The Biblical Foundations of The Catholic Mass
(Part 5)
Paul Newcombe
Regarding The Worship of The Apostles… Symbolic Supper or Catholic Mass?
We now move on to examine the next statement made by Dr. Ron Carlson & Ed Decker — this one aimed more directly at the Catholic Mass itself as being an unbiblical entity:
“Celebrating the Mass is the chief act of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Yet there is not one word of such a Mass to be found anywhere in the New Testament” [Dr. Ron Carlson & Ed Decker, Fast Facts on False Teachings, Roman Catholicism, p. 229, (1994), Harvest House Publishers].
From the Catholic perspective, the reality of the Eucharistic mystery expressed through the Lords’ Supper is clearly exhibited through the testimony of the apostles themselves. In discovering this we are asking: “How did the apostles understand what Jesus was requesting them to do?” After all, their response to His command would be illuminating for us. Did they render the Lords’ Supper as the Protestant does, or did they approach it as the Catholic priest does? Unless we are going to say that Jesus was a miserable failure as a teacher, a completely unsuccessful communicator, that He couldn’t bring about the celebration that He intended the Church to engage in, then — what the apostles did when they celebrated the Lords’ Supper should tell us what Jesus meant when He announced, “This is my Body.”
Is the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist strange to the apostles? Is this teaching novel? Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians and see how natural it seems to St. Paul:
ST. PAUL’S’ WARNING:
You Cannot Partake of the Eucharistic Sacrifice if You Also Sacrifice to Idols
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, St. Paul is rebuking the Greek Christians in Corinth because they were not only coming to the Lord’s Supper, they were also still going to their pagan sacrifices! To summarize, St. Paul is evidently roaring — What are you doing?! Are you trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Don’t you know that when the gentiles offer sacrifices to their gods they are not simply offering a sacrifice to a dead idol, they are offering sacrifices to demons! They are entering into a spiritual bond, a spiritual communion, with demons!
“For this reason, my dearly beloved, flee from the service of idols. I speak as to wise men: judge for yourselves what I say. The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?” (1 Corinthians 10:14-16).
St. Paul doesn’t say it’s a symbol of the blood of Christ. He doesn’t say it’s a communion in the representation of the blood of Christ. St. Paul says it is a “communion of the blood of Christ”. He continues by strongly exhorting the people:
“What then? Do I say that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is anything? Or that the idol is anything? But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with demons: you cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of demons: You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (1 Cor 10:19-22).
Notice the direct equivalency St. Paul establishes between the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of demons, the table of the Lord and the table of demons. This equivalency extends to the fact that both the offerings made to these first century demons as well as the offerings made to Yahweh through the Lord’s Supper are sacrificial in nature:
“…they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. … 21 You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20-21).
The apostle could not have made this analogy unless he plainly understood there to be a proper sacrifice in the Christian worship. The “table of the Lord” is a familiar term in the Old Testament that refers to the altar of sacrifice (Lev 24:6-7; Ezek 41:22; 44:15; Mal 1:7, 12) and this association would immediately have been understood by St. Paul’s intended readers. St. Paul draws these parallels in order to say to the church at Corinth — “You are Gods’ bride and you are engaging in spiritual adultery… You are to be exclusively devoted to God… You are not to be dividing your favors between Yahweh, your heavenly husband, and these spiritual surrogate husbands, these demons!”
ST. PAUL’S WARNING:
Spiritual Purity Must be Attained Before Anyone Can Partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord
After recounting the words of the institution of the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25, St. Paul says the following:
“For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord”. (1 Corinthians 11:26-27).
St. Paul does not say that the Corinthians are sinning against a symbol of the body and blood but sinning against “the body and blood of the Lord”. This language is actually civil or judicial language that could be lodged against somebody who is practically guilty of murder or a capital offense. If the ceremony is purely symbolic the Corinthians might be guilty in some lesser sense, however, when they profane the Lords’ supper, they actually become guilty of profaning the Body and the Blood of the Lord. Therefore:
“Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup. For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, because he does not discern the body of the Lord”. (1 Corinthians 11:28-29).
These statements are outrageous if all they were eating was bread and wine or crackers and grape juice. Is St. Paul just speaking metaphorically? He couldn’t be because in the next verse he says:
“Therefore, this is why many of you are weak and ill, and some of you have died” (1 Corinthians 11:30).
This again seems to be an incredible over-reaction on the part of God if they were simply not thinking deeply enough about Jesus as they were eating normal bread and wine. Likewise, logic also testifies that there is only one way to profane the body and blood of Christ by coming wrongfully to the Eucharist — this could only transpire if the body and blood of Christ is actually there to profane in the first place. This alone provides a sensible context for these rather intense warnings of St. Paul.
It is also noteworthy to remember that, in sacred scripture, people frequently drop dead for an unauthorized or unconsecrated contact with the divine presence. In 2 Samuel, for example, a man named Uzzah reaches out to steady the Ark of the Covenant to stop it from falling off the cart that was hauling it. Uzzah was not a priest, his hands were not consecrated, and God immediately struck him dead (See 2 Samuel 6:1-7). Just as Uzzah did not discern the divine presence pervading the Ark, so too the Corinthians did not discern the divine presence which the Eucharist brought into the midst of their Christian community. That is why they were falling sick, and some had died — they were receiving Gods’ judgment just as Uzzah did.
St. Thomas Aquinas consents to St. Paul in his Lauda Sion:
This is the dogma given to Christians, that bread passes into flesh, and wine into blood. Under the different species there lie hidden things of infinite worth. The flesh is food, the blood is drink; yet Christ is whole under each species. He is neither cut by the recipient nor broken, nor divided; He is whole. He is received by one, He is received by a thousand; the one receives as much as all; nor is He consumed Who is received. The good receive, the bad receive, but with the difference of life and death. It is death to the bad; it is life to the good.
1 Corinthians 11:26-30 shows us that St. Paul obviously held a very literal and a very realistic view of the Eucharist. He explicitly knew that to come into the presence of the Eucharist is to come into the direct presence of God Almighty. As in the Old Covenant, St. Paul was aware that any unauthorized or unconsecrated or unworthy contact with the divine presence results in divine chastisement. Moreover, he explicitly applies this truth to the worthy reception of the Eucharistic species. In addition, as we examine the apostolic celebration of the Mass, we see no biblical evidence to support the view that the bread and wine received is merely a symbolic memory of Christ in the upper room.
As a final piece of evidence, it must be noted that this literal and Catholic view of the Lord’s Supper was passed on and reiterated by the early Christians. Cyprian of Carthage, for example, writing in 251 A.D., explains St. Paul’s words as a threat and a warning to all Christians when approaching the Body and Blood of Christ:
The Apostle likewise bears witness and says: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.” And again, he threatens the stubborn and perverse and denounces them, saying: “Whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.” But they spurn and despise all these warnings; and before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest, before the offense against and angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, they do violence to his Body and Blood; and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord more than when they denied Him.[14]
Footnotes:
[14] Cyprian of Carthage, The Lapsed, 251 A.D., in William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Volume 1, Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 1970, p.218.