e, and were He without wish to offer Himself in sacrifice, He would
not have been able to guide a single soul. There was no doubt that His
blessed blood would be shed and His body broken. Nevertheless, that Holy
Soul accepted calamity and death in His love for mankind. This is one of
the meanings of sacrifice.

As to the second meaning: He said, "I am the living bread which came down
from heaven." It was not the body of Christ which came from heaven. His
body came from the womb of Mary, but the Christly perfections descended
from heaven; the reality of Christ came down from heaven. The Spirit of
Christ and not the body descended from heaven. The body of Christ was but
human. There could be no question that the physical body was born from the
womb of Mary. But the reality of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the
perfections of Christ all came from heaven. Consequently, by saying He was
the bread which came from heaven He meant that the perfections which He
showed forth were divine perfections, that the blessings within Him were
heavenly gifts and bestowals, that His light was the light of Reality. He
said, "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." That is to
say, whosoever assimilates these divine perfections which are within me
will never die; whosoever has a share and partakes of these heavenly
bounties I embody will find eternal life; he who takes unto himself these
divine lights shall find everlasting life. How manifest the meaning is!
How evident! For the soul which acquires divine perfections and seeks
heavenly illumination from the teachings of Christ will undoubtedly live
eternally. This is also one of the mysteries of sacrifice.

In reality, Abraham sacrificed Himself, for He brought heavenly teachings
to the world and conferred heavenly food upon mankind.

As to the third meaning of sacrifice, it is this: If you plant a seed in
the ground, a tree will become manifest from that seed. The seed
sacrifices itself to the tree that will come from it. The seed is
outwardly lost, destroyed; but the same seed which is sacrificed will be
absorbed and embodied in the tree, its blossoms, fruit and branches. If
the identity of that seed had not been sacrificed to the tree which became
manifest from it, no branches, blossoms or fruits would have been
forthcoming. Christ outwardly disappeared. His personal identity became
hidden from the eyes, even as the identity of the seed disappeared; but
the bounties, divine q