Do I eat flesh and drink blood?

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  (Jer 7:21)    Indeed, they pretended to offer sacrifice to the Lord but this was not the sacrifice that the Lord wanted.  The offering of sacrifices was to remind the people of their sins and through the sacrifices, the people were called to repentance. God does not need us to offer holocausts to Him.    “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”  (Ps 50:8-15)

-- Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore