©
Maria Valtorta (Itália, ano 1897-1961) - Obra: "Lições sobre a Carta de São Paulo aos Romanos" (1948-1950) The most divine Author
[The Holy Spirit] says,
«"A Living Sacrifice – reasonable service."
The Sacrifices were the basis and the forms of ancient religion. Everything was obtained and everything was expiated by means of sacrifices. Through the sacrifice, one intended to honour God and appease Him, thanking Him for a victory or for a healing. It was the era of the material sacrifice. And it was logical that it was such, given that there was no other rite, nor any other obvious way of honouring the Eternal and invoking His help. Man, who had still not been taught by the Incarnate Word and who was lacking a holy Victim for a perpetual and perfect Sacrifice, nevertheless felt, through even a natural law, that the Creator, the true God or the god worshipped in individual religions, was to be offered the same gifts that He had given to man, and thus [man] used animals and fruits of the earth in a burnt offering so that they could be truly sacrificed.
However, were they "a living sacrifice"? No. They were the sacrifices of animals or of plant products, the first being already dead and the second already up-rooted from the nourished earth. There was no living victim placed to consume his sacrifice in order to honour God. And the sacrifice was always relative, even if it was of large animals of great material value.
Never, prior to the Christ-Lamb being immolated in order to appease and expiate divine wrath and human sins, never had a man been sacrificed except in idolatrous religions, or had sacrificed himself in order to give perfect honour and atonement to God. And therefore, the sacrifice was always relative and imperfect since, on account of the sins of men, animals which were less guilty than men, were immolated, substituting upon the altar the one who was truly guilty. And all sins, through God’s kindness and who had Himself indicated these sacrifices in expectation of the perfect sacrifice, were expiated thus.
All except one: Original Sin. For that one, mountains of victims would not have been sufficient. Even if in one go, all the bulls, calves, lambs and goats were to have been immolated, which for centuries had transformed the Temple into a perpetual slaughter-house, especially during ritual feasts, flowing with rivers of blood and smoking with the fires of the victims, the sacrifice would not have been sufficient to wash out Original Sin.
So that the spirit of man could be restored to Grace and man restored to his dignity as a child of God, co-heir of Heaven and so that Justice could be appeased and Evil conquered, a perfect Victim was needed, a unique Victim who, being God as the offended God, would pay as God to God, the redemption of man, and as the most Holy Man, He would expiate for the sinful man.
Only the Man-God, Jesus, could have appeased God and redeemed man, being true God and true Man.
And Jesus was immolated. However, His Sacrifice was not consumed on dead flesh, but on a living Body onto which all the torments were hurled in order to expiate all the sins of which the Innocent One had burdened Himself so as to consume them all.
Total sacrifice: of the spirit of Christ tested by the abandonment of the Father in order to make amends for the sin of the spirit of Adam, guilty for having abandoned God and His Law; of the perfect intellect of the Son of Man in order to make amends for the pride of Adam; of the innocent flesh of the Lamb of God in order to make amends for Adam’s lust. And so that the world, forever a sinner, could always have a perfect victim in the presence of the immolation, the eternal Christ and Pontiff constitutes the perpetual sacrifice: that
of the Eucharist in which it is still and always Christ in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity who is offered and consumed upon the altars.
Perpetual sacrifice and living sacrifice. The new sacrifice of the perfect Religion. "This is My Body, this is My Blood which are given up for you. Do this in memory of Me." He uses the present [tense]. Because in fact, until the end of time, the Sacrifice will always be new and always the same as the one consumed by Christ, equally valid before God and in favour of men.
However, to the living Sacrifice which is consumed upon the altars, man must join to it his own individual sacrifice, the one of all hours to be carried out in all his occupations, duties, and above all, in the will of God, even if it is a will of sorrow. A sacrifice that can be either of the flesh, in the form of diseases, poverty and exhausting work; moral, in the form of injustices, calumnies and incomprehension; or spiritual, in the form of persecutions on the part of men or abandonments of God in order to test the faith of His servant. And more: faithfulness to the Law by preserving bodies, thoughts, sentiments and spirits in a chaste, just, and loving manner.

 

 
Vide também Vida e Obra de Maria Valtorta
Nota sobre a fonte: Maria Valtorta foi uma mística católica italiana. Durante sua vida, ela foi agraciada com revelações de Jesus Cristo sobre o Evangelho, e também de Nossa Senhora, do Espírito Santo e de vários santos e anjos.