The Offering
I want to give a brief reflection on a “Weekly Paragraphs for the Holy Sacrament: Trinity vi” by Austin Farrer, from THE CROWN OF THE YEAR:
THE alms for which your generosity is asked are nothing exterior to the sacrament, but a part of it. If you were living in the days of the ancient church, you would be bringing not money, but cakes of bread and flasks of wine. All would be placed upon the altar; part would be consecrated for the eucharist, the remainder would be given to the sick and poor. Now you bring money. But your money is still presented along with the bread and wine, and it still means the same thing. The offering is your offering; it is you yourselves who are laid on the altar to be consecrated, and to be made the body of Christ. Your gift is a token of yourself. I break the bread for the death of Christ, and we are all sacrificed to God in Christ's death, dying in him to our own will, and receiving Christ our true life in communion.
Whether we come and give weekly, monthly, or in a lump sum, each week we participate in the offering ourselves by giving our first fruits to God. The practice of giving first fruits originates in the Old Testament, where God commanded the Israelites to bring the first portion of their harvest to the temple or priests. Scriptures such as Exodus 23:19 instruct, “Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God,” and Leviticus 23:10 says, “When you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest”. Proverbs 3:9-10 emphasizes the spiritual principle: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Whether it is your tithe or your pledge for the building campaign, know that it is “your offering; it is you yourselves who are laid on the altar to be consecrated, and to be made the body of Christ.”
Our giving is an acknowledgement of God’s blessing in your life, of his due honor and worship, and of how we participate in receiving Christ. Where, as one body, we come and offer ourselves to God for the life of the world. Our giving takes on a Eucharistic element. We receive Christ in Word and Sacrament, but we also receive him in our giving, in our caring for the poor, and in our fellowship with one another as the body of Christ. All are joined in the Eucharistic offering, where “we are all sacrificed to God in Christ's death, dying in him to our own will, and receiving Christ our true life in communion.”
Pax et Bonum,
Fr. Aaron