Essays in Idleness

Lift up your hearts, the priests have been saying in the Anaphora, or “carrying up” of the offering, in the Apostolic tradition of countless centuries.  The spirit of the Eucharist — the Sacrifice of the Mass — is the opposite of depressing. In the account of Abraham binding Isaac, and the instruction from Elohim for his release, there is something not merely optimistic, nor libertarian. Verily, we go beyond that.

Abraham, according to the Jewish rabbis, knew perfectly well that God does not command human sacrifice. This “Judeo-Christian” God is not the God of the Aztecs, or the God of Muslim terrorists, and in this tale, He conveys the extraordinary information to the humans. In the story of Christ, He explains this once again. We are to be “lifted up” as Isaac was lifted, and as Christ was lifted, in the Resurrection.

But outside the Mass, human sacrifice continues. It is what the humans do, when they revert to their animal condition. They are wild, and dangerous.