Rev José Mario O Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
We have seen in BST 130 that Saint Paul, in I Corinthians 11:23-27, summarizes the Eucharistic doctrine, connecting the Last Supper (Banquet) with the Sacrifice of the Cross and the consequent Real Presence of the Lord.
SACRIFICE
Why do we say that the Mass is a sacrifice?
If we look at the different religions, we will discover that the sacrifices they offer have four elements: (1) a sacrificial gift or offering; (2) a priest who offers the sacrifice; (3) a sacrificial action; (4) a sacrificial end or object.
These four elements are present in the Sacrifice of the Cross, as well as in the Eucharistic Sacrifice:
(1) The sacrificial gift, the victim being offered, is Christ Himself. When He instituted the Sacrifice, he said (in Aramaic), “den bishri” – “This is my Flesh”; “den idhmi” – “This is my Blood.” Among the Jews, the word “flesh” does not only refer to the body, but to the whole person; “blood” does not only refer to the blood, but to one’s whole life. Hence, Jesus is giving His whole self and His Life.
(2) The priest is the same Christ, who makes use of Father X or Father Y, to offer the sacrifice.
(3) The sacrificial action is Christ’s offering of Himself which he institutes and anticipates in the Last Supper, and finishes on the Cross (“It is finished” – John 19:30).
(4) The sacrificial end is worship of God and sanctification of men.
These four elements are present in the Sacrifice of the Cross, as well as in the Eucharistic Sacrifice because the Cross and the Mass are not two different sacrifices but one single sacrifice. “Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:12), unlike in the Old Covenant where “every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:11).
MEMORIAL THAT LINKS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
The Church celebrates Mass in obedience to the words of Christ, who commanded the Apostles, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24). Christ commanded the offering of the Mass because “it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit” (CCC 1366).
When we participate at Mass, we are brought back to Calvary so that we can receive the benefits of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. The Mass is a memorial not only in the sense that it reminds us of something past, but it effectively brings the past to the present. The CCCC (no 280) explains: “The Eucharist is a memorial in the sense that it makes present and actual the sacrifice which Christ offered to the Father on the cross, once and for all on behalf of mankind. … The sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one and the same sacrifice. The priest and the victim are the same; only the manner of offering is different: in a bloody manner on the cross, in an unbloody manner in the Eucharist.”
The Mass does not only involve the past and the present. It looks forward to the future, to eternal life. CCC 1340 teaches: “By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus’ passing over to his father by his death and resurrection, the New Passover, is anticipated in the supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.” The Old Passover foreshadowed the New Passover. The New Passover brings us to the Final Passover. (Photo:
Father Ben Sawyer, pastor of Christ the King Church in Wichita, Kan., celebrates a daily Mass. CNS photo/Christopher M. Riggs, Catholic Advance)
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