Still not understanding how the Mass is a sacrifice. Please help me understand

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Fraevo63

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After several months of trying to accept all of the essential doctrines of the Catholic Church none of the explanations of how the Mass is a sacrifice resonates with me. Is it at the moment the priest consecrates the elements of bread and and wine? Is it when the faithful consume the Eucharist? Both? Please help me grasp this belief.
Thank you.
 
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The whole Mass is the priest acting out what happened at the Last Supper and afterwards on Calvary.
If you’re looking for the point when Jesus dies on the cross, that’s when the priest breaks the consecrated host.

Here’s a detailed, user-friendly explanation of all the priest’s Mass gestures. It’s based on the Tridentine Rite (EF), but a lot of the gestures are still in the OF Mass.

 
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I think the easiest way of understanding it is that the Eucharist makes real in time and space the sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross.
 
Fraevo63 said:
After several months of trying to accept all of the essential doctrines of the Catholic Church none of the explanations of how the Mass is a sacrifice resonates with me. Is it at the moment the priest consecrates the elements of bread and and wine? Is it when the faithful consume the Eucharist? Both? Please help me grasp this belief.
Thank you.
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Catechism
1365 Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: “This is my body which is given for you” and "This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood."187 In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."188
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http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm

Baltimore Catechism No. 3, Lesson 24
917. Q. What is the Mass?
A. The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ

931. Q. Is there any difference between the sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass?
A. Yes; the manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different. On the Cross Christ really shed His blood and was really slain; in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood nor real death, because Christ can die no more; but the sacrifice of the Mass, through the separate consecration of the bread and the wine, represents His death on the Cross.
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http://www.baltimore-catechism.com/lesson24.htm
 
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Well, the simplest explanation is that in the Old Covenant the People of GOD offered sacrifice to HIM as a representation of the damage inflicted in themselves through sin. The sacrifices did not forgive sins but taught an important lesson to them. When we sin we will suffer loss. In their case they had to offer something of value to GOD in reparation. Consider the value of bull now days compared to what it was worth to them back then.

Jesus Christ died on the cross and offered HIS life in reparation for the sins of the world. Being GOD HIS sacrifice of HIS human life has infinite value when compared with the value of a bull.

He commanded us to continue to offer the sacrifice HE instituted at the last supper but instead of the animal that was sacrificed at passover and at the Temple every day we offer now HID Body and Blood truly present because of HIM. If the Priest offered just bread and wine that sacrifice would be worthless when compared to the sacrifices offered at the old Temple back in Jesus’s time. But because HE provided us with the perfect sacrifice to offer GOD for reparation of the sins of the world the Old Testament Scriptures are fulfilled in the prophecy that a pure sacrifice would be offered to GOD from the whole world.
Consider that a mass is offered very single day everywhere there is a Catholic Church and you will see that this particular prophecy has indeed been fulfilled in the mass.
 
It is my understanding that the “sacrifice” of the Mass occurs after the consecration, immediately after the Mystery of Faith, during that part of the Eucharistic prayer called the oblation or offering, when the priest, having placed the body and blood of Christ on the altar, prays to God the Father, saying:
Therefore, O Lord, … we, your servants and your holy people, offer to your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation. (Eucharistic Prayer I)
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Therefore, … we offer you, Lord, the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation, giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you. (Eucharistic Prayer II)
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Therefore, O Lord, … we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice. (Eucharistic Prayer III)
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Therefore, O Lord, … we offer you his Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to you which brings salvation to the whole world. (Eucharistic Prayer IV)
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The sacrifice of the Mass is similar to a type of non-destructive, Old Testament sacrifice called a wave offering. The entire tribe of Levi was once offered as a wave offering. (Numbers 8:11,13,15,21)
 
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23:48-24:43
Closed Caption generated by YouTube
“…that’s the sacrifice. The sacrifice that we get to offer to God is God. Let that settle in for a second, the sacrifice we offer to God is God. The sacrifice we offer to God is the very best thing he’s ever given to us. I can’t give him anything better than that. I can’t give him anything better than himself in the Eucharist because there is nothing better in the world, there’s nothing better in the universe, there’s nothing better in all creation, the world visible and invisible, so I give the sacrifice of the son to the Father.”
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JerryZ said:
Jesus Christ died on the cross and offered HIS life in reparation for the sins of the world. Being GOD HIS sacrifice of HIS human life has infinite value when compared with the value of a bull.
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Value…

Time & again God would remind His people it isn’t the bull that He wants. After all, they are already His. All things are His as He created all things. What value is there in giving to someone what they already possess?

But a contrite heart you will not spurn.

I believe the main point in the prescribed sacrifices was to acknowledge our sins & ask forgiveness from the one we offended.

So if one were going through the motions offering a bull, lamb, turtle dove & thinks his offense would be forgiven on the merit of what they “gave up” their sacrifice is in vain.

Same today. If we go to Mass or go to confession without true contrition it’s in vain.

Except our victim has true merit. Grace is conferred through absolution & the prayers of the Mass.

I think the sacrifice of the Mass begins with the procession. I envision Jesus entering Jerusalem.

We call to mind our sins. We recall the works of our God. We ask for His help. We profess our faith. We present our offering.

Then He performs a miracle. He takes all that we are & gives us all that He is. Making us worthy to minister to Him. He consumes us as we consumes Him. Communing His life to us & sends us back out into the world.
 
Shocking sacrificial points:
  1. We do not attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass primarily to hear stirring homilies.
  2. We do not attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass primarily for reverent music.
  3. We do not attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass primarily for fellowship.
  4. We do not attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass primarily to hear the scriptures read.
  5. We do not even attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass primarily to receive Communion.
  6. We attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because:
    a. Jesus commanded it.
    b. To offer ourselves as living sacrifices in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. This is our true act of spiritual worship, writes Saint Paul.
If you are at Mass then YOU, being living and breathing members of Christ’s Body, are a substantial part of the sacrifice - not just the Body and Blood of our Lord and not just the envelopes and cash.

Us.

If we focus on point 6 while reverently taking in points 1-5, we are doing what our Lord commanded.
 
Most have already pointed out the fundamental catechesis for understanding the Sacrafice of the Mass.

I want to point out some details that I learned about how The Last Supper connects with Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. This is pointed out by Scott Hahn’s book: The Fourth Cup. Understanding Jewish traditions of passover, four cups are drank during the passover meal. During The Last Supper, when Jesus shared the blood of the new covenant, that was the third cup. In the tradition, before the fourth cup, the participants are supposed to sing the Great Hallel (Hallelujah) before drinking a fourth cup, however, Jesus said this in Matthew 26:29 “I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Matthew then writes in Verse 30, “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” They did not drink the fourth cup, therefore the sacrifice isn’t finished. Also remember, Matthew 26:39 where Jesus asks “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Again, emphasis on cup. Matthew 27:34 shows that they offered Him drink, but He tasted and refused to drink knowing it was wine.

Now we turn to John’s Gospel, as he would give details the other three did not have because he had firsthand witness to the Crucifixion. In John 19:23, it is written that Jesus wore a tunic without seam, woven from top to bottom, which is the garment of a Priest. Before Jesus gave up His spirit in verse 29-30, He said He thirsted. A hyssop branch with a sponge full of vinegar (or wine) was given to Him.

That is the Fourth Cup that is needed to complete the Passover meal.
 
But it is not complete. Jesus performed the ritual up to the point where the Sacrificial Lamb needs to be eaten. What is finished is His part in the sacrifice. To show that Jesus is the Lamb of God, key text need to be understood through typology. As I mentioned the hyssop branch, in Exodus 12:22, a hyssop branch is used to spread the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. It is also instructed by God that the lamb shall be unblemished with no broken bones in Exodus 12:46, and John will point out that the soldiers did not break Jesus’s legs in John 19:32-33. I would go on, but the point is that Jesus had done painstaking work to fulfill the passover meal as Himself being both the sacrificial priest and sacrificial lamb to fulfill the covenant.

Lastly, to fulfill the promise to Abraham, in Genesis 22, Isaac asked where is the lamb. Abraham said the Lord will provide. As Isaac brought the wood for his sacrifice, Jesus would bring the wood for His. As Isaac was a willing victim of the sacrifice, because he could have revolted against his father at anytime, so too was Jesus a willing victim. At the last moment, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, but our Father would not spare his own Son’s life, Jesus’s life. Abraham saw a ram, though not a lamb, with its head stuck in thorns and sacrificed it, but who else’s head was stuck in thorns? Alluding to Jesus’s crown of thorns, another element that Jesus, as man, could not have controlled, so much of the prophecy is fulfilled.

In order to fulfill the new covenant with God, as the Israelites needed to eat the flesh of the Lamb, we too, must eat the flesh of the lamb through the Eucharist. Jesus is eternally sacrificed for us at every Mass as revealed in Revelations 5:6 “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes”. A lamb that looks like it has been slain, but alive. Jesus finished His part on the cross and left the eating of the lamb for us to complete the Sacrifice at every Mass.
 
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