Divine Liturgy and the Sacraments of the Church
The previous installment left off with the second definition relative to the Mass as stated by the Council of Trent. This bulletin picks up the thread to continue that definition.
Unfortunately, these defined statements of infallible doctrine are not being, what a safe statement, are not being circulated or published or taught widely in nominally Catholic circles today. And, if you look at the weekly parish bulletins in one diocese after another, you will notice that very few refer to the Eucharist as the Mass. It is given many titles, like the liturgy, like the Eucharist, but to be a Catholic means to believe that Christ instituted the sacrifice of the Mass. So what is the Council of Trent solemnly teaching us? We are being told that the sacrifice of the Mass is a true sacrifice in which Jesus really, truly, offers himself to his heavenly Father, no less than he did on the cross. What are we saying? We are affirming with the infallible Church that the Mass is a true sacrifice. Why? Because the same Jesus really present on the altar through the words of the priest’s consecration is in the Mass. It is the same identical priest who died on Calvary, who now offers the same victim, namely himself. Christ offers himself no less now than he offered himself at the Last Supper. Christ ordained his Apostles priests when he told them as we said before, “Do this in remembrance of me.” At the Last Supper, Jesus did more than merely change bread and wine into his own living, human self. At the Last Supper he began the Mass, the first one, which was completed on Good Friday the moment Christ expired. In the Mass is the same identical Jesus, as we’ve said before and reemphasize now, Christ can no longer die. Christ can no longer shed his own blood, but the heart of sacrifice is in the will. When God became man, the main reason he became man was to assume a human will so that on the cross he could offer himself in sacrifice, offer himself as a man who faith tells us, was the living God.
Very well. It is the same Jesus now present on the altar and he has, therefore, not just a human body and human blood, he has a human will. If he could die, he would, in every Mass that is offered. We know what a sacrament is. A sacrament is something that Christ instituted that externally, visibly, signifies what is effected internally, what is done externally. There are two consecrations. First of the bread and then of the wine. Why the double consecration? To signify that just as on the cross on Calvary, Christ drained his blood from his living body and thus died. So the double consecration is a sign, the index if you wish, the manifestation, of Christ’s willingness to die again if he could. But the willingness to die is there. Why? Because it is a real man who is true God who offers himself every time that Mass is offered to his heavenly Father. To be continued....