Confirmation of the Covenant. Blood of Victims sprinkled on the People.
Besides the two tables of stone, on which the Decalogue was
written, the Lord gave Moses a great many other infinitely wise
laws, relating to the ceremonies of religion as well as to the ordinary duties of everyday life. 1 Moses wrote them out, and next
morning had an altar made at the foot of the mountain that
seemed to be the very throne of God. Around the altar were twelve
pillars, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel. This work
being finished, Moses summoned the multitude to the ceremony of
confirming the covenant.
All came forth, and ranged themselves around the altar. Vic-
tims were offered. Moses read the Book of the Law. The people
answered : " We will do all that the Lord commands." Then
Moses, standing near the altar, and taking a bunch of hyssop, with
some scarlet wool, mixed a little pure water with the blood of the
victims, and sprinkled the Book of the Law with the mysterious
fluid. He next sprinkled each of the twelve tribes in succession,
saying : " This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath
made with you."
By this aspersion the Lord, in the person of Moses, ratified the
alliance, and engaged to fulfil His part of it. The people, wet with
the blood of victims, renewed their oaths, and submitted them-
selves to punishment if they should transgress. In virtue of this
contract, the children of Israel from that very time acquired a
particular title to the denomination of the " people of God ;" and
God declared Himself to be in a special manner the God, the Father,
and the King of the children of Israel, Never had a more august
or imposing ceremony been witnessed. Nevertheless, it was
only the shadow of that which, more than fifteen centuries
later on, should confirm the new alliance of the Lord with mankind
in general, when the Messias, the Son of God, and God Himself,
would ratify it by the effusion of His own blood, and become at once
the Victim and the Mediator of the covenant. Moses on this occa-
sion was a figure of our Lord.
To confirm the old alliance, Moses erected an altar, surrounded
with twelve pillars ; our Lord, to confirm the new alliance, also
prepared an altar, surrounded by His twelve apostles. The twelve
pillars represented all the people of Israel; the twelve apostles
represented the whole Church. It was after descending from the
mountain, whence he bore to the Israelites the Law of God, that Moses
offered his sacrifice ; it was after descending from heaven, whence
He brought us a Divine Law, that our Lord offered His sacrifice.
Moses immolated victims and poured out the blood on the people ;
our Lord immolated Himself and gave His blood to His apostles to
drink. Moses, when pouring out the blood of victims, said : " This
is the blood of the alliance which the Lord makes with you Our
Lord, when giving His blood to His apostles, said : u This is the
blood of the new alliance which the Lord makes with mankind."
The people, sprinkled with the blood of victims, became the
people of God, who promised to protect them in the desert and to
lead them into the Promised Land; in like manner, we,
being washed and purified with the blood of our Lord, became the
true people of God, who promises to protect us in the desert of this
life and to lead us to the joys of heaven. From the time of the con-
firmation of the alliance there existed among the Hebrews two kinds
of sacrifices, bloody and unbloody ; 1 since our Lord confirmed the
new alliance, we observe among Christians the bloody sacrifice of
Calvary and the unbloody sacrifice of our altars. In the bloody
sacrifices of the Old Law the victim was put to death; in the
bloody sacrifice of the New Law the victim is also put to
death.
In the unbloody sacrifice of the Old Law the victim was not
put to death ; in the unbloody sacrifice of the New Law the victim
is not put to death as on Calvary : it is mystically immolated. For
our -Lord, having once risen from the dead, dieth now no more.
The matter of the unbloody sacrifices of the Old Law was flour and
wine ; the matter of the unbloody sacrifice of the New Law is
bread and wine, which are changed into the body and blood of our
Lord. The various sacrifices of the Old Law were offered for four
principal ends: to adore, to thank, to impetrate, and to expiate;
the sacrifice of the New Law includes in itself alone all these
excellences : it is a sacrifice of adoration, of thanksgiving, of impetration, and of expiation. In the Old Law a lamb, without blemish,
was sacrificed every morning and evening, as a substitute for all
other kinds of sacrifices ; to perpetuate the sacrifice of Calvary,
which has taken the place of all the ancient sacrifices, the Lamb of
God is sacrificed every day, nay, at every hour of the day and the
night, on our altars—for during eighteen centuries there have
always been priests in some part of the world celebrating the Holy
Mass.
Thus you see that every sacrifice of the Old Law was only a figure
of the sacrifice of our Lord, as the Old Law itself was only a figure of the New. Hence, we reckon the ancient sacrifices as the tenth figure of our Lord.