"Sacrifice of the Mass"

[IGotQuestions]

When I was a fundamentalist I heard the RC service called the “sacrifice” of the Mass, and that Catholics “resacrifice” Christ at every Mass. Yet Heb 10:18 tells us “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
How do Catholics reconcile this verse with the Mass?

 

[GKC]

When I was a fundamentalist I heard the RC service called the “sacrifice” of the Mass, and that Catholics “resacrifice” Christ at every Mass. Yet Heb 10:18 tells us “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
How do Catholics reconcile this verse with the Mass?

I’ve done this a number of times, but it is more fitting that others deal with it, in this context.

So:

 

[paperwight66]

Briefly, the Mass is re-presenting the Calvary sacrifice. We do not believe we are re-sacrificing Jesus.

Calvary was once and for all, but In Mass, we call it to mind, we make it real again. More than that, it is the same event, but happening now, as God is not bound by the constraints of time. All time is present to Him right now, He is outside of time and doesn’t grow older or younger.

An analogy might be renewing marriage vows, but doesn’t come close enough.

 

[Stephen_says]

Briefly, the Mass is re-presenting the Calvary sacrifice. We do not believe we are re-sacrificing Jesus.

Calvary was once and for all, but In Mass, we call it to mind, we make it real again. More than that, it is the same event, but happening now, as God is not bound by the constraints of time. All time is present to Him right now, He is outside of time and doesn’t grow older or younger.

An analogy might be renewing marriage vows, but doesn’t come close enough.

 

[ffg]

Maybe one of these will help -

‘One in the same sacrifice’…

Consider the light from a star and how many years it takes to get to our eyes. It’s the same light through all those years.

Or maybe the sound of thunder. We can hear thunder and not be in the storm, and not be in the same location, but can both be witness to the 1 storm.

A Eucharist host today, is one in the same Divine Jesus as one from yesterday. Carry that back to the last supper where he said ‘this is my body’, ‘new covenant’, and ‘Do this in memory of me’.

Specifically with regard to the question and the Bible verse, let’s look what follows after verse 18… (bold mine)

19 Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuarym
20* by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil,n that is, his flesh,
21* o and since we have “a great priest over the house of God,”
22let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience* and our bodies washed in pure water.p
23Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.q
24We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.
25We should not stay away from our assembly,* as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.r

26* s **If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins **
27but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.t

Source: usccb.org/bible/hebrews/10
Take care,

mike

 

[ffg]

Cont…

So if we look at what follows the verse 18, it seems we are called to…

Be in an ‘assembly’ and approach the sanctuary (location of the sacrifice) with a clean and pure heart.

If you do click on the source, you will see the title of the chapter (10) is “One Sacrifice instead of Many.”

So it’s just a misconception that the Mass is a new or other sacrifice.

 

[truetofaith]

We believe at the Consecration, the bread and wine become the actual Body & Blood of Jesus Christ…so in a way it is the sacrifice of the mass.

I learned that the Mass is the un-bloody sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary.

 

[KathleenGee]

I will give it a try…Christ died once and for all as atonement for our sins.

But He stands at the altar of God, triumphant and wounded…referred to as the Lamb of God in the Book of Revelations.

At the Last Supper, He told the apostles ‘Do this in memory of Me’…the Be’kaa, the memorial, the remembrance of His one death and passion, the foundation and form of the Mass, the memorial our form of worship.

Christ extends the effects of His death and resurrection perpetually from heaven. Perpetually means pertaining to the life of this world … in linear time, not eternal time.

Christ is in the eternal moment, but is ministering to us wounded Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into linear time and space…that which we live in through the Holy Spirit.

Christ breaks through the rites and rituals to come to us today…perpetually giving us the graces and benefits of His passion and triumph…each day, He continually extends to us Himself, every hour of the day…Christ being offered up to the Heavenly Father, at our altar here on earth and the altar in heaven…for our sins and redemption and new life.

So it is like having Christ minister down to us from heaven…people attending Mass every day, every year…they die…and new come through this ladder to heaven, the Mass. It is like imaging God is looking down on these miles and miles of people who have lived and died n the Lord…through His life coming to us from His one event His death and resurrection…but every person, every generation, every epoch of humankind, is traveling on their journey to the Lord through the Mass.

The Mass is the first step into heaven…we can take one step here on earth to taste a little bit of what is waiting for us in heaven…but the sacrifice we see, for our sins…is not bloody.

At Mass, we are absolved of all ordinary sins…as it says in Scripture, a just man sins 7 times a day.

But if we commit a grave sin against God and neighbor…then we are broken from the life of the Church, Who is none other than Christ Himself. We are out of communion and thus need to go to confession to receive absolution so then we can re enter into the life of the Church.

When we are in mortal sin, we are not in the Church. We are outside of it.

A person in grave sin can attend Mass…but is not supposed to receive Holy Communion, which is a sacrament. One must receive the sacrament of confession to be restored…and at Mass…we fulfill our participation and our first work in the Church…to make the Blood of Christ testimony to the world He ministers us with His entire being.

Yes, our greatest work in the Church is to make Christ present to the world His redeeming and saving Blood. But the form is of ordinary bread and wine…precursor…Melchizedek…who brought gifts of bread and wine, not bloody sacrifice…and prophesized that some day there would be a perpetual sacrifice to come…

The Tree of Life, the only good fruit pointed out in Genesis but Adam and Eve rejected…symbolizes the future Church that bears us the Eucharist…we eat and are nourished by the Divine…but not in bloody form…but of Fruit, of Bread and Wine…

 

[IGotQuestions]

I will give it a try…Christ died once and for all as atonement for our sins.

But He stands at the altar of God, triumphant and wounded…referred to as the Lamb of God in the Book of Revelations.

At the Last Supper, He told the apostles ‘Do this in memory of Me’…the Be’kaa, the memorial, the remembrance of His one death and passion, the foundation and form of the Mass, the memorial our form of worship.

Christ extends the effects of His death and resurrection perpetually from heaven. Perpetually means pertaining to the life of this world … in linear time, not eternal time.

Christ is in the eternal moment, but is ministering to us wounded Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into linear time and space…that which we live in through the Holy Spirit.

Christ breaks through the rites and rituals to come to us today…perpetually giving us the graces and benefits of His passion and triumph…each day, He continually extends to us Himself, every hour of the day…Christ being offered up to the Heavenly Father, at our altar here on earth and the altar in heaven…for our sins and redemption and new life.

So it is like having Christ minister down to us from heaven…people attending Mass every day, every year…they die…and new come through this ladder to heaven, the Mass. It is like imaging God is looking down on these miles and miles of people who have lived and died n the Lord…through His life coming to us from His one event His death and resurrection…but every person, every generation, every epoch of humankind, is traveling on their journey to the Lord through the Mass.

The Mass is the first step into heaven…we can take one step here on earth to taste a little bit of what is waiting for us in heaven…but the sacrifice we see, for our sins…is not bloody.

At Mass, we are absolved of all ordinary sins…as it says in Scripture, a just man sins 7 times a day.

But if we commit a grave sin against God and neighbor…then we are broken from the life of the Church, Who is none other than Christ Himself. We are out of communion and thus need to go to confession to receive absolution so then we can re enter into the life of the Church.

When we are in mortal sin, we are not in the Church. We are outside of it.

A person in grave sin can attend Mass…but is not supposed to receive Holy Communion, which is a sacrament. One must receive the sacrament of confession to be restored…and at Mass…we fulfill our participation and our first work in the Church…to make the Blood of Christ testimony to the world He ministers us with His entire being.

Yes, our greatest work in the Church is to make Christ present to the world His redeeming and saving Blood. But the form is of ordinary bread and wine…precursor…Melchizedek…who brought gifts of bread and wine, not bloody sacrifice…and prophesized that some day there would be a perpetual sacrifice to come…

The Tree of Life, the only good fruit pointed out in Genesis but Adam and Eve rejected…symbolizes the future Church that bears us the Eucharist…we eat and are nourished by the Divine…but not in bloody form…but of Fruit, of Bread and Wine…