ob·la·tion
noun: a thing presented or offered to God.
The Hebrew scriptures contain many passages about things offered to God. The system of sacrifice and offering described in the book Leviticus is a bit complex with its many commands about what to offer and when for expressions of thanksgiving, restoration, guilt, and for making atonement. I remember from my seminary days when our liturgy professor would check our homework by asking for a so-called “wave” offering (Lev. 8:27). He would say “Show me your homework by wave offering” and we would hold up and wave our homework papers like they were a sheaf of grain.
In actual practice, the Temple priests would take the wave offering and wave it before the Lord in thanksgiving on behalf of the people. One occasion for the wave offering was following the first harvest of the year. This was the barley harvest and corresponded to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. People would present a sheaf of barley grain as an offering of the “first fruits” - the best - of that harvest.
In the Gospels, we hear of another form of oblation. For several weeks recently in our Sunday readings, we have heard Jesus talk about his own self-oblation. He tells his disciples several times that he is to be betrayed, handed over to the authorities, made to suffer and be killed. He tells them plainly that he gives his life for the sake of others (Mk 10:45).
The Letter to the Hebrews makes much of the comparison and contrast of the offering of Jesus Christ and the Levitical priesthood. Unlike the repeated sacrifices in the Temple, his life self-offered is the perfect sacrifice once made for atonement that ends the need for all further atoning sacrifices (Heb 7:27).
In their differing ways, each of the Eucharistic prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, makes mention of this oblation. You will read this most fully stated in the Rite I prayers but it is found in all of them when they speak of his sacrificial and atoning death. Like the Hebrew scriptures that call for the participation of the people in making an offering, the Gospels invite all into the practice of self-oblation. Jesus invites all who would be his people to take up the cross and follow him. That is an invitation to imitate and walk in the pathway of self-offering that Jesus walked.
As people who make self-oblation, like Jesus Christ we offer our selves, our souls and our bodies, for the sake of the Gospel. The Gospels tell us that this is neither easy to accept nor to live out without some good measure of grace. The disciples failed to understand Jesus’ talk of his death and resurrection. They likely failed to initially grasp what he meant when he reinterpreted the offering of bread and wine as an offering of himself.
The self-oblation of God is a deeply mysterious thing and one that distinguishes the Christian faith from others. Our own walking the way of Jesus and practicing self-oblation is also a mysterious thing but understand that our gathering for the celebration of Holy Eucharist plays an important role in this. When we gather and receive the sacrament, we are being lifted up, encouraged, prayed for, forgiven, healed, and fed with grace so that we may be sent out to do the work God has given us to do - to go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
All then that we do, when we are mindful of who we are and who we serve, can be a self-oblation and the stuff of a life lived as an offering to God.
Grace and peace and self-oblation be yours,
Fr. Bill+