The Mass as sacrifice
Keep far away, then, my well beloved, from idolatry. I am speaking to you as men of good sense, weigh my words for yourselves. We have a chalice that we bless; is not this chalice we bless a communion with Christ’s blood? Is not the bread we break a communion with Christ’s body? The one bread makes us one body, though we are many in number; the same bread is shared by all. Or look at Israel, God’s people by nature; do not those who eat their sacrifices associate themselves with the altar of sacrifice? I am not suggesting that anything call really be sacrificed to false god, or that a false god has any existence; I mean that when the heathen offer sacrifice they are really offering it to evil spirits and not to a God at all. I have no mind to see you associating yourselves with evil spirits. To drink the Lord’s chalice, and yet to drink the chalice of evil spirits, to share the Lord’s feast, and to share the feast of evil spirits, is impossible for you (1 Cor 10:14-21).
God took the initiative
The Blessed Trinity is the mystery of God himself. God the Father begets God the Son, and gives him everything He is; God the Father is totally “being for.” God the Son is totally “being from” the Father. God the Holy Spirit is essentially the mutual love between the Father and the Son.
God the Father wanted to share his divine life and happiness with men; for this purpose God the Son became man. During his whole earthly life, Jesus worked to establish a permanent relationship –a covenant– between God and mankind, translating into human terms –as if he were reproducing in a mirror– the Son’s filial relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. In Jesus, we become sons of God through the Holy Spirit; and brothers and sisters among ourselves in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. For this reasons, God took the initiative and created his Church, the family of men enriched with –really sharing in– the love, goodness and beauty of the Blessed Trinity.
The passion, death and resurrection of our Lord constitute the Paschal Mystery, the climax of Jesus’ earthly life. In and through this Paschal Mystery, life in the Holy Spirit is made communicable to us; this Mystery is our entry point into the life of the Trinity as it was established in the covenant. The fruit of the Paschal Mystery is Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us to join us together in the Church and to unite us to God. The Paschal Mystery is perpetuated in time and space in and through the life, doctrine and worship of the Church.
· The Church communicates to us life in the Spirit.
· The Church proclaims the Word of God as handed down by the Apostles, making the Paschal Mystery present as “saving word.”
· The Church makes the Paschal Mystery present as “saving action” through the sacraments but more especially through the Eucharist which makes present the Paschal Mystery in the sacrament.
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A sacrifice is the highest form of adoration. It is the offering (oblation) of a victim to God in acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion as the Beginning and End of our entire lives. The victim or gift should be destroyed (immolation), or at least partially removed from human use, as an act of submission to the divine majesty. A sacrifice is not only an oblation. While an oblation only offers something to God (as in the case of alms for the cult), a sacrifice also immolates, or somehow destroys, what is offered.
The sacrifice of the New Covenant
A covenant or testament is an agreement or compact —a personal alliance between two parties. In the Scriptures, it means an alliance between God and man. God renewed through Moses the initial old covenant with the people of Israel, which was begun through Abraham. It was sealed with a sacrifice, with the blood of sacrificed animals, because blood was the sign of life.
* * *
While the Jews were in bondage in Egypt, they went through all sorts of sufferings; it was as if God had abandoned them. In reality, God had not forgotten the compact he had made with their forefathers. “The sons of Israel, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God. God heard their groaning and he called to mind his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Ex 2:23‑24).
After the plagues, God struck the Egyptians further to prompt the deliverance of the Jews by smiting the firstborn in each Egyptian household. The Israelites were to be spared by sacrificing a lamb, and then marking their doorways with its blood. The angel of God seeing the blood would pass by. Thereafter, at every Passover, the Jews recalled and renewed their covenant with God by sacrificing a lamb. This paschal lamb of the Old Testament is the main sign or figure of the sacrifice of Christ.
Jesus instituted the Eucharist during the paschal celebration, on the eve of his death. He was bringing the paschal feast to its total fulfillment; he was renewing it and replacing it with the definitive sacrifice.
* * *
God gave his people the gift of his friendship through a solemn renewal of the compact of alliance, after having set them free from slavery in Egypt. This alliance had to last until the establishment of a New Covenant, and it had the following content:
• On the part of God, the election of Israel as a chosen people. God will make them a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. This election demanded from them sanctity and fidelity to God’s commandments.
• On the part of Israel, unconditional acceptance of the will of God. The Jews will recognize him as the only God and will observe all the commandments that the Lord had decreed.
The Jews accepted the terms of the covenant and God instructed Moses to prepare for its formal acceptance. Early in the morning, Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai. Then he directed some young Israelites to sacrifice bullocks; half of the blood Moses took up and put into basins, the other half he poured on the altar. And taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the people, and they said, “We will observe all that God has decreed; we will obey.” Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled the people with it. “This” he said, “is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you.” Moses, the mediator between God and the people, poured the blood of the same victims over the altar –the symbol of God– and over the Israelites, uniting God and people in solid communion.
* * *
This Old Covenant had to be substituted with a new one, as announced by the prophets: “See, the days are coming—it is God who speaks—when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31‑33). This New Covenant will be permanent: “I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever” (Ezekiel 16:59).
In the New Testament, during the Last Supper, Jesus gave the liturgy of his death and resurrection to his disciples. He made a reference to the Sinai covenant: The New Covenant sealed with his blood was to be the eternal one. And what had only been foreshadowed now became a reality: the communion of life between God and man. When Jesus said in the Last Supper, “This chalice is the New Covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20), he was repeating the same words of Moses. But now it will be the new alliance that will never be broken. Those who will receive the Eucharist will become part of the new people of God. The old sacrifices offered in the Temple came to an end. The sacrifices of bullocks, goats, and lambs offered by the Jews have found completion in Christ’s sacrifice.
The Last Supper – Calvary – the Holy Mass
During the Last Super, our Lord anticipated the bloody sacrifice which he would accomplish the following day on the cross once and for all for the redemption of the world.
The temporal and emotional backdrop to the banquet in which Jesus takes leave of His friends is the imminence of His death, which He feels already to be near at hand. For a long time, Jesus had spoken about His Passion and had sought to increasingly draw His disciples into this perspective.
Moreover, on the very day He was preparing to bid the disciples farewell, the life of the people of Israel was marked by the approaching feast of Passover; i.e. of the memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. This liberation -- experienced in the past, and awaited anew in the present and for the future -- was relived in the family celebrations of the Passover.
The Last Supper takes place within this context, but with a fundamental newness. Jesus looks to His Passion, Death and Resurrection fully aware of them. He wills to experience this Supper with His disciples, but with a wholly unique character, different from all other banquets: It is His Supper, in which He gives Something totally new: Himself. Thus it is that Jesus celebrates His Passover and anticipates His Cross and Resurrection.[1]
We can reconstruct how our Lord celebrated the Last Supper observing the traditional rite of the Jewish Passover; it included the serving of four ceremonial cups or chalices of wine mixed with water.
• The first cup was poured and the wine was blessed.
• Then in succession the bitter herbs, the unleavened loaves, and the dipping sauce were brought in. At this moment, the treachery of Judas could have been foretold (Jn 13:26). The paschal lamb was also brought in.
• The second cup was poured, and the father of the family instructed those present, above all the children, on the meaning of the feast (Ex 12:26; 13:8).
• Then followed the singing of the first part of the Hallel, a song of praise to God made up of Psalms 113 to 118. Its first part went up to Psalm 113, verse 9, or according to some other authors, up to Psalm 114.
• After the song, our Lord, departing from Jewish custom, got up, washed the disciples’ feet with the “second water” intended to be used for washing the hands of the guests towards the end of the meal. Then he sat down (Jn 13:2‑12). He expressed his desire (Lk 22:15 ff.) to eat that Passover with them, since he would not eat any other. Meanwhile, he told the disciples that he was not to drink of the fruit of the vine any more (Lk 22:17); the hour of his passion was approaching.
• Then he took bread, possibly a loaf which had to be left on the table—as was customary to indicate that no more food was going to be served, marking the end of the meal. He pronounced over it a “blessing” of “thanksgiving.” He consecrated it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples.
• Towards the end of the meal, the third cup was served; he consecrated it (Lk 22:20) and gave it to them to drink.
• Once the institution of the Eucharist was over, they completed the second part of the Hallel (Mt 26:30). It is possible that the fourth cup was never served; it is not mentioned in the Scriptures. Afterwards, they went out to Mount Olivet.
* * *
With this ceremony, our Lord anticipated in the Upper Room his own immolation and oblation which were to be accomplished in Calvary the following day. Moreover, we shall see how Christ’s sacrifice is as true and efficacious in every Mass as in Calvary. St John Chrysostom, overcome with awe, expressed this identity in these accurate and eloquent words:
I wish to add something that is clearly awe‑inspiring, but do not be surprised or upset. What is this? It is the same offering, no matter who offers it, be it Peter or Paul. It is the same one that Christ gave to his disciples and the same one that priests now perform.[2]
* * *
Imagine one of those stars far from our solar system. Imagine a pulsar emitting radiomagnetic waves. This star has existed for aeons, but it is only now that we start receiving its radiomagnetic waves. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for the waves to reach us. So, too, the sacrifice of the cross projects itself into the future and for all eternity. The Mass helps us to “tune in” on the merits of Christ’s sacrifice and apply them to ourselves. And Christ lives on in his holy humanity and in his person.
Our Lord suffered on the cross sometime in the past, but his sacrifice is made actual at every moment of history. His sacrifice is not just something that happened two thousand years ago: It is still happening. Christ’s sacrifice is not an heirloom or an antique that survives to the present: It is a drama as real now as then. As long as there are men on earth, it will go on.
Again, let us imagine, as in the novel of H.G. Wells, that a scientist has devised a “time tunnel.” Going through this fantastic machine, one could become present at any place and time in the past with the flick of the dials. Let us imagine ourselves present at Calvary, seeing our Lord suffering and offering himself up for the sins of all of us.... Of course, this is not possible because that machine exists only in the imagination of the writer. However, the spiritual effects of this action of Christ on us are exactly the same when we attend the Mass today as they would have been, had we been present on Calvary. The redemptive love of Christ on the cross is projected through time and space and applied to us precisely in the Mass. It is a form of time in which the past, the present, and the future penetrate one another and touch eternity.[3]
We do not really travel back in time or get off the present moment. What happens is that the Mass incorporates us onto a present redeeming act of Christ, which is substantially the same as the sacrifice of the cross. We use the expressions to reenact, to re‑actualize, and to make present in this book to signify this happening.
The Mass, real sacrifice
By means of the mystery of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the cross, which was once carried out on Calvary, is reenacted in wonderful fashion. It is constantly recalled in the Holy Mass, and its salvific power is applied for the forgiveness of sins we commit each day.[4]
This sacrifice of our redemption is renewed at each Mass. “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed is celebrated on an altar, the work of our redemption is carried on.”[5] The faithful gather around the priest and, together with him, join Jesus in offering himself to God the Father as in Calvary.
* * *
In every Mass, as in the Last Supper, the mystery of transubstantiation takes place. This occurs when the priest says the words of the Consecration. These words of the Last Supper and the Mass bear a clearly sacrificial character. Christ calls his body a sacrificial body and his blood, sacrificial blood. The expressions “to give up the body” and “to shed blood” are biblical sacrificial terms; they express the rendering of a true and proper sacrifice.
* * *
In the verses of the First Epistle to the Corinthians included at the beginning of this chapter, the Mass is set in sharp opposition to pagan sacrifices. The real presence is clearly asserted, and the comparison of the two worships highlights the sacrificial character of the Mass. For St Paul, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Lord’s body and blood, and is the sacrifice of Christians.
St Paul starts by exhorting the Christians in Corinth to abstain from any manifestation of idolatry (cf. 1 Cor 10:14‑21), specifically from the banquet that usually followed the pagan sacrifice (verse 14). He states the reason: A sacrifice and the banquet that follows it are closely related. To share in the banquet is, in effect, to participate in the sacrifice. St Paul offers two examples to bring this point home:
(1) He reminds the Christians in Corinth of the sacrifices of Israel. In these, the people shared in the victim offered (v. 18) by eating a part of it.
(2) He makes clear what happens in the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist (v. 16): “The blessing‑cup that we bless is a Communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a Communion with the body of Christ.” This affirmation, in this context, implies that by taking Communion we also participate in the sacrifice of Christ.
Then St Paul considers a possible objection (v. 19): Since the god represented by the idol is not real, would it not be licit then to eat food sacrificed to the idols?
St Paul answers that participation in such a banquet would be illicit because it means sharing in the pagan sacrifice, in union with the demons (v. 20).
St Paul thus concludes that a Christian cannot take part in two opposed sacrifices: idolatrous sacrifices and the sacrifice of the altar (v. 21). This opposition gives evidence of the sacrificial character of the Mass.
* * *
In the Last Supper, Christ gave his apostles this command, “Do this in memory of me,” making them priests of the New Testament. With these words Jesus meant: Do not just make a remembrance or memorial, a theatrical representation of what I have done. Rather do this, what I myself have done and as I have done it. Do not celebrate a new sacrifice, different or unrelated to my oblation, but offer exactly what I have offered and drink the chalice that I have drunk. In short, in the Last Supper, Christ was looking forward to the sacrifice of the cross, anticipating it, and establishing the manner of perpetuating it.
The Church continues offering the same sacrifice but in an unbloody manner. The historical event that took place on Calvary does not repeat itself; neither is it continued in each Mass. The sacrifice of Christ is perfect and therefore does not need to be repeated. Glorious in heaven, Christ does not die again. The presence of the singular sacrifice of the cross is multiplied, overcoming time and space. Therefore, the Mass is not a new sacrifice, but rather the reenactment or unbloody renewal of the one supreme sacrifice of Calvary.
* * *
On the cross, he would die by the separation of his blood from his body. In the Last Supper, as happens in every Mass, Jesus Christ did not consecrate the bread and the wine together, but separately, to show forth the manner of his death by the separation of body and blood.
According to St Gregory Nazianzen, the priest, uttering the words of Consecration, “sunders with unbloody cut the body and the blood of the Lord, using his voice as a sword.” The double Consecration is necessary to represent the real separation of the body and blood of Christ, which took place in the sacrifice of the cross. The sacramental mystical slaying (double Consecration), together with Christ’s inward act of oblation, constitutes the essence of the sacrifice.
* * *
In the Mass, there is no new offering, but only another kind of presence of the same offering of Calvary through the ministry of the priest.
In the Last Supper, our Lord was about to suffer; on Calvary he was suffering; in every Mass he is present, having suffered, glorious, as he is heaven. We do not envy the Jews and the holy women who were present on Calvary. We have the possibility of participating actively in Christ’s sacrifice. Calvary is among us.
* * *
In the Cenacle, as in Calvary, the essential elements of the sacrifice are there: the slaying of the victim and the offering: immolation and self‑offering to God the Father. But whereas in the old Jewish ritual the offering ought to be done by the priests, it was not necessary for the slaying to be done by them. It often was the work of the Temple servants. For it was not the slaying that made the victim sacred, but the offering. The essential thing was that the priest offer a living thing slain right there and then.
In the sacrifice of Calvary, the priest was perfect, for Christ was the priest. The victim was perfect, for he was the victim, too. He offered himself, slain. But not slain by himself. He was slain by others, slain indeed by his enemies. Christ is the unspotted Lamb. He set all men free from the slavery of sin and established the eternal alliance between creature and Creator, the New Covenant.
The priest and victim
Jesus Christ is always the principal and sovereign Priest. From him did the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood receive the power to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice in his name and on behalf of the entire Church. Therefore, following Christ’s command, the priest offers the Mass acting as the representative of Christ. That is why he does not say, “This is the body and blood of Christ,” but, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.” The priest is the chosen instrument of Christ in the same manner that the brush is the painter’s tool.
Both on the cross and in the Mass, the priest and victim are one and the same: Christ himself. He is both the one who offers and the one who is offered.
In the Mass, Christ is no longer alone on the cross. Like any other sacrament, the Mass is an action of Christ and also of the Church. The Church does not offer a sacrifice different from that of Christ. At the moment of the offertory, the entire Church, hierarchically structured, presents itself for sacrifice with Christ. Christ is the only Priest and Victim, and the entire Church participates in this double role.
Thus, the sacrifice of the Mass is an act of the whole Christ, Head and members. On the part of Jesus, the surrender of self is real and perfect. It is real also on the part of those who are in the state of grace and are actually united with Christ by charity. As regards the individual Christian, the surrender of self will be real in the measure in which he really shares the dispositions of heart—absolute submission to the will of God— which are found in Jesus’ heart. Sin and attachment to sin are the obstacles to sanctity. At Mass we should profess our desire to struggle to overcome these obstacles.
* * *
When the faithful are said to offer the Mass together with the priest, this does not mean that all the members of the Church celebrate the Mass like the priest himself. Only the celebrant, who alone possesses the ministerial priesthood, does this. He has been divinely appointed for this purpose through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
However, “the priest cannot consider himself a ‘proprietor’ who can make free use of the liturgical text and of the sacred rite as if it were his property, in such a way as to stamp it with his own arbitrary personal style. At times this way of doing things might seem more effective, and it may better correspond to subjective piety; nevertheless, objectively, it is always a betrayal of that union which should find its proper expression in the sacrament of unity.
“Every priest who offers the holy sacrifice should recall that during this sacrifice it is not only he with his community that is praying but the whole Church, which is thus expressing in this sacrament her spiritual unity, among other ways by the use of the approved liturgical text.”[6]
* * *
The faithful are said to offer the Mass with the priest when they unite their praise, petition, expiation, and thanksgiving with the prayer of the priest, indeed, with the prayer of Christ himself. In doing so, the faithful exercise some element of Christ’s priesthood which is imparted to them at baptism. This participation in Christ’s priesthood is called common priesthood. All these intentions are presented to God the Father by means of the priest’s external rite.
The sacrifice of Christ and of the Church
History comprises two periods: first, the period when the sacrifice of the cross was awaited; and second, the period when the sacrifice was made and offered by Christ and his Church.
In this second period, Christ founded the Church in the community of those Twelve who, at the Last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord. To the Church, his beloved Spouse, Christ entrusted the Eucharist: a memorial of his death and resurrection, a sacrament of love, a sign of unity. This is the Church governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. And we receive the Eucharist from the Church Christ founded which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
* * *
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul explains what the Eucharist is and its origin. He says that he had not invented it, but that he had just “received” it. It all began with Christ’s action “on the same night he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23). From Christ came the command to “do this in memory of me,” and in obedience to that command, we continue “thanking God,” “breaking the bread,” distributing his body, and presenting the chalice of his blood as that of “the New and Everlasting Covenant.”
Christ bequeathed his sacrifice to the whole Church, not just to each believer. God wants to save men, not merely as individuals without any bond or link between one another. Rather, he wants to bring men together as one people. That bond is established when the Church celebrates the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, when she proclaims “the Lord’s death until he comes,” and later, when the faithful approach the sacrament of the altar.
Therefore, each Mass presupposes union among the faithful and of the faithful with their bishop, with the pope, and with the universal Church. Moreover, that solid union is made stronger with the celebration of the Eucharist and is a consequence of it. The Second Vatican Council states it in this manner: “In the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought about.”[7]
The Eucharist is a common possession of the Church as the sacrament of her unity. Thus, the Church has the strict duty to specify everything that concerns participation in this sacrament and its celebration.
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“It is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms. Likewise, the Catholic people have the right that the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass should be celebrated for them in an integral manner, according to the entire doctrine of the Church’s Magisterium. Finally, it is the Catholic community’s right that the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist should be carried out for it in such a manner that it truly stands out as a sacrament of unity, to the exclusion of all blemishes and actions that might engender divisions and factions in the Church.[8]
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The Eucharist is the creative force and source of communion among the members of the Church; it unites each one of them with Christ himself: “Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another. ‘Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread’ (1 Cor 10:17).”
By giving us his body the Lord transforms us into one body: the Church. Hence St Paul’s expression the Church is the body of Christ means that the Church expresses herself principally in the Eucharist. While present everywhere, the Church is yet one, just as Christ is one.
United with Christ and Mary
The principal Victim of the sacrifice, then, is Jesus Christ, but the faithful, in order to exercise their common priesthood fully, should unite their sacrifice to his and thus offer themselves also to God the Father. “I exhort you...to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God, your spiritual service,” wrote St Paul to the Romans (12:1).
The Mass requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he was offering himself in sacrifice: sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise and thanksgiving to the divine Majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self‑denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating for their sins. It requires all of us, in a word, to die mystically with Jesus Christ on the cross, so that we may say with the same apostle, “With Christ, I hang upon the cross.”[9]
The unity of believers centered on the Eucharist is one clear precept of Christ. The disciples of Jesus faithfully executed this command, persevering in prayer and assembling to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice, together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, all having but one heart and one soul.
Mary’s participation in Christ’s sacrifice is unique. Standing at the foot of the cross, she actively cooperated with the redemption accomplished by her Son. She stood “suffering deeply with her only‑begotten Son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the Victim to whom she had given birth; in this way Mary faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the cross.”[10] She was associated with Christ in the sacrifice of the cross and the same sacrifice is reenacted in every Mass. Thus, Mary is present in a mystical manner in every Mass.
The Sunday Precept
The third commandment of the Decalogue states: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.” It commands us to honor God with acts of worship on prescribed days.
In the Old Testament, God commanded the chosen people to keep holy the Sabbath day (Saturday). This precept reminded them that God rested from his work of creation upon its completion on the seventh day, and that God blessed and sanctified that day (Gen 2:2‑3).
In the New Testament, Sunday is the Lord’s day (dies dominica). On that day we celebrate the new creation—the re‑creation—of man as a son of God by grace. The beginning of man’s birth to the life of grace, the Lord’s Resurrection, was on such a day. This supernatural new creation is far superior to the material creation of the world.
To assure and facilitate the proper sanctification of Sundays and other chief feasts, the Church prescribes attendance at Holy Mass during these days. This is prescribed in the Church’s first commandment. The precept to attend Holy Mass obliges us to hear a complete Mass either on the same Sunday (or holiday) or in the afternoon of the previous day. Attending a complete Mass entails following at least its essential parts with bodily presence and pious attention.
The correct and pious observance of the first precept of the Church guarantees the fulfillment of God’s third commandment.
* * *
We have testimonies from the very beginning of the life of the Church that prove that the Christians celebrated the Holy Mass especially on Sunday, the day the Lord triumphed by rising from the dead.
“In the year 304, the Emperor Diocletian prohibited Christians, under pain of death, to possess the Scriptures, to meet on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist and to build premises for their assemblies. In Abitene, a small village in what today is Tunis, 49 Christians, meeting in the home of Octavius Felix, were taken by surprise on a Sunday while celebrating the Eucharist, defying the imperial prohibitions. Arrested, they were taken to Carthage to be interrogated by the proconsul Anulinus.
“Significant, in particular, was the response given to the proconsul by Emeritus, after being asked why he had violated the emperor's order. He said: “Sine dominico non possumus,” –we cannot live without meeting on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would not have the strength to face the daily difficulties and not succumb. After atrocious tortures, the 49 martyrs of Abitene were killed. Thus, they confirmed their faith with the shedding of blood. They died but they were victorious; we now remember them in the glory of the risen Christ.
“We, Christians of the 21st century, must also reflect on the experience of the Abitene martyrs. It is not easy for us either to live as Christians... in a world in often characterized by rampant consumerism, religious indifference, and secularism closed to transcendence.
“The Son of God, by becoming flesh, could become bread and in this way be the nourishment of his people journeying toward the promised land of heaven.
“We need this bread to cope with the toil and exhaustion of the journey. Sunday, day of the Lord, is the propitious occasion to draw strength from him, who is the Lord of life. The Sunday precept, therefore, is not a simple duty imposed from outside. To participate in the Sunday celebration and to be nourished with the Eucharistic bread is a need of a Christian, who in this way can find the necessary energy for the journey to be undertaken. A journey, moreover, that is not arbitrary; the way that God indicates through his law goes in the direction inscribed in the very essence of man. To follow the way means man’s own fulfillment, to lose it, is to lose himself.”[11]
***
We read in the Acts of the Apostles (20:7‑12): “On the first day of the week we met to break bread”. The verb used for “meeting” has for its noun synaxis, the Greek for Eucharist.
The Second Vatican Council offers us a deep theological explanation of the Sunday precept: “By tradition handed down from the Apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day; with good reason this, then, bears the name of the Lord’s day or Sunday. For on this day Christ’s faithful should come together into one place so that, by hearing the word of God and taking part in the Eucharist, they may call to mind the passion, the resurrection, and the glorification of the Lord Jesus, and may thank God who ‘has begotten them again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope’ (1 Pet 1:3).”[12]
No wonder, then, that the Church requires us to go to Mass at least on Sunday under the pain of mortal sin.
Footnotes:
[1]Benedict XVI, General Audience, Jan. 11, 2012.
[2]Homily on the Second Epistle to Timothy 2.4, PG 62:612.
[3]Cf. Joseph Card. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, (Ignatius, San Francisco, 2000).
[4]Cf. MF, no.27.
[5]Second Vatican Council, Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium [=LG], no. 3.
[6]John Paul II, Letter Dominicae Cenae [=DC], 24 February 1980, no. 12.
[7]LG, no. 3; cf. 1 Cor 10:17.
[8]Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist, no.12. Cf. 1 Cor 11, 17-34; Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 52: AAS 95 (2003) pp. 467-468.
[9]MD, no. 125.
[10]LG, no. 58.
[11]Benedict XVI, Homily during the closing Mass of the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress, in Bari, 29 May, 2005.
[12]SC, no. 106.
God took the initiative
The Blessed Trinity is the mystery of God himself. God the Father begets God the Son, and gives him everything He is; God the Father is totally “being for.” God the Son is totally “being from” the Father. God the Holy Spirit is essentially the mutual love between the Father and the Son.
God the Father wanted to share his divine life and happiness with men; for this purpose God the Son became man. During his whole earthly life, Jesus worked to establish a permanent relationship –a covenant– between God and mankind, translating into human terms –as if he were reproducing in a mirror– the Son’s filial relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. In Jesus, we become sons of God through the Holy Spirit; and brothers and sisters among ourselves in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. For this reasons, God took the initiative and created his Church, the family of men enriched with –really sharing in– the love, goodness and beauty of the Blessed Trinity.
The passion, death and resurrection of our Lord constitute the Paschal Mystery, the climax of Jesus’ earthly life. In and through this Paschal Mystery, life in the Holy Spirit is made communicable to us; this Mystery is our entry point into the life of the Trinity as it was established in the covenant. The fruit of the Paschal Mystery is Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us to join us together in the Church and to unite us to God. The Paschal Mystery is perpetuated in time and space in and through the life, doctrine and worship of the Church.
· The Church communicates to us life in the Spirit.
· The Church proclaims the Word of God as handed down by the Apostles, making the Paschal Mystery present as “saving word.”
· The Church makes the Paschal Mystery present as “saving action” through the sacraments but more especially through the Eucharist which makes present the Paschal Mystery in the sacrament.
***
A sacrifice is the highest form of adoration. It is the offering (oblation) of a victim to God in acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion as the Beginning and End of our entire lives. The victim or gift should be destroyed (immolation), or at least partially removed from human use, as an act of submission to the divine majesty. A sacrifice is not only an oblation. While an oblation only offers something to God (as in the case of alms for the cult), a sacrifice also immolates, or somehow destroys, what is offered.
The sacrifice of the New Covenant
A covenant or testament is an agreement or compact —a personal alliance between two parties. In the Scriptures, it means an alliance between God and man. God renewed through Moses the initial old covenant with the people of Israel, which was begun through Abraham. It was sealed with a sacrifice, with the blood of sacrificed animals, because blood was the sign of life.
* * *
While the Jews were in bondage in Egypt, they went through all sorts of sufferings; it was as if God had abandoned them. In reality, God had not forgotten the compact he had made with their forefathers. “The sons of Israel, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God. God heard their groaning and he called to mind his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Ex 2:23‑24).
After the plagues, God struck the Egyptians further to prompt the deliverance of the Jews by smiting the firstborn in each Egyptian household. The Israelites were to be spared by sacrificing a lamb, and then marking their doorways with its blood. The angel of God seeing the blood would pass by. Thereafter, at every Passover, the Jews recalled and renewed their covenant with God by sacrificing a lamb. This paschal lamb of the Old Testament is the main sign or figure of the sacrifice of Christ.
Jesus instituted the Eucharist during the paschal celebration, on the eve of his death. He was bringing the paschal feast to its total fulfillment; he was renewing it and replacing it with the definitive sacrifice.
* * *
God gave his people the gift of his friendship through a solemn renewal of the compact of alliance, after having set them free from slavery in Egypt. This alliance had to last until the establishment of a New Covenant, and it had the following content:
• On the part of God, the election of Israel as a chosen people. God will make them a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation. This election demanded from them sanctity and fidelity to God’s commandments.
• On the part of Israel, unconditional acceptance of the will of God. The Jews will recognize him as the only God and will observe all the commandments that the Lord had decreed.
The Jews accepted the terms of the covenant and God instructed Moses to prepare for its formal acceptance. Early in the morning, Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai. Then he directed some young Israelites to sacrifice bullocks; half of the blood Moses took up and put into basins, the other half he poured on the altar. And taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the people, and they said, “We will observe all that God has decreed; we will obey.” Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled the people with it. “This” he said, “is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you.” Moses, the mediator between God and the people, poured the blood of the same victims over the altar –the symbol of God– and over the Israelites, uniting God and people in solid communion.
* * *
This Old Covenant had to be substituted with a new one, as announced by the prophets: “See, the days are coming—it is God who speaks—when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel, but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31‑33). This New Covenant will be permanent: “I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever” (Ezekiel 16:59).
In the New Testament, during the Last Supper, Jesus gave the liturgy of his death and resurrection to his disciples. He made a reference to the Sinai covenant: The New Covenant sealed with his blood was to be the eternal one. And what had only been foreshadowed now became a reality: the communion of life between God and man. When Jesus said in the Last Supper, “This chalice is the New Covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20), he was repeating the same words of Moses. But now it will be the new alliance that will never be broken. Those who will receive the Eucharist will become part of the new people of God. The old sacrifices offered in the Temple came to an end. The sacrifices of bullocks, goats, and lambs offered by the Jews have found completion in Christ’s sacrifice.
The Last Supper – Calvary – the Holy Mass
During the Last Super, our Lord anticipated the bloody sacrifice which he would accomplish the following day on the cross once and for all for the redemption of the world.
The temporal and emotional backdrop to the banquet in which Jesus takes leave of His friends is the imminence of His death, which He feels already to be near at hand. For a long time, Jesus had spoken about His Passion and had sought to increasingly draw His disciples into this perspective.
Moreover, on the very day He was preparing to bid the disciples farewell, the life of the people of Israel was marked by the approaching feast of Passover; i.e. of the memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. This liberation -- experienced in the past, and awaited anew in the present and for the future -- was relived in the family celebrations of the Passover.
The Last Supper takes place within this context, but with a fundamental newness. Jesus looks to His Passion, Death and Resurrection fully aware of them. He wills to experience this Supper with His disciples, but with a wholly unique character, different from all other banquets: It is His Supper, in which He gives Something totally new: Himself. Thus it is that Jesus celebrates His Passover and anticipates His Cross and Resurrection.[1]
We can reconstruct how our Lord celebrated the Last Supper observing the traditional rite of the Jewish Passover; it included the serving of four ceremonial cups or chalices of wine mixed with water.
• The first cup was poured and the wine was blessed.
• Then in succession the bitter herbs, the unleavened loaves, and the dipping sauce were brought in. At this moment, the treachery of Judas could have been foretold (Jn 13:26). The paschal lamb was also brought in.
• The second cup was poured, and the father of the family instructed those present, above all the children, on the meaning of the feast (Ex 12:26; 13:8).
• Then followed the singing of the first part of the Hallel, a song of praise to God made up of Psalms 113 to 118. Its first part went up to Psalm 113, verse 9, or according to some other authors, up to Psalm 114.
• After the song, our Lord, departing from Jewish custom, got up, washed the disciples’ feet with the “second water” intended to be used for washing the hands of the guests towards the end of the meal. Then he sat down (Jn 13:2‑12). He expressed his desire (Lk 22:15 ff.) to eat that Passover with them, since he would not eat any other. Meanwhile, he told the disciples that he was not to drink of the fruit of the vine any more (Lk 22:17); the hour of his passion was approaching.
• Then he took bread, possibly a loaf which had to be left on the table—as was customary to indicate that no more food was going to be served, marking the end of the meal. He pronounced over it a “blessing” of “thanksgiving.” He consecrated it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples.
• Towards the end of the meal, the third cup was served; he consecrated it (Lk 22:20) and gave it to them to drink.
• Once the institution of the Eucharist was over, they completed the second part of the Hallel (Mt 26:30). It is possible that the fourth cup was never served; it is not mentioned in the Scriptures. Afterwards, they went out to Mount Olivet.
* * *
With this ceremony, our Lord anticipated in the Upper Room his own immolation and oblation which were to be accomplished in Calvary the following day. Moreover, we shall see how Christ’s sacrifice is as true and efficacious in every Mass as in Calvary. St John Chrysostom, overcome with awe, expressed this identity in these accurate and eloquent words:
I wish to add something that is clearly awe‑inspiring, but do not be surprised or upset. What is this? It is the same offering, no matter who offers it, be it Peter or Paul. It is the same one that Christ gave to his disciples and the same one that priests now perform.[2]
* * *
Imagine one of those stars far from our solar system. Imagine a pulsar emitting radiomagnetic waves. This star has existed for aeons, but it is only now that we start receiving its radiomagnetic waves. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for the waves to reach us. So, too, the sacrifice of the cross projects itself into the future and for all eternity. The Mass helps us to “tune in” on the merits of Christ’s sacrifice and apply them to ourselves. And Christ lives on in his holy humanity and in his person.
Our Lord suffered on the cross sometime in the past, but his sacrifice is made actual at every moment of history. His sacrifice is not just something that happened two thousand years ago: It is still happening. Christ’s sacrifice is not an heirloom or an antique that survives to the present: It is a drama as real now as then. As long as there are men on earth, it will go on.
Again, let us imagine, as in the novel of H.G. Wells, that a scientist has devised a “time tunnel.” Going through this fantastic machine, one could become present at any place and time in the past with the flick of the dials. Let us imagine ourselves present at Calvary, seeing our Lord suffering and offering himself up for the sins of all of us.... Of course, this is not possible because that machine exists only in the imagination of the writer. However, the spiritual effects of this action of Christ on us are exactly the same when we attend the Mass today as they would have been, had we been present on Calvary. The redemptive love of Christ on the cross is projected through time and space and applied to us precisely in the Mass. It is a form of time in which the past, the present, and the future penetrate one another and touch eternity.[3]
We do not really travel back in time or get off the present moment. What happens is that the Mass incorporates us onto a present redeeming act of Christ, which is substantially the same as the sacrifice of the cross. We use the expressions to reenact, to re‑actualize, and to make present in this book to signify this happening.
The Mass, real sacrifice
By means of the mystery of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the cross, which was once carried out on Calvary, is reenacted in wonderful fashion. It is constantly recalled in the Holy Mass, and its salvific power is applied for the forgiveness of sins we commit each day.[4]
This sacrifice of our redemption is renewed at each Mass. “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed is celebrated on an altar, the work of our redemption is carried on.”[5] The faithful gather around the priest and, together with him, join Jesus in offering himself to God the Father as in Calvary.
* * *
In every Mass, as in the Last Supper, the mystery of transubstantiation takes place. This occurs when the priest says the words of the Consecration. These words of the Last Supper and the Mass bear a clearly sacrificial character. Christ calls his body a sacrificial body and his blood, sacrificial blood. The expressions “to give up the body” and “to shed blood” are biblical sacrificial terms; they express the rendering of a true and proper sacrifice.
* * *
In the verses of the First Epistle to the Corinthians included at the beginning of this chapter, the Mass is set in sharp opposition to pagan sacrifices. The real presence is clearly asserted, and the comparison of the two worships highlights the sacrificial character of the Mass. For St Paul, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Lord’s body and blood, and is the sacrifice of Christians.
St Paul starts by exhorting the Christians in Corinth to abstain from any manifestation of idolatry (cf. 1 Cor 10:14‑21), specifically from the banquet that usually followed the pagan sacrifice (verse 14). He states the reason: A sacrifice and the banquet that follows it are closely related. To share in the banquet is, in effect, to participate in the sacrifice. St Paul offers two examples to bring this point home:
(1) He reminds the Christians in Corinth of the sacrifices of Israel. In these, the people shared in the victim offered (v. 18) by eating a part of it.
(2) He makes clear what happens in the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist (v. 16): “The blessing‑cup that we bless is a Communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a Communion with the body of Christ.” This affirmation, in this context, implies that by taking Communion we also participate in the sacrifice of Christ.
Then St Paul considers a possible objection (v. 19): Since the god represented by the idol is not real, would it not be licit then to eat food sacrificed to the idols?
St Paul answers that participation in such a banquet would be illicit because it means sharing in the pagan sacrifice, in union with the demons (v. 20).
St Paul thus concludes that a Christian cannot take part in two opposed sacrifices: idolatrous sacrifices and the sacrifice of the altar (v. 21). This opposition gives evidence of the sacrificial character of the Mass.
* * *
In the Last Supper, Christ gave his apostles this command, “Do this in memory of me,” making them priests of the New Testament. With these words Jesus meant: Do not just make a remembrance or memorial, a theatrical representation of what I have done. Rather do this, what I myself have done and as I have done it. Do not celebrate a new sacrifice, different or unrelated to my oblation, but offer exactly what I have offered and drink the chalice that I have drunk. In short, in the Last Supper, Christ was looking forward to the sacrifice of the cross, anticipating it, and establishing the manner of perpetuating it.
The Church continues offering the same sacrifice but in an unbloody manner. The historical event that took place on Calvary does not repeat itself; neither is it continued in each Mass. The sacrifice of Christ is perfect and therefore does not need to be repeated. Glorious in heaven, Christ does not die again. The presence of the singular sacrifice of the cross is multiplied, overcoming time and space. Therefore, the Mass is not a new sacrifice, but rather the reenactment or unbloody renewal of the one supreme sacrifice of Calvary.
* * *
On the cross, he would die by the separation of his blood from his body. In the Last Supper, as happens in every Mass, Jesus Christ did not consecrate the bread and the wine together, but separately, to show forth the manner of his death by the separation of body and blood.
According to St Gregory Nazianzen, the priest, uttering the words of Consecration, “sunders with unbloody cut the body and the blood of the Lord, using his voice as a sword.” The double Consecration is necessary to represent the real separation of the body and blood of Christ, which took place in the sacrifice of the cross. The sacramental mystical slaying (double Consecration), together with Christ’s inward act of oblation, constitutes the essence of the sacrifice.
* * *
In the Mass, there is no new offering, but only another kind of presence of the same offering of Calvary through the ministry of the priest.
In the Last Supper, our Lord was about to suffer; on Calvary he was suffering; in every Mass he is present, having suffered, glorious, as he is heaven. We do not envy the Jews and the holy women who were present on Calvary. We have the possibility of participating actively in Christ’s sacrifice. Calvary is among us.
* * *
In the Cenacle, as in Calvary, the essential elements of the sacrifice are there: the slaying of the victim and the offering: immolation and self‑offering to God the Father. But whereas in the old Jewish ritual the offering ought to be done by the priests, it was not necessary for the slaying to be done by them. It often was the work of the Temple servants. For it was not the slaying that made the victim sacred, but the offering. The essential thing was that the priest offer a living thing slain right there and then.
In the sacrifice of Calvary, the priest was perfect, for Christ was the priest. The victim was perfect, for he was the victim, too. He offered himself, slain. But not slain by himself. He was slain by others, slain indeed by his enemies. Christ is the unspotted Lamb. He set all men free from the slavery of sin and established the eternal alliance between creature and Creator, the New Covenant.
The priest and victim
Jesus Christ is always the principal and sovereign Priest. From him did the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood receive the power to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice in his name and on behalf of the entire Church. Therefore, following Christ’s command, the priest offers the Mass acting as the representative of Christ. That is why he does not say, “This is the body and blood of Christ,” but, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.” The priest is the chosen instrument of Christ in the same manner that the brush is the painter’s tool.
Both on the cross and in the Mass, the priest and victim are one and the same: Christ himself. He is both the one who offers and the one who is offered.
In the Mass, Christ is no longer alone on the cross. Like any other sacrament, the Mass is an action of Christ and also of the Church. The Church does not offer a sacrifice different from that of Christ. At the moment of the offertory, the entire Church, hierarchically structured, presents itself for sacrifice with Christ. Christ is the only Priest and Victim, and the entire Church participates in this double role.
Thus, the sacrifice of the Mass is an act of the whole Christ, Head and members. On the part of Jesus, the surrender of self is real and perfect. It is real also on the part of those who are in the state of grace and are actually united with Christ by charity. As regards the individual Christian, the surrender of self will be real in the measure in which he really shares the dispositions of heart—absolute submission to the will of God— which are found in Jesus’ heart. Sin and attachment to sin are the obstacles to sanctity. At Mass we should profess our desire to struggle to overcome these obstacles.
* * *
When the faithful are said to offer the Mass together with the priest, this does not mean that all the members of the Church celebrate the Mass like the priest himself. Only the celebrant, who alone possesses the ministerial priesthood, does this. He has been divinely appointed for this purpose through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
However, “the priest cannot consider himself a ‘proprietor’ who can make free use of the liturgical text and of the sacred rite as if it were his property, in such a way as to stamp it with his own arbitrary personal style. At times this way of doing things might seem more effective, and it may better correspond to subjective piety; nevertheless, objectively, it is always a betrayal of that union which should find its proper expression in the sacrament of unity.
“Every priest who offers the holy sacrifice should recall that during this sacrifice it is not only he with his community that is praying but the whole Church, which is thus expressing in this sacrament her spiritual unity, among other ways by the use of the approved liturgical text.”[6]
* * *
The faithful are said to offer the Mass with the priest when they unite their praise, petition, expiation, and thanksgiving with the prayer of the priest, indeed, with the prayer of Christ himself. In doing so, the faithful exercise some element of Christ’s priesthood which is imparted to them at baptism. This participation in Christ’s priesthood is called common priesthood. All these intentions are presented to God the Father by means of the priest’s external rite.
The sacrifice of Christ and of the Church
History comprises two periods: first, the period when the sacrifice of the cross was awaited; and second, the period when the sacrifice was made and offered by Christ and his Church.
In this second period, Christ founded the Church in the community of those Twelve who, at the Last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord. To the Church, his beloved Spouse, Christ entrusted the Eucharist: a memorial of his death and resurrection, a sacrament of love, a sign of unity. This is the Church governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. And we receive the Eucharist from the Church Christ founded which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
* * *
In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul explains what the Eucharist is and its origin. He says that he had not invented it, but that he had just “received” it. It all began with Christ’s action “on the same night he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23). From Christ came the command to “do this in memory of me,” and in obedience to that command, we continue “thanking God,” “breaking the bread,” distributing his body, and presenting the chalice of his blood as that of “the New and Everlasting Covenant.”
Christ bequeathed his sacrifice to the whole Church, not just to each believer. God wants to save men, not merely as individuals without any bond or link between one another. Rather, he wants to bring men together as one people. That bond is established when the Church celebrates the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, when she proclaims “the Lord’s death until he comes,” and later, when the faithful approach the sacrament of the altar.
Therefore, each Mass presupposes union among the faithful and of the faithful with their bishop, with the pope, and with the universal Church. Moreover, that solid union is made stronger with the celebration of the Eucharist and is a consequence of it. The Second Vatican Council states it in this manner: “In the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought about.”[7]
The Eucharist is a common possession of the Church as the sacrament of her unity. Thus, the Church has the strict duty to specify everything that concerns participation in this sacrament and its celebration.
***
“It is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms. Likewise, the Catholic people have the right that the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass should be celebrated for them in an integral manner, according to the entire doctrine of the Church’s Magisterium. Finally, it is the Catholic community’s right that the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist should be carried out for it in such a manner that it truly stands out as a sacrament of unity, to the exclusion of all blemishes and actions that might engender divisions and factions in the Church.[8]
***
The Eucharist is the creative force and source of communion among the members of the Church; it unites each one of them with Christ himself: “Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another. ‘Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread’ (1 Cor 10:17).”
By giving us his body the Lord transforms us into one body: the Church. Hence St Paul’s expression the Church is the body of Christ means that the Church expresses herself principally in the Eucharist. While present everywhere, the Church is yet one, just as Christ is one.
United with Christ and Mary
The principal Victim of the sacrifice, then, is Jesus Christ, but the faithful, in order to exercise their common priesthood fully, should unite their sacrifice to his and thus offer themselves also to God the Father. “I exhort you...to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God, your spiritual service,” wrote St Paul to the Romans (12:1).
The Mass requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he was offering himself in sacrifice: sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise and thanksgiving to the divine Majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self‑denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating for their sins. It requires all of us, in a word, to die mystically with Jesus Christ on the cross, so that we may say with the same apostle, “With Christ, I hang upon the cross.”[9]
The unity of believers centered on the Eucharist is one clear precept of Christ. The disciples of Jesus faithfully executed this command, persevering in prayer and assembling to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice, together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, all having but one heart and one soul.
Mary’s participation in Christ’s sacrifice is unique. Standing at the foot of the cross, she actively cooperated with the redemption accomplished by her Son. She stood “suffering deeply with her only‑begotten Son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the Victim to whom she had given birth; in this way Mary faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the cross.”[10] She was associated with Christ in the sacrifice of the cross and the same sacrifice is reenacted in every Mass. Thus, Mary is present in a mystical manner in every Mass.
The Sunday Precept
The third commandment of the Decalogue states: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.” It commands us to honor God with acts of worship on prescribed days.
In the Old Testament, God commanded the chosen people to keep holy the Sabbath day (Saturday). This precept reminded them that God rested from his work of creation upon its completion on the seventh day, and that God blessed and sanctified that day (Gen 2:2‑3).
In the New Testament, Sunday is the Lord’s day (dies dominica). On that day we celebrate the new creation—the re‑creation—of man as a son of God by grace. The beginning of man’s birth to the life of grace, the Lord’s Resurrection, was on such a day. This supernatural new creation is far superior to the material creation of the world.
To assure and facilitate the proper sanctification of Sundays and other chief feasts, the Church prescribes attendance at Holy Mass during these days. This is prescribed in the Church’s first commandment. The precept to attend Holy Mass obliges us to hear a complete Mass either on the same Sunday (or holiday) or in the afternoon of the previous day. Attending a complete Mass entails following at least its essential parts with bodily presence and pious attention.
The correct and pious observance of the first precept of the Church guarantees the fulfillment of God’s third commandment.
* * *
We have testimonies from the very beginning of the life of the Church that prove that the Christians celebrated the Holy Mass especially on Sunday, the day the Lord triumphed by rising from the dead.
“In the year 304, the Emperor Diocletian prohibited Christians, under pain of death, to possess the Scriptures, to meet on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist and to build premises for their assemblies. In Abitene, a small village in what today is Tunis, 49 Christians, meeting in the home of Octavius Felix, were taken by surprise on a Sunday while celebrating the Eucharist, defying the imperial prohibitions. Arrested, they were taken to Carthage to be interrogated by the proconsul Anulinus.
“Significant, in particular, was the response given to the proconsul by Emeritus, after being asked why he had violated the emperor's order. He said: “Sine dominico non possumus,” –we cannot live without meeting on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would not have the strength to face the daily difficulties and not succumb. After atrocious tortures, the 49 martyrs of Abitene were killed. Thus, they confirmed their faith with the shedding of blood. They died but they were victorious; we now remember them in the glory of the risen Christ.
“We, Christians of the 21st century, must also reflect on the experience of the Abitene martyrs. It is not easy for us either to live as Christians... in a world in often characterized by rampant consumerism, religious indifference, and secularism closed to transcendence.
“The Son of God, by becoming flesh, could become bread and in this way be the nourishment of his people journeying toward the promised land of heaven.
“We need this bread to cope with the toil and exhaustion of the journey. Sunday, day of the Lord, is the propitious occasion to draw strength from him, who is the Lord of life. The Sunday precept, therefore, is not a simple duty imposed from outside. To participate in the Sunday celebration and to be nourished with the Eucharistic bread is a need of a Christian, who in this way can find the necessary energy for the journey to be undertaken. A journey, moreover, that is not arbitrary; the way that God indicates through his law goes in the direction inscribed in the very essence of man. To follow the way means man’s own fulfillment, to lose it, is to lose himself.”[11]
***
We read in the Acts of the Apostles (20:7‑12): “On the first day of the week we met to break bread”. The verb used for “meeting” has for its noun synaxis, the Greek for Eucharist.
The Second Vatican Council offers us a deep theological explanation of the Sunday precept: “By tradition handed down from the Apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal mystery every eighth day; with good reason this, then, bears the name of the Lord’s day or Sunday. For on this day Christ’s faithful should come together into one place so that, by hearing the word of God and taking part in the Eucharist, they may call to mind the passion, the resurrection, and the glorification of the Lord Jesus, and may thank God who ‘has begotten them again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope’ (1 Pet 1:3).”[12]
No wonder, then, that the Church requires us to go to Mass at least on Sunday under the pain of mortal sin.
Footnotes:
[1]Benedict XVI, General Audience, Jan. 11, 2012.
[2]Homily on the Second Epistle to Timothy 2.4, PG 62:612.
[3]Cf. Joseph Card. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, (Ignatius, San Francisco, 2000).
[4]Cf. MF, no.27.
[5]Second Vatican Council, Dogm. Const. Lumen Gentium [=LG], no. 3.
[6]John Paul II, Letter Dominicae Cenae [=DC], 24 February 1980, no. 12.
[7]LG, no. 3; cf. 1 Cor 10:17.
[8]Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist, no.12. Cf. 1 Cor 11, 17-34; Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 52: AAS 95 (2003) pp. 467-468.
[9]MD, no. 125.
[10]LG, no. 58.
[11]Benedict XVI, Homily during the closing Mass of the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress, in Bari, 29 May, 2005.
[12]SC, no. 106.