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ply going through the motions as they butchered the animals of sacrifice. It is also easy to imagine the people going through the motions of religious duty, forgetting that their sacrifices should express a true spirit of obedience.
The multiple sacrifices of the Old Testament gave way to the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The one sacrifice of Christ, expressing the “new and everlasting covenant,” rendered obsolete the sacrifices of the Old Law. Nevertheless, the horror of the Cross, in itself, has no meaning without mercy. It is the mercy of Christ — his love for sinners and His perfect obedience to the Father “unto death” — that gives the Cross meaning. Jesus on the Cross is truly the sacrificial “Lamb of God” who, with infinite mercy, takes away the sins of the world.
In God’s providence, others were given the privilege to participate in the saving action of Christ. At the foot of the Cross, Mary joined her grief with the sufferings of Christ in an act of true compassion. The Cross became a sacrificial sign of her generous love and mercy as well.
But not everyone at the foot of the Cross could make the same claim. The Roman soldiers, going through the motions of another day on the job, were indifferent to and contemptuous of the suffering of Christ. For them, the Cross was not a sign of sacrifice, but an indictment of their brutality.
For us, the Cross can also be a sacrificial sign of our mercy or
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