair, He stops and lays down his life
You see, the Lord this Friday is making the ultimate sacrifice for us. He is laying down His very life so that we can have life.
We all come with many burdens, a lot of fur and fat in our life. The Lord doesn’t care what the color, or condition, or how much it is, because in four short days He is taking you as you are, no matter the fat or fur you have-no matter how much or how little. Because on Friday, He is going to go through everything: scourging, beating, pushing, carrying a cross, getting nailed to it and dying, all for you. He is the unblemished lamb who, at every Mass, lays His life on the altar for us every single Mass.
And ultimately, on Friday, he is laying his life down for us. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the World. As we are slowly getting closer to Friday, behold the Lamb and all that he has for you. He wants to take your sins away - go meet him in the Eucharist.
