By Elizabeth A. Mitchell
Sacrifice is a paradox. A compelling paradox. In his new book, Sacrifice: Religion and the Revitalization of Christian Life, Clemens Cavallin delves deeply into the historical, theological, and salvific nature of sacrifice throughout human and divine history, inviting his readers to a renewed embrace of the true nature of God’s redemptive plan.
This compelling book is a reflection on the reality of sacrifice, both secular and religious, and on its lamentable absence in modernity. Cavallin examines the modern world’s attempt to eliminate sacrifice, and the consequent attempt by some within the Church to reconstruct Christianity without sacrifice.
This endeavor, Cavallin argues, must ultimately prove futile because there exists a fundamental human need for sacrifice and, therefore, for a priestly office and mediation with the supernatural.
Cavallin maintains that our modern non-sacrificial civilization has shaped the Christian Churches themselves, weakening their understanding of sacrifice as a fundamental reality. Modern culture fosters the illusion that peace is possible without a serious reckoning with evil. When catastrophic violence erupts, many modern Christians are, therefore, left bewildered.
The secular narrative assumes that history should continue steadily upward: materially, socially, and psychologically. Yet when that promise fails—when suffering, violence, and disorder persist—discouragement naturally follows.
For Cavallin, this confusion signals a deeper loss. To understand civilization honestly, Christians must recover the centrality of sacrifice. Only then can Christian life regain its vigor and renew its capacity to orient civilization beyond itself, toward the supernatural.
Evil, Cavallin observes, involves the sacrifice of others while one pursues one’s own selfish interests. The gas chambers of the Third Reich, the Soviet gulags, or the ubiquitous abortion clinics of the West are only a few prominent examples.
But the reality of violent evil, of course, is nothing new: it is as old as Cain and Abel. That is why all ancient religions contained some form of sacrifice. Indeed, as Cavallin argues, the need for sacrifice, in response to evil and as a means of communion with the supernatural, is inherent in what it means to be human. Cavallin presents an informative study of comparative religion, viewing sacrificial religion as a general human phenomenon present throughout human history, a phenomenon that is, in fact, even prehistoric.
Cavallin builds all of this on a solid Thomistic foundation, finding much that is positive in natural religion, while recognizing the effects of the Fall on the human intellect and will. The human heart has a natural religious inclination that is ultimately fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, but the Christian can undertake careful discernment and find elements of profound truth in other religious traditions on the philosophical, theological, and spiritual plane.
Cavallin guides the reader through that careful discernment, examining themes of sacrifice present in natural religion; the distinction between the sacred and the profane; the relationship between violence and sacrifice; and the ultimate fulfillment of natural sacrifice and its transformation by Christ on the Cross.
Ritual sacrifice, Cavallin observes, requires a sacred place and time in which the sacrifice is performed. The rite unites humans with the gods. At the center of the rite is the offering of the victim, an action that demands violence because the victim must be immolated. The immolated victim may serve as a scapegoat, a substitute that offers redemption and communion with the gods as a result of its sacrifice.
That is why sacrifice necessarily also includes a meal, a meal to which the gods are also invited. Even when the prophets criticized the sacrifices of ancient Israel, pointing out that they did not correspond to the necessary interior conversion and obedience to God, they did not call for the abolition of the external rite inherent in public sacrifice.
Rather, the interior attitude of sacrifice is mediated through the sacralization and ritualization of human action, in accordance with man’s nature as a social animal. All of these ideas contribute to Cavallin’s ultimate argument that Christianity must rediscover the centrality of sacrifice if it wishes to remain culturally relevant.
These various aspects of sacrifice in its interior and exterior dimensions find their ultimate fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. This sacrifice was accomplished once for all on Calvary, but is now made present under the form of bread and wine in the liturgical sacrifice that is central to Christian worship.
As Cavallin aptly observes, the Christian rite becomes “a privileged meeting point between matter and spirit, earth and heaven, interior and exterior, and individual and community. And in the midst of this nexus is sacrifice as an expression of love.”
He concludes with a warning and a promise. If Christian life neglects sacrifice, merely aspiring to make earthly existence ever better, it will ultimately only exhaust and disappoint. But if Christian life can recover sacrifice as its central purpose and, indeed, its defining element, it will recover the centrality of love, the love of the immortal and eternal Divinity who placed Himself in the lowest place and offered Himself as the price of our redemption. His sacrifice then invites every Christian to make similar offerings, transforming their lives into sacrificial gifts for their neighbors and, indeed, for God Himself. Such an understanding of sacrifice demands a willingness to martyrdom.
Cavallin’s study will reward the persevering reader with a renewed understanding and appreciation of the fundamental role of sacrifice in Christian life. It is this Sacrifice, this Great Love, Who calls us to join Him in offering Himself in Love to the Father. Cavallin’s book offers light and motivation to the Christian struggling to make sense of our contemporary chaos, dispelling the darkness with a ray of divine Light: the sacrificial and salvific Love of Jesus Christ.
About the Author
Dr. Elizabeth A. Mitchell, S.C.D., received her doctorate in Social Institutional Communication from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where she worked as a translator for the Holy See Press Office and L’Osservatore Romano. She is Dean of Students at Trinity Academy, a private independent Catholic K-12 school in Wisconsin, and serves as an advisor to the St. Gianna and Pietro Molla International Center for Family and Life and as a theological advisor to Nasarean.org, a mission advocating on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Her new book is St. Edith Stein’s Aesthetic. Beauty and Sanctity: Masterpiece of the Divine Artist.