The Sacrifice of The Mass

Is Sacrifice essential to Christian Worship?

Intro

One of the most polarizing positions one can take in theological discourse is with regards to the sacrifice of the Mass. Or, put differently, whether one believes that the Eucharist is a sacrifice or merely a memorial of one. This question ultimately centers around the question of what worship is. For more catholic minded folk, worship necessarily entails that there be a sacrifice offered. For the more Evangelically minded spirit, any notion of our worship involving a sacrifice is either superstitious or a sign of the times (depending on your flavor of Evangelicalism); and, If you’re Reformed, it’s both of those.

In this article. I would like to consider whether or not the offering of a sacrifice is essential to worship, and more particularly whether or not the Eucharist is considered a sacrifice. In the midst of this, we will also look briefly upon the Incarnation and see what it informs us about our main topic.

Is sacrifice necessary for worship?

First we must consider whether or not worship entails the offering of a sacrifice. So, what is a sacrifice? A sacrifice can be particular or general. Generally, a sacrifice offered by man is rendering submission and honor unto God according to our mode. The mode which is most befitting to man is in the employment of sensible things, since our knowledge is derived from our senses. This is also fitting because man, who is a composite and sacramental being, consists of both matter and spirit.  As such, the sacrifices of man is twofold. The former, and most principal, is an inward sacrifice which is the inward motion of the soul in rendering both submission and honor to God. The later, though no less important, is the outward sacrifice which consists in the “sensible signs” employed by man. The two are not separated, but connected. The outward signs of a man’s sacrifice take a form that is befitting to the inward sacrifice, and because the outward act is directed towards the same end as the inward act, it partakes somewhat of the former.

Since worship is the ascribing of honor to another, and because the highest form of worship is due unto God alone, who is our superior, it seems that this worship entails a sacrifice because both the ascription of honor to the one worshipped and rendering of submission in the worshipper are present. Therefore worship entails a sacrifice. This is supported by the fact that it seems this principle, that man should offer sacrifice in worship, is found in natural law since at all times and in all places man has sought to offer sacrifices. This is also further established by the testimony of Scripture, wherein many just and godly men offered sacrifices that were approved of by God, and were even commanded by Him to be offered.

Is the Eucharist a Sacrifice?

When we speak of the Eucharist we are speaking about something that is mysterious in its nature, which makes sense because we’re speaking about a sacrament, which word we get from the Greek word “mustērion,” meaning “mystery.” The Eucharist is mysterious because it is an extension of the Incarnation which is itself a great mystery of our faith. This mysterious nature of the Eucharist, and particularly the eucharistic presence of Christ, is part of why Anglicanism has been hesitant in dogmatizing particular expressions in explaining this grand mystery. In the Eucharist we profess simply that Christ is, in a very real way, present with his Church— that the whole Christ, body, soul, blood, and divinity, are substantially present under the forms of bread and wine. We do not believe, as some grossly presume, that the creaturely gifts become the physical flesh and blood of our Lord— as if the molecules changed into something they were not previously. No, we do not believe that pieces of Christ’s flesh are ripped off of His body in heaven, carried down by angles, and then chewed up in our mouths here on earth. Rather, we believe, without committing ourselves to any particular metaphysical explanation (however helpful they can be in showing the lack of absurdity in this belief), that Christ is present in a real, substantial, and spiritual manner. Real, because it is the whole Christ that is present; substantial, because it is the very substance, or underlying reality, of Christ’s body and blood that are present; Spiritual, because it is not a material change in the elements, but is a change that occurs within a supernatural order. We believe that at the consecration, these creaturely elements participate in the reality of the resurrected Lord. This language comes directly from St. Paul, the Apostle:

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” - 1 Corinthians 10:16 (ESV)

But does this mean that Christ, in his glorified humanity, is being re-sacrificed at each Mass, as some have thought? No, because we do not believe that there is any change that occurs to the natural body of Christ. Since it is a spiritual and substantial change, the physical body of Christ in heaven does not undergo any changes, such that “parts” of Him are dispersed across multiple altars. Rather, by the power of the Spirit, the very substance of Christ, termed his “body” and “blood,” are made present to us in the sacrament. Substance, here, is not taken in the modern materialist sense but in the older metaphysical sense. Rather than referring to the material makeup of a thing, we are speaking about it’s underlying, invisible and immaterial being.

So from this is does not seem that we can properly refer to the Eucharist as a sacrifice, since there is no separation of blood from the body. However, if we look at the liturgical practice of the Church we will find something insightful. At the time of consecration, we notice two distinct prayers of consecration; one for the bread, and another for the cup. It is in this dual consecration that we come to find a “sacramental” sacrifice of Christ, insofar as the signs of bread and wine, now becoming the body and blood, are sacramentally separated one from another. It is in this signatory fashion that we have part of the rationale behind why we can call the Eucharist a sacrifice. Another part, which we have belabored already, is that the consecrated elements participate in the sacrifice of Christ itself. It is in the sacrament that the heavenly intercession of Christ’s own sacrifice is made real and present here on earth for the benefit of the Church. And thus we can conclude that the Eucharist is the sacrifice offered in the worship of the New Covenant.

The Incarnation and Conclusion

We cannot consider the Eucharistic sacrifice properly without understanding it’s connection to the incarnation; and this connection is far more than merely providing a physical body to be sacrificed. Recalling our first section, we made a distinction between the inward sacrifices offered by man, and the outward sacrifices which signify the inward. In the life of God, the Son from all eternity has given adoration to the Father. In the Incarnation, this perfect adoration has become manifestly human and therefore became the only adequate offering of worship that has ever been offered by man. Since the Eucharist is a participation in the whole Christ, and most especially His sacrifice, it therefore means that the Eucharist is also a participation in this perfect inward sacrifice offered by our Lord. These two are distinct, but not separate for they are one in the same. The outward sacrifice on Calvary is but the sign of Christ’s own inward sacrifice.

This is important to maintain, because in the Eucharist we are given grace to mortify the deeds of the flesh, and to grow into the image of Christ. By participating in this sacrifice, both in His atonement for our sins and His adoration of the Father, we are perfected. By the grace conferred in the Eucharist, our sins are propitiated, and our hearts are made right within us. We, who otherwise are “unworthy to offer unto [God] any sacrifice,” are renewed progressively as we “offer and present unto [God] … ourselves, our souls and bodies,” to be conformed to that perfect image of the Son whereby we are made able to rightly offer our own inward sacrifices. Thus, we can conclude that worship rightly entails a sacrifice. The sacrifice of the Mass, therefore in order to be truly Christian, is twofold — The sacrifice of Christ which sanctifies us, and our own inward sacrifices that we can now offer having been found in Christ, and renewed by His sacrifice.