As I look at today's reading from Leviticus I make three observations in particular. First we see that sacrifice is to have extremely high importance among the people of Israel. They are not to make sacrifices according to their desire, the location they happen to be in, the customs of their surrounding culture, or any such thing. Sacrificial offerings have a specific revealed pattern. Second, the people are not to eat or drink blood like the pagans do. There is to be a distinction, a reverence for life. The blood is to be disposed of by returning it to the earth or through use in sacramental ways, such as sprinkling it on the altar. Finally, the people of Israel are free to eat of food they catch. It is animals for sacrifice which require special treatment. As long as the Israelites abstain from blood they are welcome to eat what clean animals they have hunted.
Our Lord does want his people to have adequate food. At the same time, he has set aside life, blood, sacrifice. He guards these essentials while allowing considerable freedom in what and where we eat. May we eat and drink in loving dependence on the Lord, the Son of God, the true Lamb of God, who has poured out his life, his blood, for us.
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