If you were in a room full of people and began to talk about the need for progress in our world today, you would probably find most of the guests willing to listen and consider your ideas. You would probably still find an attentive group if your conversation then turned to the subject of healing. But try discussing the essential need for sacrifice with a gathering of modern adults, and you might soon find yourself talking to four walls!
In the present social climate of excess materialism and wash-and-wear moral values, sacrifice isn't always a very popular word. Certainly many people are daily making substantial sacrifices for their families and communities. Yet in a religious context, the notion of sacrifice may seem outmoded, a throwback to more ascetic times when a fear of divine disfavor kept people anxious to appease an angry deity.
But that's not really a fair assessment of the nature or purpose of true sacrifice nor of the character of the Divine Being. And to propose a somewhat radical view, one might say that, as desirable as progress and healing may be, without sacrifice very little of real progress or healing will be had. It's important to appreciate that a proper exercise of sacrifice inevitably brings us joy; it never diminishes good.
