A. The New Law possesses a true sacrifice.
A. The New Law possesses a true sacrifice.
A sacrifice, strictly so-called, is a visible gift offered to God, and wholly or partially destroyed in honor and adoration of Him as our Supreme Lord. The destruction of the gift offered to God outwardly and visibly represents the sentiment contained in every act of adoration – that God is the First Source, the Last End, and the Sovereign Lord of all things. Therefore sacrifice, being the expression of supreme adoration, is offered to God alone, while other expressions of honor, even the bowing of the knee and prostration of the body, may be used also towards God's creatures.
I. Religion without a sacrifice possesses but an imperfect and defective external worship; for sacrifice alone is essentially an external and visible expression of that supreme adoration due to God. Now, the Christian religion, being perfect in all other respects, must have an equally perfect external worship. But this could not be unless it possessed a true sacrifice; for without a sacrifice it would be inferior in its worship to the patriarchal religion, and would not even rise to that perfection which rational nature demands in religion, as may be seen from the history of all nations, with whom sacrifices universally prevailed.
II. That perfection which the figure, or shadow, represents must doubtless be found in the reality. The figure is a symbolic prediction which must be fulfilled no less than a supernatural prophecy uttered in words. Now, we know that God instituted many sacrifices in the Old Law, which, like the Mosaic Law itself, had the character of types or figures. Therefore we must conclude that the Christian religion also must possess a sacrifice as the fulfillment of those types or figures of the Old Law.
B. Christ offered Himself as a bloody sacrifice on the Cross.
I. St. Paul teaches that Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice on the Cross, when in reference to the shedding
of His Blood he says that He offered Himself and unspotted sacrifice unto God
(Heb. 9: 14).
The Apostle, further, goes on to show that the sacrifice of Christ has taken the place of the numerous sacrifices of the
Old Law, in which God no longer took any delight; and he concludes: [Christ] offering one sacrifice for sins
forever sitteth at the right hand of God
(Heb. 10: 12).
II. From the nature of Christ's death on the Cross it follows that it was a true sacrifice. For Christ as high-priest, dying on the Cross of His own free will (John 10: 18), offered His life and His Blood as a visible gift to His Father, in satisfaction to His offended justice, for the sins of the world. He offered Himself, therefore, in acknowledgment of God's infinite majesty; and in so doing He fulfilled all the conditions essential to a sacrifice.
C. The Sacrifice of the Mass is a true sacrifice – the unbloody renewal of the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross.
The so-called reformers of the 16th century rejected the sacrifice of the Mass, and thus destroyed the soul and center of the Church's worship. For if, as they maintained, Christ were not present in the Eucharist, or were present only at the moment of communion, the Mass would lose its significance.
I. The Mass is a true sacrifice (Council of Trent, Sess. 22, can. 1).
a. The same reasons which go to prove that the Christian religion must have a sacrifice prove also that this sacrifice must be perpetual. For the Christian religion must perpetually possess a perfect form of worship, and must at least be equal in this respect to the Old Law. But this would not be the case unless it possessed a perpetual sacrifice. On the other hand, there is no other act of religion known among Christians which is regarded as a sacrifice except the Mass. Therefore the Mass is the true and perpetual sacrifice of the New Law.
b. God foretold by the prophet Malachias that a true sacrifice was to be offered to Him throughout
the whole world. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts; and I will not receive a gift of your hand.
For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, My name is great among the gentiles, and in every place there
is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean offering; for My name is great among the gentiles,
saith the Lord of Hosts,
(Mal. 1: 10-11). The prophet here refers to a sacrifice in the strict sense of the word;
for there are no grounds for assuming the word is used figuratively. What, then, is this true sacrifice which is to
be offered everywhere, if not the sacrifice of the Mass?
c. Christ offered a true sacrifice, not only upon the Cross, but also at the Last Supper, and perpetuated
this sacrifice in His Church. For, when by the words of Consecration He made His Body to be present under the species
of bread and His Blood under the species of wine, He placed Himself equivalently in the state of death, by the mystic
separation of His Blood from His Body. His intention to offer sacrifice is sufficiently expressed in the words:
This is My Body which shall be delivered [Greek: which is broken] for you
(1 Cor. 11: 24).
This expression of the Apostle in the original text clearly signifies that the Body which was present under the appearance
of bread was then offered as a sacrifice. The same may be said of the Blood that was then present in the chalice under
the appearance of wine: This is the chalice of the New Testament in My Blood, which shall be shed [Greek: which is
poured out] for you
(Luke 22: 20).
d. At the Last Supper was, moreover, fulfilled the prophecy that Christ was to be a priest according
to the order of Melchisedech. Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech
(Ps. 109: 4). Melchisedech is called a priest because he offered a sacrifice of bread and wine
(Gen. 14: 18-19); and he differed from all other priests in this very fact, that he offered bread and wine.
Now, if Christ is called a priest according to the order of Melchisedech,
no doubt He must be like Melchisedech,
in the first place, in that which distinguishes the latter as a priest, namely, that he offered and instituted a sacrifice
at least under the appearance of bread and wine.
e. We have ample evidence that the Church always believed the Mass to be a true sacrifice.
The Apostle St. Paul speaks of a permanent sacrifice in the Christian religion when he says: We have an
altar whereof they [the Jews] have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle
(Heb. 13: 10). An altar supposes a
sacrifice in the strict sense of the word, as may be seen from the fact that those present ate of it, i.e.,
consumed the offerings. The Apostle again compares this sacrifice with the sacrifices of the Jews and heathens:
Behold Israel according to the flesh; are not they that eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?... Do I say that
what is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything, or that the idol is anything? But the things which the heathens
sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.
You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of devils; you cannot be partakers of the table
of the Lord and of the table of devils
(1 Cor. 10: 18-20). Therefore, as the Jews and heathens had altars,
and, consequently, sacrifices, of which they partook, so also in the same sense, according to the Apostle, Christians
have a true sacrifice.
Numerous passages in the writings of the fathers refer to the sacrifice of the Mass as the perpetual
sacrifice of the New Law. Thus St. Justin († 165) says : Of the sacrifices which we offer in every place,
that, of the bread and the chalice of the Eucharist, Malachias has prophesied
(dial. cum Tryph. n. 41).
St. Irenaeus († 202) likewise in different places (cf. cont. haeres. 4, c. 17, n. 5) speaks of the sacrifice of
the Christians as that foretold by Malachias. In a still more ancient work recently discovered (although quoted by many
ancient Church Fathers, the text had been lost until a copy in Greek was discovered in 1873), entitled The Teaching
of the Twelve Apostles (ca. 90 A.D.), we read the following exhortation to the faithful: Being assembled on every Lord's
day, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be a clean one; for it is the
sacrifice of which the Lord hath said: In every place and at every time a clean oblation shall be offered to My name.
In like manner Tertullian (de cult. femin. 2: 11), St. Cyprian (ep. 63 ad Caecil.), and St. Augustine
(de civ. Dei 16: 22; 17: 5). The ancient liturgies, reaching back to the earliest times, contain directions
and prayers for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, which evidently affirm the belief that it is a true sacrifice.
An evident proof of the apostolicity of this belief is the fact that the Oriental sects which fell off from the
Catholic Church in the first centuries have retained it; which they certainly would not have done if it were not
apostolic doctrine.
II. The Sacrifice of the Mass is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
a. The Sacrifice of the Mass is, under a twofold aspect, identical with the Sacrifice of the Cross.
In both sacrifices it is the same victim, Christ Himself, Who is sacrificed; in both it is same High Priest
Who sacrifices. For it is Christ, the High Priest of the Sacrifice of the Cross, Who likewise offers the Sacrifice of the
Mass through the priest, Who is His representative, not merely His successor in the priesthood. Let a man so account of
us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God
(1 Cor. 4: 1). Hence it is that the
priest, assuming the Person of Christ at the Consecration, does not say: This is the Body of Christ; but: This is
My Body.
b. The Sacrifice of the Mass differs from the Sacrifice of the Cross in the manner of offering. On the Cross the Blood of Christ was really shed, and His soul was really separated from His Body, He really died; while in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood, no real death, but only a mystic shedding of blood, a mystic death. In virtue of the words of Consecration there is present under the appearance of bread only Christ's Body (His Blood and Soul are present in consequence of their living union with the Body); under the appearance of wine is present only Christ's Blood (His Body and Soul also, in virtue of this same union).
This mystic shedding of Christ's Blood, or symbolic death, consists in the distinction and separation of the species – the species of bread representing only His Body, the species of wine representing only His Blood; and that separately. Christ no longer actually dies; but He undergoes an external change, which is in some way equivalent to death.
Although the sacrifice essentially consists in the Consecration, yet the sacrificial action is not confined to this one act. The Communion forms an integral part of it. In the Old Law the partaking of the gifts sacrificed to God was a symbol of the intimate union with God to be effected by the Communion in the New Law. Since the Holy Sacrifice, in order to represent the Sacrifice of the Cross, is offered under both species, the sacrificing priest must also partake of it under both species.
The three principal parts of the Mass are the Offertory, the Consecration, and the Communion. These taken together are called the Mass of the Faithful. The part preceding the Offertory is called the Mass of the Catechumens, because in the first ages of the Church it was only at this portion of the Holy Sacrifice that Catechumens were permitted to assist.
The object of the ceremonies accompanying the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the same as that of the rites employed generally in the administration of the Sacraments. The Mass being the sublimest and holiest of all religious acts, it is meet that it should be surrounded with suitable ceremonies. The vestments prescribed for the priest have the same object – to give expression to the sublimity of the action, and to enhance the solemnity of the sacred function.
Latin, being originally the language of the Western Church, naturally continued to be the language used in the Holy
Sacrifice. It was in this tongue that the Christian religion was first spread, its doctrine preached, its liturgy composed –
reason sufficient why it should not be superseded by any modern tongue. For there is nothing easier than with the change of
expression to change the truth itself. Besides, it was befitting that an unchangeable religion should have a permanent and
unchangeable form of worship to represent the unity and imperishableness of its faith. Moreover, the Church's liturgy would
have lost much of its sublime and venerable character if in the course of time, as often as the words of a living language
would change their meaning or become obsolete or trivial, the Church would have to substitute new ones. It was customary
among all nations to celebrate their religious rites in a sacred tongue distinct from the vernacular. This custom was
dictated by the conviction that the liturgical language should remain unchanged. As regards the edification of the
faithful, it has never been observed that the use of the Latin tongue in the Mass detracted in any way from the devotion of
the people at the celebration of the divine mysteries. The prayers and ceremonies of the Mass should be explained to the
people both by oral instruction and by books suitably composed in the vernacular. In our modern world, any congregation
may consist of people speaking various languages – so from a practical point of view, it has never been more inconvenient
to try to adopt a vernacular liturgy. Finally, it is not the edification of the faithful by any form of words, but the
devout assistance at the Holy Sacrifice, that is intended and commanded by Christ and the Church. The Mass is essentially
a sacrifice, not a sermon, though it contains also much that is instructive.
D. The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God in praise, petition, thanksgiving, atonement.
I. From the nature of a sacrifice, which is essentially an expression of adoration, it follows that it can be
offered only to God. The same conclusion may be inferred from the fact that it is a perpetuation of the Sacrifice of
the Cross, in which Christ offered Himself as a victim to God alone. The Church expresses this belief in the prayers
of the Mass, when it prays that this sacrifice may be acceptable in the sight of God.
Masses are said, it is true,
in honor of the Saints, but only to thank God for the glory bestowed on them and to secure their intercession for us
(Council of Trent Sess. 22, c. 3).
II. The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered to God as a sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving, atonement, and impetration (petition). For, since these were the ends of the many sacrifices of the Old Law, so also the one Sacrifice of the Mass which has taken their place must have this fourfold object. The fourfold duty of acknowledging and praising God, of giving thanks for His numberless benefits, of rendering satisfaction to Him for our sins, of imploring the divine grace and mercy, is incumbent upon the Church at large as well as upon individuals; and the most effectual means of discharging this duty is the Holy Sacrifice instituted for this purpose. And, in fact, the Church repeatedly in the Canon of the Mass gives distinct expression to this fourfold purpose. The Holy Sacrifice, however, being identical with the Sacrifice of the Cross, is in a special manner propitiatory – a sacrifice of atonement. As such it obtains for us particularly the grace of repentance (Council of Trent Sess. 22, c. 2), whereby we obtain forgiveness of our sins and of the punishment due to them; for it is no less effectual than the sacrifices of the Old Law, which certainly had the efficacy of averting God's punishments from His people.
E. The fruits of the Mass are of two kinds: general and special.
By the fruits of the Sacrifice of the Mass we understand the effects which it produces for us, inasmuch as it is a sacrifice of atonement and impetration: (a) not only supernatural graces, but also natural favors; (b) remission of sins, and of the punishment due to them. What Christ merited for us by His death on the Cross is applied to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The efficacy of the Mass is of itself infinite, since the gift offered is of infinite dignity. Its fruits, however, are not appropriated by those for whom it is offered in an infinite, but only in a finite, degree. For, on the one hand, God intended that the Holy Sacrifice should be constantly offered, and should therefore constantly produce new fruits; and, on the other hand, as in the Sacraments, its fruits are applied according to the disposition and actual devotion of those who assist, or of those for whom it is offered.
I. The general fruits of Holy Mass are applied to the whole Church, both militant and suffering.
For the Mass is offered by the Church, as we read in the Canon, in behalf of the whole Church, for all who profess
the Catholic and apostolic Faith;
and commemoration is made of all God's servants who have gone before us with the sign
of Faith, and who sleep in peace.
Concerning this the Catechism of the Council of Trent (On the Sacrament of the Eucharist) teaches:
The additional words, 'for you and for many,' are taken, some from St. Matthew (26: 28), some from St. Luke
(22: 20), and under the guidance of the Spirit of God, combined together by the Catholic Church. They serve
emphatically to designate the fruit and advantages of His Passion. Looking to the power (virtus) of the Passion,
we believe that the Redeemer shed His Blood for the salvation of all men; but looking to the advantages, which mankind derive
from its power, we find, at once, that they are not extended to the whole, but to a large proportion of the human race.
When, therefore, Our Lord said: 'for you,' He meant either those who were present, or those whom He had chosen from amongst
the Jews, amongst whom were, with the exception of Judas, all His disciples with whom He then conversed; but when He adds,
'for many,' He would include the remainder of the elect from amongst the Jews and Gentiles. With great propriety therefore,
were the words, for all, omitted, because here the fruit of the Passion is alone spoken of, and to the elect only did
His Passion bring the fruit of salvation. This the words of the Apostle declare, when he says that Christ was offered once,
to take away the sins of many (Heb. 9: 26); and the same truth is conveyed in these words of Our Lord recorded by
St. John: 'I pray for them, I pray not for the world; but for them whom Thou hast given Me, because they are Thine'
(John 17: 9).
II. The special fruits of the Mass are, in the first place, applied to those who take part in the sacred function – the priest and those who in any way are active in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice (assisting clergy, servers, choir). Next, those for whom the priest applies the fruits of the Holy Sacrifice by a special intention; for the Mass is a kind of prayer, and may, therefore, be offered for the intention of individuals. The faithful, inasmuch as by their assistance they offer with the priest the Holy Sacrifice, may also apply its fruits to others. They may offer it in a general sense, as members of the same mystic body as the officiating priest; or they may offer it in a stricter sense, if they actually cooperate towards the sacrifice by giving stipends, etc. The special fruits of the Holy Sacrifice are, finally, applied to those who assist in a becoming manner. For the intention of the Church, is to offer it especially for all who are present. Assistance at Mass is in itself a cooperation and participation; and the zeal manifested in the assistance at Mass itself insures to the faithful an abundant share in its fruits.
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