11 August 2019
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“In secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice, and carried out with one mind the divine institution.” This is how the biblical book of Wisdom (18:9) describes the night of the Passover. The holy children of the good are the Israelites. The sacrifice offered in secret was the first Passover, including the slaughter of the Passover lamb, the consumption of its flesh, and the spreading of its blood upon the doorposts. The book of Wisdom also calls this “the divine institution,” because it had been commanded by God through his servant Moses.
This verse bears considerable weight for the practitioner of Ignatian Spirituality. The focus of Ignatian Spirituality is, of course, on Jesus Christ, who offered himself, the true child of the good, as the perfect sacrifice, of one mind with the divine institution of God the Father. The real purpose of the Spiritual Exercises is to help us to become more of one mind with the divine institution for us, so that we can make decisions in accordance with that institution.
Consider how this verse mentions that the sacrifice of the Israelites was made “in secret.” They made the sacrifice in the privacy of their homes, not in order to show off. Jesus also made his sacrifice in secret in two senses. First, it did not appear to be a religious, ritualized sacrifice, but rather the torture and execution of a criminal by crucifixion. It was also secret because at the time of the crucifixion, the bulk of Christ’s disciples had abandoned him or worse. Again, the purpose of sacrifice is not to show off. True sacrifice has its own divine efficacy, even if it is ignored by one’s neighbors.
Will you be called upon today to make a sacrifice in secret? If so, unite it with the sacrifice of Christ, especially by participating in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. May God bring your mind ever closer to his divine institution.