How do I answer this question? I have had non-catholic christians ask me why I think Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t enough for our sins being forgiven and our promised salvation. They basically are in the OSAS/Sola Fide/Sola Scripture camps I guess. Thanks in advance.
From Scott Hahn’s Fourth Cup - read it all
HERE!
*Well, go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus. Suppose that night as head of my household and father, I sacrificed an unblemished lamb with no broken bones, and I sprinkled his blood on the door post, and then I said, "Family, we’re safe, let’s go to bed’, and we went to bed. I’d wake up in the morning to tragedy. My firstborn would be dead. Why? You had to eat the lamb. It isn’t enough to kill him. That is the satisfaction for sin, but the ultimate goal of sacrifice is not blood and gore and God making sure He sees the death. The ultimate goal is to restore communion, to have fellowship with God restored. And that’s what’s signified by eating the lamb. Who shares a common meal? Family. What is this a sign of? Covenant. And what is a covenant? A sacred family bond. In the Old Testament any family that sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled the blood had to eat the lamb. It wasn’t enough to say, ‘Well we don’t like lamb do we, kids? Why don’t we make lamb cookies? Little lamb wafers that symbolize the lamb? We’ll eat those and those’ll be enough, right? Symbolic presence of the lamb, and all that?’ No, you’d wake up and you’d be dead. You ate the lamb and you burned what was left. But you ate the lamb to reestablish and restore communion with your heavenly Father through His firstborn Son and Lamb.
That’s the way it was in the Old Testament, and St. Paul recognizes that it’s still the way it is in the new covenant, only in spades, only with more glory. Why? Because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Once and for all on calvary he’s been put to death, therefore what? Therefore we’ve nothing to do. Just celebrate the sacrifice, which is over and done with. No, something’s missing. We need to eat the Lamb. We need to receive the Lamb to restore communion and to complete the sacrifice and to keep the feast. It’s proper, and we now judge it to be necessary. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, “Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed and now let us celebrate the feast.” And the next five chapters in many ways St. Paul describes how the Eucharist is to be celebrated, because it’s the culmination of the Passover sacrifice.
This is a true sacrifice. It’s an unbloody sacrifice, because we’re not killing Jesus again. This was something I never really understood as a Protestant anti-Catholic. I thought for sure that because you speak of sacrificing in the Mass, that therefore in some way you believe we’re killing Jesus again and again and again, as though one dying is not enough. So we just assumed and I always taught that there was suffering imposed upon Christ supposedly in the Mass. This is blasphemous because his one act of dying wasn’t enough and we had to continue to have him die and bleed and suffer, which is what the Mass is for. No way! That’s anti-Catholic. No Catholic can believe that because the sacrifice of the Mass involves no bleeding , no dying and no suffering of the person of Christ, who is enthroned in glory and reigning triumphant in heaven. He is resurrected. He is ascended. He is enthroned, and he rules as king of kings.
How is it that he’s enthroned? The New Testament answers that question in a very revealing way. At least it was revealing for me. I turned to the book of Revelation. In chapter 5:5-6 where John sees the scroll that is sealed seven times and he begins to cry because no body can break it open; no body can break open the seals to read the book. And the cry goes out, “Lo! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered . the lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy to open up the seals to read the book.” The lion of the tribe of Judah; the root of David; the conquering king, right? So John turns to see the Lion of the tribe of Judah and you expect to see this great lion with a dazzling mane like in Narnia or something, some beautiful royal beast and instead he turns and what does he see? In verse 6 John says, “I saw a lamb standing there as though it had been slain.” The conquering king, the lion of the tribe of Judah , the root of David ruling and reigning in the new and glorified Jerusalem, up in heaven, and when you see him what’s he look like? A lamb, looking as though he’d been slain. Why? because Revelation 5, and then 6 and 7 and 8 all describe what St, John saw in spirit on the Lord’s Day up in heaven. And guess what? It’s what you see in the spirit on the Lord’s day down on earth. A Eucharistic liturgy. And the Lamb leads all of the saints and the angels and the people of God in this beautiful heavenly liturgy. *
