For us today ‘sacrifice’ is simply a way of describing a giving up of something we value – perhaps to help those in need or someone we love.  It implies some kind of cost to ourselves but little more.  In the time of Christ ‘sacrifice’ was a much more vivid concept.  Most religions, including Judaism, involved sacrifice as a regular part of their worship – a way of thanking God, or to reinforce prayer with a gift, or perhaps to appease God’s anger.  It meant taking the life of an animal or setting aside some other foodstuff such as grain.  In some cases the setting aside was marked by total destruction through fire.  In others part was retained and shared as a sign of communion with God.  In a world never far from hunger such a gesture meant a great deal.  This was why when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple they were permitted as poor people to offer two doves instead of a lamb.  This idea of sacrifice runs through all three readings today.  Isaiah speaks of the suffering servant who will offer his life in atonement for the people.  In St Mark’s Gospel Jesus hints at how this will be fulfilled in his self-offering on the cross – “Can you drink the cup that I must drink?”  Christ is both the lamb of sacrifice and the High Priest of the New Covenant.  From this week our second reading is taken from the Letter to the Hebrews which invites us to reflect on Our Lord’s role as the Eternal High Priest.  When we call the Mass a sacrifice we do so not because of the bread and wine we offer but because through these sacramental signs we are united, by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the one sacrifice Christ offered once on the cross two thousand years ago, and now in the eternal present of heaven.