T. 26. I. 1 – 4. Jesus: “In the ‘dynamics of attack’ is sacrifice a key idea. It is the pivot upon which all compromise, all desperate attempts to strike a bargain, and all conflicts achieve a seeming balance. It is the symbol of the central theme that ‘someone must lose.’ Its focus on the body is apparent, for sacrifice is always an attempt to limit loss.
The little that the body fences off becomes the ‘self,’ preserved through a seeming sacrifice of all the rest. And all the rest must lose this little part, the whole remaining incomplete if only to keep your own identity intact. In this perception of yourself, the body’s loss would be a sacrifice indeed! For sight of bodies becomes the sign that your own sacrifice is limited, and something still remains for you alone.