As the Year of the Eucharist begins, Catholics must be ready to explain well how the Mass does not simply commemorate a 2,000-year-old event, but rather allows us to participate in a sacrifice that continues today.
The Mass offends many of our separated brethren because they think it diminishes what Christ did on Calvary. Jesus died “once for all,” they argue (1 Pt 3:18; Heb 7:27), and He also said, “It is finished,” as He expired on the Cross (Jn 19:31). In short, they contend, there is no more need to offer sacrifice to the Father. Christ’s work for our redemption and salvation is finished.
In response, Catholics can explain that there is more to the sacrifice of Calvary than simply Christ’s suffering and death, however fundamental those actions are to His offering. Not only did Christ have to rise from the dead, He also had to ascend to the time-transcendent heavenly sanctuary, where His sacrifice culminated in everlasting glory. In other words, offering the Mass today doesn’t imply that Christ’s sacrifice was limited, insufficient and therefore in need of ongoing supplementation. To the contrary, it’s shows the infinite, never-ending nature of His sacrifice, which we are able to participate in at every Mass!
In my book Worthy is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass (Ignatius Press), I explain in detail that, while Christ’s suffering ended on the Cross, His sacrifice — that is, His self-gift to the Father on our behalf — continues forever. The best biblical way to teach this sublime reality is in light of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) sacrifices. In the Old Covenant, a goat and bull were first slaughtered in the Temple courtyard on the Day of Atonement. In the second phase of these sacrifices, the high priest would offer their blood to God in the Temple’s sanctuary (Lv 16:14-16).
Similarly, there are two phases to Christ’s Sacrifice. Jesus suffers, dies and rises in the earthly phase of His sacrifice, and then He ascends into the heavenly sanctuary, where His sacrificial intercession for us continues now (Heb 9:24-25; cf. Heb 7:23-25). The earthly phase is never repeated, but it is encompassed in the glorious, heavenly phase — thus, the Lamb in the heavenly sanctuary who bears the marks of being slain, yet stands in triumph (Rv 5:6). And, as Hebrews 9:11-12 conveys, Jesus fulfills the Day of Atonement sacrifices, for He takes not the blood of goats and bulls, but His own.
Scripture affirms that Jesus continues to serve in the heavenly sanctuary as a high priest and that a priest’s prime function is to offer sacrifices (Heb 8:1-3; cf. Heb 5:1). Because Hebrews 7:27 and 9:27-28 proclaim that Jesus’ sacrifice is once-for-all, and because Jesus continues to serve as a high priest in heaven, our Lord must somehow continue offering His one and only sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary. In the Mass, what is celebrated in heaven becomes present on earth.
The Mass illustrates not simply how the Church got started, i.e., through Jesus’s death on the Cross, but also where we’re headed, for the heavenly liturgy is our ultimate goal. And when Catholics can credibly and enthusiastically make the biblical case for the Mass, the Church’s mission — to both non-Catholics and Catholics — will be greatly advanced. The eminent apologist Frank Sheed makes the case in a profoundly succinct manner: “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.”
Thomas J. Nash is Senior Information Specialist at Catholics United for the Faith (www.cuf.org ). He is also a co-author of Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass (Emmaus Road Publishing).
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