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September 19, 2005

Ch. XXVIII. Q. 150. How is the Holy Eucharist a proper Sacrifice?

THE HOLY Eucharist is a proper Sacrifice because by means of it we fulfil effectively the essential elements of Sacrifice, viz.: (a.) liturgical and mystical oblation of ourselves to God through Christ, with adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and prayer: (b.) the propitiatory conditions which must attend our approach to God because of sin, which are fulfilled in the Eucharist by making a memorial of Christ's "blessed Passion and precious death, His mighty Resurrection and glorious Ascension."1

2. The objective reality and value of our sacrificial service in the Holy Eucharist arises from the fact that by means of it we offer an acceptable gift to God, a gift with which we ourselves are truly and sacrementally united and identified—the Body and Blood of Christ, raised from death and glorified. The acceptableness of this gift arises from the fact that it is the Body and Blood of One with Whom God is well-pleased2 and has been perfected by suffering and death3, so as to become the suitable means of our sanctificiition and entrance into the heavenly Holy of Holies.4

3. The Holy Eucharist is the earthly counterpart and exhibition of what Christ is forever doing as our Priest in heaven (Qq, 101, 112. 3, 116. 3, 122. 4). In fact the two transactions are identical in essence, although distinct as to the conditions of their performance. The same Priest offers and intercedes, whether openly in His own Person or sacramentally through His earthly Ministers. The same Divine Victim is offered, and the same body of the faithful is wrapped up in that Victim. Christ is both Priest and Victim, above and below, in the midst of His brethren; who participate in the Sacrifice, and receive
nourishment and cleansing through sacramental union with Him Who is offered.5

4. On the other hand, the Holy Eucharist does not repeat the death of Christ nor prolong it (Q. 117. 6a); for what is offered in the Sacrament is a living thing, which has passed through death once for all, and is no longer subject to the process of death, although marked with permanent tokens of death and offered sacramentally under broken symbols, which by their being broken, commemorate it. More truly we say that the Holy Eucharist achieves a Memorial of Christ's death; for in it we exhibit before God and offer to Him, in a significant manner and with propitiatory effect, that "Holy Thing" which endured death's agony and rose again, and which now preserves the glorious and visible evidences of that meritorious cross and passion, whereby alone we obtain remission of our sins, and are made partakers of the kingdom of heaven. Thus do we "show the Lord's death until He come."6

5. The Holy Eucharist takes the place in the Christian dispensation of the sacrificial rites of the Mosaic Law (cf. Q. 101. 5). Their direct fulfilment is, of course, through the heavenly Priesthood which Christ made effectual for us by suffering and death. But, as the counterpart of what Christ is doing now and as the memorial of what He did once for all, the Holy Eucharist effects what the sacrificial rites of the Old Covenant merely prefigured.7 Thus it is (a.) our Sin Offering, whereby we enter with Christ through the veil of His Flesh into the true Holy of Holies, and sprinkle the mercy seat with the Blood of Christ shed once for all: (b.) our Mincha, or Peace Offering, wherein we offer ourselves to God; and, making a memorial of Christ's death, accomplish a whole Burnt Offering, sanctified and consumed by the fire of God's Holy Spirit: (c.) our Peace Offering, wherein we sit down to the heavenly wedding feast and feed upon the true Paschal Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, in a Holy Communion. Truly it is the focus, on earth, of all mysteries, the Holiest transaction in the world.8


1 Heb. IV. 14-X. 25:1. Tim. II. 5. Sadler's One Offering: Prynne's Truth and Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice: Dr. Fiske, in N.Y. Church Club Lec. of 1892, pp. 40-60: Grueber's Cat. of the Church of Eng., pp. 89-97: Schouppe, XIII. 257-310: Moehler's Symbolism, § 34: Pusey's Second Letter to Newman, 41-48: Wilberforce on the Holy Eucharist, ch. XI: Mason's Faith of the Gosp., IX. 16 Notes and Questions from Pusey, 133-142.

2 S. Matt. III. 17

3 Heb. II. 10

4 Percival's Digest, 144: Grueber, 96, 97: Wilberforce, 258, 259, 265-271.

5 Grueber, 94: Forbes' 39 Arts., XV. 222, 223: 607-611, 614-624: Nic. Creed, 238-241: Fiske, 45-60: Pusey, 46, 47: Mason, 302-306, 311, 312: Milligan on the Ascension, 114-161, 265-267, 307-310: Notes and Questions, 134-139.

6 I. Cor. XI. 26. Forbes' 39 Arts., XXXI. cf. S. Thos., III. 83. Wilberforce 271, 272.

7 Jerem. XXXIII. 18: Isa. LVI. 6, 7: Mal. I. 11

8 Kingdon's God Incarnate, 155-161: S. Thos., III. 73. 6: Wilberforce, 253-258, 274-276.

Posted by Trevor at September 19, 2005 07:20 PM

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