The Church Fathers have seen in the sacrifice of Isaac a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus. Isaac, the only son of Abraham, the beloved, burdened with the wood towards the mountain where he is to be sacrificed, is a figure of Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, the Beloved, who walks with the cross on his back towards 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 offering of Abraham, the offering of his son. He is our father in faith. Direct your serene and kind gaze upon this offering, we say to God the Father: accept it as you accepted the gifts of the righteous Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the pure offering of your high priest Melchizedek...2.
Abraham's obedience is the maximum expression of his unconditional faith in God. Therefore, he received Isaac again and, after having offered him, received him as a symbol. He thought, in fact, that God is powerful to raise from the dead; therefore he received him again and it was like an image of what was to come3.
Origen points out that the sacrifice of Isaac helps us to better understand the mystery of Redemption. The fact that Isaac carried the wood for the holocaust is a figure of Christ who carried his cross on his back. But, at the same time, carrying the wood for the holocaust is the task of the priest. Then Isaac was both victim and priest (...). Christ is at the same time Victim and High Priest. According to the spirit, in fact, he offers the victim to his Father; according to the flesh, He himself is offered on the altar of the Cross4. Therefore, each Mass has an infinite, immense value, which we cannot fully understand: it rejoices the entire heavenly court, relieves the poor souls of purgatory, attracts upon the earth all sorts of blessings, and gives more glory to God than all the sufferings of the martyrs together, than the penances of all the saints, than all the tears shed for them since the beginning of the world and everything they do until the end of the ages
HCD