Catholic Radio Dramas

Christ Offered Himself for Us

From a treatise on faith addressed to Peter by Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop (468-533)

Christ offered himself for us

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

The sacrifices of animal victims which our forefathers were commanded to offer to God by the Holy Trinity itself, the one God of the Old and the New Testaments, foreshadowed the most acceptable gift of all. This was the offering which in his compassion the only Son of God would make of himself in his human nature for our sake.

The Apostle teaches that Christ offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. He is the true God and the true High Priest who for our sake entered once for all into the holy of holies, taking with him not the blood of bulls and goats but his own blood. This was foreshadowed by the high priest of old when each year he took blood and entered the holy of holies.

Christ is therefore the one who in himself alone embodied all that he knew to be necessary to achieve our redemption. He is at once priest and sacrifice, God and temple. He is the priest through whom we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the temple in which we have been reconciled, the sacrifice by which we have been reconciled, the God with whom we have been reconciled. He alone is priest, sacrifice and temple because he is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but he is not alone as God, for he is this with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of God.

Hold fast to this and never doubt it: the only-begotten Son, God the Word, becoming man offered himself for us to God as a fragrant offering and sacrifice. In the time of the Old Testament, patriarchs, prophets and priests sacrificed animals in his honor, and in honor of the Father and the Holy Spirit as well. Now in the time of the new testament the holy Catholic Church throughout the world never ceases to offer the sacrifice of bread and wine, in faith and love, to him and to the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shares one Godhead.

Those animal sacrifices foreshadowed the flesh of Christ which he would offer for our sins, though himself without sin, and the blood which he would pour out for the forgiveness of our sins. In this sacrifice there is thanksgiving for, and commemoration of, the flesh of Christ that he offered for us, and the blood that the same God poured out for us. On this Saint Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles: Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which he won for himself by his blood.

Those sacrifices of old pointed in sign to what was to be given to us. In this sacrifice we see plainly what has already been given to us. Those sacrifices foretold the death of the Son of God for sinners. In this sacrifice he is proclaimed as already slain for sinners, as the Apostle testifies: Christ died for the wicked at a time when we were still powerless, and when we were enemies we were reconciled with God through the death of his Son.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Crucifixion – Painting by TINTORETTO – 1565

Saint Fulgentius (468-533) was born in 468 of a noble Roman senatorial family of Carthage. He helped manage the family estate when his father died and was well known for his ability. He was appointed procurator and tax receiver of Byzacena but then, at twenty-two, he was led to the religious life by the writings of St. Augustine, whose influence remained with him the rest of his life. He entered a monastery governed by an orthodox bishop, Faustus, who had been driven from his see by Arian King Huneric. Fulgentius’ mother caused such an uproar with over Faustus accepting her son into the monastery that both Faustus and Fulgentius left to enter another monastery nearby. In 499 they were forced to flee the invading Numidians and went to Sicca Veneria. There they were arrested by an Arian priest who had them scourged and tortured. But they refused to apostatize from their orthodoxy and they were eventually released. Fulgentius went to Rome to visit the tombs of the apostles and on his return to Byzacena built another monastery there and became its abbot. He lived as a hermit but in 508 was appointed bishop of Ruspe.

He became a defender of the Catholic position upholding veneration of images of the saints when the Byzantine Emperors had issued edicts prohibiting this practice. Fulgentius produced a collection of outstanding written works, among them Fount of Wisdom, on philosophy, heresies, and the orthodox faith, and De Fide Orthodoxa, a comprehensive presentation of the teachings of the Greek Fathers on the main Christian doctrines. This work is one of the most notable theological presentations of antiquity. He died at Sabas in 533 and was the last of the Greek Fathers of the Church. He was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890.