The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 351law on Mount Sinai, He gave His servant the mostminute details with regard to all the ceremonies tobe observed in the sacrifices which were to be offered to Him. He prescribed the kind of victims tobe immolated, the qualifications of the priests whowere to minister at the altar, and the place andmanner in which the victims were to be offered.Hence, it was the custom of the Jewish priests toslny every day two lambs, as a sacrifice to God ;rand in doing this they were prefiguring the greatsacrifice of the New Law, in which we daily offerup on the altar Lamb "the of God, who takethaway the sins of the world/In a word, in all their public calamities wheneverthey were threatened by their enemies; wheneverthey were about to engage in war ;whenever theywere visited by any plague or pestilence the Jewshad recourse to God by solemn sacrifices. And likethe Catholic Church of the present day, they hadsacrifices not only for the living, but also for thedead. For, we find in sacred Scripture that JudasMachabeus ordered sacrifice to be offered up forthe souls of his men who were slain in battle. 2And we find sacrifices existing not only amongthe Jews who worshipped the true God, but alsoamong Pagan and idolatrous nations.No matter how confused or imperfect or erroneous was their knowledge of the Deity, still, the Pagannations retained sufficient vestiges of primitivetra<Numb, xxviii.2 II. Mac. xii. 43-46.