Furthermore, the biblical story of Abraham and his sacrifice of his son was a powerful story of sacrificial love. Abraham was going to obey the command from God and sacrifice his young son Isaac. He loved his son dearly, but he also loved and wanted to obey God. This story of sacrificial love is probably one of the hardest acts of true sacrifice.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is not merely an offering of praise and thanksgiving, or simply a memorial of the sacrifice on the Cross. It is a propitiatory sacrifice which is offered for the living and dead, for the remission of sins and punishment due to sin, as satisfaction for sin and for other necessities.
Sacrifice as a ritual can very easily become common place, by simply going through the motions, versus my idea of sacrifice, which is living the sacrifice like Jesus did His whole life. From my own study of the bible, I noticed that the act of sacrificing took precedence over living a sacrificial life.
For this reason, just as Christ washed away our sins with His blood on the altar of the cross, the sacrifice of the Mass is also truly propitiatory. The Lord grants grace and the gift of repentance, He pardons wrong doings and sins. (cf. Council of Trent, Doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).