Christ is continually sacrificed?

Debby, this is in response to your question.

The Mass has always been held to be a relative sacrifice--relative to the sacrifice of the Cross, not independent of it. The Council of Trent says the Mass is the means "whereby that bloody sacrifice once to be accomplished on the Cross might be represented, the memory thereof remain even to the end of the world, and its salutary effects applied to the remission of those sins which we daily commit" (Session 22, chapter 1).

Trent continues by saying, "And inasmuch as in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner the same Christ who once offered himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, the holy council teaches that this is truly propitiatory....For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests who then offered himself on the Cross, the manner alone of offering being different" (Session 22, chapter 2).

Frank Sheed summarizes Catholic teaching on the point in Theology and Sanity:

"There is no new slaying of Christ in the Mass....Yet that it is the Christ who was slain upon Calvary is shown sacramentally by the separate consecration of bread to become His body and wine to become His blood. The essence of the Mass is that Christ is making an offering to the Father of Himself, who was slain for us upon Calvary. The Mass is Calvary, as Christ now offers it to His Father."

Hebrews teaches the atoning death of Christ was effective for the remission of sins and hence needed to be offer only once. But this speaks of what theologians call the "objective redemption." It doesn't mean that, since Jesus died for everyone, everyone will get to heaven. (That's universalism.) The merits or the fruits of Christ's death need to be applied to the individual.

When Catholic theologians talk about the Mass being a propitiatory sacrifice for the remission of sins, they mean, among other things, that the objective redemption which Christ's sacrifice on the Cross merited is subjectively applied to the individual through the sacrifice of the Mass.

Christ's sacrifice objectively merited redemption on the Cross. The same sacrifice of Christ, now offered sacramentally, not physically, is applied to the individual in the Eucharist.

Far from substituting for the Cross or to make up for something that's lacking in Christ's sacrifice, the Mass is a means by which we receive the benefits of the Atonement.

Christ IS "always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). What is the basis of this intercession? The sacrifice of the Cross (Heb. 7:27; 9:12; 10:14), which is forever present before God in the heavenly tabernacle because he who was both offered as victim and who offered the sacrifice as priest "appears before God on our behalf" (Heb. 9:24).

Christ's perfect offering of himself present in heaven (Heb. 9:11-12) is brought to earth in an unbloody, sacramental manner in the Mass. As Frank Sheed puts it, "The Mass is the breaking through to earth of the offering of Himself that Christ makes continuously in heaven simply by His presence there."

In the Mass Christ offers himself to the Father on our behalf, and we, his people, join ourselves sacramentally to his offering. The Mass is a way of approaching God through Christ's sacrifice, which is made present sacramentally because Christ himself is present.

Nothing in this diminishes Calvary or implies we can approach God other than through the Cross. Rather than taking away from the Cross, the Mass emphasizes it.

 

Bob, you appear to be the one not focused on the topic.

I presented the liturgy of Mass to show that Catholic's do not believe that Christ is sacrificed over and over again in the Mass.

However, you bring up the magic powers stuff and state

And no matter how many times we show you what the Church really teaches, you deny it and state it really teaches something different.

 

Bob,

Catholics believe in the Real Presence. Also, those Protestant Denominations that came out during the Reformation also hold to the Real Presence.

Only those who denominations came into being after the Reformation deny the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

To me that says something that for over 1600 years, no one denied the Real Presence. You would think that the early Church Writers would have condemed this idea sooner if it wasn't true.

 

DKH,

Baptist didn't get their start until after the reformation. Check several reliable Baptist historical sources and they all concur. For that matter, true Baptist historians state that JM Carrol's work is faulty and full of heretical groups that he tries to tie the Baptist to in order to come up with some sort of apostolic succession.

Luther believed in the Real Presence. They may have a different terminology of how it happens, but they still believe it to be true.

As well as the other groups that other folks have mentioned.

 

Debby,

I'll see what I can find out specifically about your first question. I had only heard that Mass was said at all times around the world because of the Church being universal, etc.

As a Catholic Christian, we are required by God and our love for God to live the Mass throughout the week. As our Fr. put it, "Joe thought he was safe for attending Church on Sunday, but went to hell for what he did on Monday."

For that matter, I know many "Sunday Christians" and they weren't Catholic but Baptist or some other denomination.

Those who continually live the way they want and believe that they can go to confession for the same sin are making a sacrilege of confession or worse yet, they receive communion in a state of sin and commit an even bigger sacrilege.

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, jealousies, anger, quarrels, factions, parties, envies, murders, drunkenness, carousings, and suchlike. AND CONCERNING THESE I WARN YOU, AS I HAVE WARNED YOU, THAT THEY WHO DO SUCH THINGS WILL NOT ATTAIN THE KINGDOM OF GOD." Gal 5:19-21

Actually, it is more of enduring in Christ until the end.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 7:21

Rom 11:22, "See, then, the goodness and the severity of GOD: His severity towards those who have fallen, but the goodness of GOD towards you if you abide in His goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off."

"Life eternal indeed he will give to those who by patience in good works seek glory and honor and immortality; but wrath and indignation to those who are contentious, and who do not submit to the truth but assent to iniquity." Rom 2:7-8

"Fear none of those things that you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Rev 2:10

"Him who overcomes I will permit to eat of the tree of life, which is the paradise of my GOD."
Rev 2:7

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
Matt 7:13-14