Catholics don’t just go to church on Sunday, like other Christians. They go to Mass. Christmas, New Year’s, weddings, funerals. It seems that we just can’t seem to do anything important without this ceremony which some regard as a sacrifice and others as a fellowship meal and still others as the “Real Presence.”
So which is it — sacrifice, supper, or “Real Presence” and why the fixation upon it?
Like most things in the New Testament, it is really impossible to understand this fully without some serious knowledge of what what we now call the Old Testament.
When I first read the account of Moses asking Pharaoh to “let my people go,” I thought that Moses was using a God-sanctioned ruse when he told Pharaoh that the reason he wanted to take the people and their flocks out of Egypt was that they could offer a sacrifice to their God in the desert.
But that was indeed the real reason after all. God liberated them from slavery to Pharaoh so that they could be free to enter into an exclusive, intimate relationship with Himself, a covenant. He gave them the law that would be the condition of this covenant on Mt. Sinai, and, after they said “I do,” they sealed the deal through a rather strange ritual. It was strange, by the way, even for them. Oh, sacrifice was normal enough. You offered the best animals you had to God. Sometimes you poured out their blood to God, then burned the entire animal. Other times you offered a perfect animal to God as atonement for sin, with the blood and fat going to God and the choicest portions going to feed the priests, God’s representatives. Most often, though, the blood and fat went to God, and the rest of the animal was solemnly eaten by those offering the sacrifice (often called a “peace offering”) in a special thanksgiving meal, a sign of communion with God, who was considered to be present at the meal (Ex 18:12). For after all, what more universal sign of sharing a common life is there than taking a meal together?
But the sacrifice to seal the first covenant was different. Half of the blood of the sacrificed animals was poured out to God at the base of the altar. The other half was sprinkled upon the people. Blood equaled life in the minds of the ancient Israelites, and it was forbidden to consume blood, since all life belonged to God. Here Israel and God are bound by a blood ceremony, becoming intimate kin, a family. Then Moses and the elders further celebrated their new blood relationship with God by eating the sacrificed animals in God’s presence, on the Holy Mountain (that’s what Exodus 24:11 means: after seeing God, they could still eat and drink).
In the New Covenant, God takes things a step further. The liberation is not just from the drudgery of Pharaoh’s building projects, but from sin, Satan, and even death. To win this prize, God the Son becomes man and offers His body as the ultimate sacrifice that takes away sin and creates a degree of fellowship between God and man hitherto inconceivable. Not only is His blood poured out at the base of the altar of the Cross, as an offering of His life to the Father, but it is given to His disciples to drink, under the sacramental form of wine. This is a symbol that actually is what it symbolizes, and transmits what it contains — the immortal life of the God-man, which binds us to God like nothing else ever could, and empowers us to be like Him, live like Him, indeed become Him. You are what you eat. The Body and Blood of Christ are given as our food that we may become the Body of Christ with His very life coursing through our veins.
Real Presence? Fellowship meal? Sacrifice? Yes, absolutely. All three — or none at all.
Dr. D'Ambrosio studied under Avery Cardinal Dulles for his Ph.D. in historical theology and taught for many years at the University of Dallas. He now directs www.crossroadsinitiative.com, which offers Catholic resources for RCIA, adult faith formation, and teens, with a special emphasis on the Year of the Eucharist, the Theology of the Body, the early Church Fathers, and the sacrament of confirmation.
For more of his resources on the Eucharist, visit www.crossroadsinitiative.com or call 1.800.803.0118.
(This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor and is used by permission of the author.)
See Dr. D'Ambrosio on EWTN 3AM and 6:30 PM Eastern Time on June 20-23, covering the Eucharist as Sacrifice and Real Presence, practical ways to get more out of the Mass, and Adoration — why we do it and how to make your time before the Blessed Sacrament most fruitful.
