If you are a mother or a father, a grandmother or grandfather, you know what it means to sacrifice for your children or grandchildren. Right? You do. I remember growing up, my parents wanted to send us five kids to Catholic grammar school. They wanted the Catholic community around their children, and they sacrificed every week so that we might go to a Catholic school.

If you are an aunt or an uncle, you know what it means to sacrifice. Right? If you’re an aunt or an uncle. The other day, I got volun-told that I was going to drive my nieces from Grandma’s house to their home, even though that meant going right past my house. We do it, we sacrifice because we love our nieces and nephews.

If you’re a friend, if you’re a friend, you know what it means to sacrifice. Because you know your friend’s going to move, and they’re going to ask for you help in moving. And you know, you’re going to do. You’re going to give up a Saturday to help them move across town.

I’m talking about sacrifice today. I’m talking about sacrifice because we have to get into our hearts what it means to sacrifice. And we further have to get into our hearts what the Israelite people, what the Jewish people, understood by “sacrifice.” So for our Jewish brothers and sisters, for 1500 years before Jesus, they sacrificed daily. Lambs, or calves, or livestock. They put to death that which was very important to them for atonement for their sins. That was a very regular occurrence for our Israelite, for our Jewish brothers and sisters. They sacrificed animals. That sacrificial heart was very much theirs.

Now, what helps me understand the celebration today, of the gift of Jesus’ body and blood, is what St. Paul said in the second reading today. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. He’s the own who shows us that there’s no longer a need for sacrificing lambs or calves or cows, but that he is the new covenant that’s been sacrificed once and for all, totally guilt-free, totally sin-free, unblemished sacrifice that’s been offered for us. He gave us his body and blood. And not only did he give us his body and blood, he gave us himself as a sacrifice, he gave us his body and blood as the beautiful sacrifice that’s repeatable for the rest of our lives, the rest of time. That we celebrate here, at this eucharistic table. Simple bread, simple wine coming forward and become Jesus’ body and blood.

Not only it is an atonement for sins, not only is a gift of everlasting life, not only is it nourishment for our bodies and our souls, it is also the gift of love from God through his son Jesus to all of us. What a gift. Do we live as people who acknowledge the sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us? Once and for all? Do we live as sacrificial people? Let us recommit ourselves to walking as people who live in the sacrifice that Jesus made, for all of humanity, for our brothers and sisters, once and for all.