I was talking to my conservative, reformed friend and he insisted that we resacrifice Christ at mass. What does that even mean and how do I respond to this? This guy is what you could call a ‘theology buff,’ so the deeper the answer, the better
Remember the word: “
RE-Present” (
not “represent”).
The One Sacrifice of the Cross is
presented again (i.e. re-presented) Sacramentally on the Altar. Just like how the outward signs of bread and wine remain but the substance has changed to Our Lord’s true flesh and blood, so too the outward signs of the Mass look very ‘unbloody’ and yet the substance of the Mass is identical to the Passion and Death and Resurrection.
This is dogma.
Council of Trent,
Session 22 (On the Mass):
And this is indeed that clean oblation, which cannot be defiled by any unworthiness, or malice of those that offer (it);
which the Lord foretold by Malachias was to be offered in every place, clean to his name, which was to be great amongst the Gentiles; and which
the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, has not obscurely indicated, when he says, that they who are defiled by the participation of the
table of devils, cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord; by the table, meaning in both places the altar. (Chapter 1)
And forasmuch as, in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass,
that same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross … For** the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different**. (Chapter 2)
Now consider the
plain Biblical evidence:
Malachi 1:
6 “It is you priests who show contempt for my name.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the Lord’s
table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.
10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.
12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s
table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’
1 Corinthians 9: Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?
1 Corinthians 10: 18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too;
you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
In other words, the “Lord’s table” which Christians partake in is infact a sacrificial altar, and all you need is the right insight to see this is plainly being taught. The Sacrifice of the Mass is what the Eucharistic table is.
Also check out this quote from the main decree of the
Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431AD). This is what St Cyril of Alexandria said as the main dogmatic teaching:
“Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the Only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven,
we offer the Unbloody Sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having
received his Holy Flesh and the Precious Blood of Christ the Saviour of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a divine indwelling, but as
truly the Life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the Life according to his nature as God, and when he became united to his Flesh, he made it also to be Life-giving, as also he said to us:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood.” [Jn 6:52-59]
ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.viii.html
Look at what is affirmed here:
- The Mass is a Sacrifice.
- Jesus is substantially present.
- John 6 was seen as the Eucharist.
This is the Third Ecumenical Council, this squashes the Protestant position. From a Protestant point of view, what was said here is unBiblical and very blasphemous and not part of true Christianity.
