Is the Mass a sacrifice or a meal?

[centurionguard]

I have thought of it thus: Mass is a sacrifice, and “meal” is a characteristic of it.

I guess I would vouche this usage of the term “Meal” as being the actual Eucharist (Body and Blood) in a more of an indirect term as one might hear a modern priest term the Altar of the Lord as the Table.

 

[Homerun]

Thank you all for your responses thus far.

As some of you have implied, this question does have particular relevance currently as it applies to liturgical scholarship. Proponents of the pro populum orientation often stress the meal aspect of the mass, while advocates of ad orientem stress the sacrificial element. How ought this debate be resolved? I was trying to get to the heart of this issue when I asked the original question in the post.

 

[smndtupidisaftr]

We pray to the risen Christ, not to each other.

 

[Saints_Alive]

Calvary and the Mass by Archbishop Fulton Sheen is a good read…

sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books/calvary/the-consecration.html

 

[GwenL]

Thank you all for your responses thus far.

As some of you have implied, this question does have particular relevance currently as it applies to liturgical scholarship. Proponents of the pro populum orientation often stress the meal aspect of the mass, while advocates of ad orientem stress the sacrificial element. How ought this debate be resolved? I was trying to get to the heart of this issue when I asked the original question in the post.

Which debate? The meal aspect versus the sacrifice aspect is a false argument. There is no “versus.” To solve this false argument, we listen to the Church. As I referenced in the Catechism. Period. People who stress the sacrifice at the expense of the meal are just as incorrect as those who stress the meal at the expense of the sacrifice.

Remember, we’re Catholics. We do “both/and” and are not stuck in an “either/or” world.

 

[andrewstx]

I am aware that years ago few recieved Holy Communion.

Could this perhaps be a source of our confusion?

 

[littlechicken]

I have heard a lot of Protestants say that we keep sacrificing Jesus over and over again.
Which I think I can see where they get that perception… If one looks at the Jewish word “memory” it is not quite as the english word translates. Rather, that we are “there”, actually present at the event.
So, we don’t re-sacrifice, but we are actually present at the one sacrifice.
Please correct me if I am wrong on this, because I really don’t know.

I have often not thought of the meal part of all this, and thus am thankful for all the reminders.

Peace

 

[GwenL]

Our rector, in a homily last night at our First Friday TLM, answered this question in a way that really hit home.

“The Mass is a sacrifice that is at once a sacred banquet in which Christ is received and a participation in that eternal sacrifice which Christ himself is offering. How blessed we are to be caught, as it were, in the tension between these two profound moments: Christ offering himself to the Father and then to us.”

 

[TimothyH]

No, the “remembrance” part comes from the Greek “anamnesis” which means “to make present”. It is not about “remembering” as in a mental image of the past even which we recal today. We call on God to remembrance of the covenant He made with us. When God “remembers”, God acts.

There’s no either/or. It is both.

ConstantineTG’s points are extremely important.

In Jewish culture and religion, from the time before Abraham, every covenant was sealed with a sacrifice and a shared meal. Those were the signs of the covenant.

The new and everlasting covenant between God and man is no different. God chose to sacrifice of himself in the person of Jesus and a to share a meal between the Apostles and himself in the person of Jesus. The Mass makes both the sacrifice and the shared meal present to us, and through these we enter into the covenant with God.

The passover meal was every Jew’s ***personal ***participation in the Exodus.

And on that day you will explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ (Exodus 13:8)

On Passover night, every Jewish father was to explain to his children that the Passover is because of what God did for him personally, in leading him out of Egypt. The Mass is no different, and through the “Rememberance” of that meal - as ConstantineTG put it perfectly - God acts, we enter into the covenant, and Christ’s work is applied to us personally here and now.

The convenant requires both the shared meal and the sacrifice. There is no either/or. There is only the covenant, and the Mass makes both the last supper and Christ’s sacrifice of himself on the Cross present for us. It is our personal participation in the events of that day.

-Tim-