What is the Sacrifice of the Mass?

[Montie_Claunch]

I was talking to a fundamintalist Gentleman and he was telling me that we Crucify Christ each time at Mass, That is the Doctrine of the Mass. What do I say to him?

 

[D_Quintero]

herethis helps
you seem to have a lot of questions. very good! if you search, you will find answers to all these questions
GOD BLESS
D

 

[jimmy]

Montie Claunch:

I was talking to a fundamintalist Gentleman and he was telling me that we Crucify Christ each time at Mass, That is the Doctrine of the Mass. What do I say to him?

There was one sacrifice of Christ, but it is a perpetual sacrifice and it is re-presented (not represented) each time we go to Mass. The problem is that protestants don’t understand that the sacrifice extends into eternity.

The Mass is not just the presentation of the sacrifice, it is the participation in the heavenly worship of God. It is a heavenly sacrifice. If you look at Isaiah6, you can see the Holy, Holy, Holy which we say at Mass. This experience that Isaiah has is representative of what the Mass is. We are participating with the angels in worshiping Christ.

The coal that is used to cleanse the lips of Isaiah can be associated with the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist we are made like Christ and cleansed.

When we go to Mass we are participating in the same sacrifice of Christ which was made perpetual and extends into eternity(See Augustines Confessions Book 11 for the Catholic understanding of eternity). It is the same Mass each Sunday.

 

[Genesis315]

jimmy:

There was one sacrifice of Christ, but it is a perpetual sacrifice and it is re-presented (not represented) each time we go to Mass. The problem is that protestants don’t understand that the sacrifice extends into eternity.

Yep, check this out

Apocolypse (Revelation) 13:8

8 And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, **which was slain from the beginning of the world. **

 

[NotWorthy]

If the Catholic Church teaches it, your friend should be able to show you in the Catechism where we do teach this. But to explain our position:

“Do this in memory of me”. It is important to note that a Jewish memorial does much more than recall the past; it actually makes the past present mystically through liturgical worship, so that subsequent generations could participate in the foundational event in Israel’s history, as they did in the Passover. Some ancient Jews even said that when they celebrated the Passover, it was as if they themselves were walking out of Egypt with their ancestors in the Exodus.

 So it is not a new sacrifice, but a making present of the one, perfect sacrifice of Jesus as a biblical memorial. Thus, when the priest recites the words of consecration, the past events of the Last Supper and Calvary are mystically made present to us through the liturgy. Christ's offering of His Body and Blood are re-presented to us in a unique way at the Mass. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. Because it is re-presented in such a timeless way, Christ's sacrifice on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with His most perfect offering.

So do we continue to re-sacrifice Jesus at the altar as some people claim? No, of course not. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus does not offer himself to God as a bloody, dying sacrifice in the Mass, but as we offer ourselves, a “living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). As this passage indicates, the offering of sacrifice does not require death or the shedding of blood. If it did, we could not offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. Jesus, having shed his blood once for all on the cross, now offers himself to God in a continual, unbloody manner as a holy, living sacrifice on our behalf.

Notworthy

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Montie Claunch:

I was talking to a fundamintalist Gentleman and he was telling me that we Crucify Christ each time at Mass, That is the Doctrine of the Mass. What do I say to him?

As he will no doubt know from the NT, “Christ, having died once, dies no more”. Christ has conquered death, abolished it; He “could not be held” by it. That’s all in the NT. And having triumphed over it so decisively, He has ascended - so the Risen Christ is present in His glorified Body in Heaven: and in no other “place”. Christ is present in His Father’s Glory in Heaven. His Presence in the Mass is very different.​

In the Mass, therefore, He can neither die nor be crucified - nor is it Catholic teaching that either of these happens in the Mass: to teach either, would be horrendous. Instead, the final, perfect sacrifice of Calvary is made present in the Mass: each Mass, each Eucharistic Liturgy (same thing, different name) is like a door or window opening into a single room, and the room is Calvary. And the same reality of Calvary is present in all the Masses in all creation: and that reality is, the Passion & Death of Christ, with all the wealth of all its effects; all its graces, all the forgiveness of God, all the Love of God; everything that Christ did and gained for us on the Cross is made present at any and every Mass & all of them, inexhaustibly.

The Mass is a Sacrifice, because Calvary is - the Mass has the very same “content” as Calvary. The big difference is, that what happened bloodily and agonisingly and with boundless humiliation for Christ - His Passion & Death - is made present at the Mass neither bloodily, nor agonisingly, nor with any humiliation at all. He is present under visible signs of bread & wine, which bring grace to us, and confer it on us. IOW, this saving and glorious Passion is present sacramentally - so the Mass, is a Sacrament: the Sacrament in which, quite uniquely, Christ the Author of the Sacraments is present, under the appearances of bread and wine. His Body is present in a sacramental manner - the One, undivided, Christ is present in Heaven in one way; and in this Sacrament, in another way.

So nothing is “done to” Him: instead, He is the Principal Offerer of this Sacrament-Sacrifice, & the Sacrificial Victim - just as He was at Calvary: because the Sacrifice of Calvary & the Mass is one single Sacrifice.

Hope that helps ##

 

[Todd_Easton]

Your friend misunderstands the use of the word sacrifice in this instance*.* There are two kinds of sacrifices, one where the victim is killed and one where the victim is not killed but merely offered alive before the Lord, called a wave offering. This latter type of living sacrifce or a wave offering, where the victim is not killed, is the type of sacrifice in the Mass. Following the words of consecration at Mass, our risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine (which recall his passion and death on Calvary), is not killed again (as if that were even possible), but merely offered alive to the Father with the priest’s words: Father, calling to mind the death your Son endured for our salvation, his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, and ready to greet him when he comes again, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice. Look with favor on your Church’s offering, and see the Victim whose death [on Calvary] has reconciled us to yourself. … [Eucharistic Prayer 3]

It should be noted that our risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ was not the first person to be offered as a living sacrifice to God as a wave offering; previously, the entire tribe of Levi had been offered as a living sacrifice to God as a wave offering in Numbers 8:11-21.

 

[RobNY]

Matt’s apologetics page has some great stuff on the mass as a sacrifice. Realize the mass does not re-sacrifice Jesus, but reoffers it. It’s not the simplest concept to grasp, necessarily.

matt1618.freeyellow.com/sacrifice.html

This link is fantastic. When you read it, you get a clear understanding of how the Mass is meant to be a Sacrifice and how it fulfills the OT. Really, it instilled in me a sense of wonder.

That the Mass is a Sacrifice is the one of the greatest things we accept as Catholics. Read the link and get a better idea of what all this means.

 

[adnauseum]

Thinking that Christ is sequentially sacrificed in time is like wondering if Jesus had an iPod: The premise of the question betrays an empiricist, modernist, and therefore deficient grasp of the nature of God.

There is no before-and-after for God, for the Holy Trinity. There is one sacrifice, offered for eternity. His being is timeless. There is no concept of last week, this week, next week.

 

[MariaGorettiGrl]

I was talking to a fundamintalist Gentleman and he was telling me that we Crucify Christ each time at Mass, That is the Doctrine of the Mass. What do I say to him?

It’s we who are taken back to the time of the crucifiction at the mass, not Christ who is brought forward. It is a spiritual journey and a very special one!

 

[as-a-child]

It’s also important to ask what is worship without sacrifice.