How do I explain the Mass as a living sacrifice?

[Maurelian]

Could you help my understanding and ability to explain the mass as a living sacrifice by responding to the following? (The italics are mine.)

“The Catholic doctrine on the Mass is a distortion of the biblical doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. The Bible describes the Eucharist as a “memorial” or “commemoration” of Christ, and a “proclamation” of His death, and not as a sacrifice for sin. More seriously, the Mass is the denial of the perfection and sufficiency of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary. If it needs to be carried on, perpetuated, renewed and re-presented, the implication is that His sacrifice was not enough for the forgiveness of His people. If there is no answer when I knock at the door, I will renew my efforts and keep on knocking. If, however, the door is opened, I would stop knocking because my purpose would have been achieved. Even so, having accomplished the redemption of His people by His death on the cross, Christ ascended into heaven and is now seated on the right hand of God. His mission is accomplished!”

 

[Peggy_Frye]

Jesus says “Do (poieite) this in memory of me.” (1 Cor. 11:24-25). The Greek says, “Touto poieite tan eman anamnasin.” The words “poieite” and “anamnesis” are sacrificial words. For example, the word poieite is translated here as “do this”, and is also translated, “offer this”—as a sacrifice. In Exodus 29:38, we read that one is to “poiein” two lambs on the altar. Over seventy times in the Old Testament this word is translated as “offer this,” or “sacrifice this”. This has sacrificial meaning. As for the word “anamnesis”, open a King James Bible and look for it appearing once in a context that is not a sacrifice. There is none. It can also be translated as “memorial offering” or “memorial sacrifice”.

In AD 70, the Christian writing, *The Didache * said,

“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).

The Mass is not a denial of the perfection and sufficiency of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

“The Church teaches that the Mass is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary, which also is invariably misunderstood by anti-Catholics. The Catholic Church does not teach that the Mass is a re-crucifixion of Christ, who does not suffer and die again in the Mass.

Yet, it is more than just a memorial service. John A. O’Brien, writing in The Faith of Millions, said, “The manner in which the sacrifices are offered is alone different: On the cross Christ really shed his blood and was really slain; in the Mass, however, there is no real shedding of blood, no real death; but the separate consecration of the bread and of the wine symbolizes the separation of the body and blood of Christ and thus symbolizes his death upon the cross. The Mass is the renewal and perpetuation of the sacrifice of the cross in the sense that it offers [Jesus] anew to God . . . and thus commemorates the sacrifice of the cross, reenacts it symbolically and mystically, and applies the fruits of Christ’s death upon the cross to individual human souls. All the efficacy of the Mass is derived, therefore, from the sacrifice of Calvary” (306).

The Mass, of course, does not re-crucify Christ. The Catholic Church specifically says Christ does not die again—his death is once for all. It would be something else if the Church were to claim he does die again, but it doesn’t make that claim. Through his intercessory ministry in heaven and through the Mass, Jesus continues to offer himself to his Father as a living sacrifice, and he does so in what the Church specifically states is “an unbloody manner”—one that does not involve a new crucifixion.”

Full text is here.

Must reads:

Institution of the Mass
Click here.

Christ in the Eucharist
Click here.

Sacrifice of the Mass
Click here.