The sacrifice of Isaac, image and figure of the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. The infinite value of the Mass.
The Fathers of the Church have seen in the sacrifice of Isaac a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus. Isaac, the only son of Abraham, the beloved, carrying the wood to the mountain where he is to be sacrificed, is a figure of Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Beloved, who walks with his cross on his shoulders to Calvary, where he offers himself as a sacrifice of infinite value for all men.
In the Mass, after the Consecration, the Roman Canon celebrates the memory of this oblation of Abraham, the giving of his son. He is our "father in faith". Turn your serene and kindly gaze upon this offering, we say to God the Father:
accept it as you accepted the gifts of righteous Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the pure oblation of your high priest Melchizedek....
Abraham's obedience is the highest expression of his unconditional faith in God. For this reason, he recovered Isaac again and, after having offered him, he received him as a symbol. He thought, in fact, that God is able to raise him from the dead; that is why he recovered him and it was like an image of what is to come.
Origen points out that the sacrifice of Isaac gives us a better understanding of the mystery of the Redemption. "The fact that Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering is a figure of Christ who carried his cross on his shoulders. But, at the same time, carrying the wood for the burnt offering is the task of the priest. So Isaac was both victim and priest (...). Christ is both Victim and High Priest. According to the spirit, he offers the victim to his Father; according to the flesh, he himself is offered on the altar of the Cross ". For this reason, each Mass has an infinite, immense value, which we cannot fully understand: "it rejoices the whole heavenly court, it relieves the poor souls in purgatory, it draws down on earth every blessing, and gives more glory to God than all the sufferings of the martyrs put together, than the penances of all the saints, than all the tears shed for them from the beginning of the world and all that they do until the end of the ages "
Hablar con Dios