The Biblical Foundations of The Catholic Mass
(Part 6)
Paul Newcombe
Regarding The Book of Hebrews
Christ is crucified “once for all”
As mentioned earlier, non-Catholic objections to the Mass often utilize St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews as a source of criticism. The argument is simple — Catholics believe they re-sacrifice Jesus (we are told) over and over again through the Mass, however St. Paul specifically refutes this notion by telling us that Christ’s sacrifice was “once for all” (Heb 7:27; 9:25-26; 10:10-12). As we have already observed this “re-sacrificing theory” is an inaccurate portrayal of Catholic beliefs. Yet because this theory is such a widely transmitted myth regarding Catholic doctrine, repeating the genuine Catholic position is always helpful. In truth, the sacrifice of the Catholic Mass is not a re-sacrifice of Jesus but a stepping into to original sacrifice of Christ. Each Mass is a participation in the original event wherein the timeless act of redemption upon the cross comes through to God’s family in every age. Consequently, both Catholics and Protestants agree with St. Paul when he contrasts the perfection and completed nature of Christ’s sacrifice with the outmoded temple sacrifices:
One high priest after another must stand there, day after day, offering again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away our sins; whereas he sits for ever at the right hand of God, offering for our sins a sacrifice that is never repeated. (Hebrews 10:11-12).
Catholic theology also stresses that the crucifixion is a “once for all” completed act. Yet, while Catholics and Protestants agree about the unique and completed nature of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, there are distinct differences regarding the mode by which Christian people are to participate in the sacrifice of Christ. For Catholics, participation includes an actual re-visiting of the crucifixion (and the grace it unleashes) by virtue of the divine liturgy. As explained by Thomas Howard in his On Being Catholic, this active participation in the redeeming act of the God-man (via the Mass) does not box the Catholic Church into a system of re-sacrifice, but instead embodies a partaking of the singular yet eternal sacrifice of Christ:
The Mass is very far from being the mere repetition of something. Rather, in its action it takes us mortals across the threshold that lies between time and eternity and locates us in that Presence where there is no time and, hence, no repetition.
…This difficulty of locating just where in time we are in the Mass suggests at least one aspect of the mystery that cloaks Calvary and the Incarnation itself. Jesus Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, and yet this was not played out in our earthly time “until” he suffered [under Pontius Pilate]. …Jesus Christ, the “Second Adam”, the Savior, God with us, was crucified by the Romans, and this miserable miscarriage of justice, which can be dated and located, was at the same time the eternal self-oblation of the Son to the Father in behalf of us sinners (including me and the Romans).
It is a mystery. Indeed, says the Church—and it is this very mystery into which we are drawn in the Mass. When Catholics go to Church, they are doing something they did yesterday, or last week, and doing it “again”. But the “again” applies only to them, not to the mystery that is always taking place in the heavenly Mysteries, where our Great High Priest offers himself at the heavenly altar (the whole epistle to the Hebrews is about this).[15]
Has Christ’s sacrifice ended all sacrificial offering to the Father? No. Christ’s sacrifice has ended all outmoded, ineffective, bloody animal sacrifices. Christ didn’t come to abolish all sacrifice but to elevate it to a higher level through the perpetual sacrifice of Himself as the Lamb of God. For the first time in salvation history a perfect sacrifice is offered. Moreover, the people of God participate in this perfect sacrifice, not by simply acknowledging Christ’s death upon the cross as a past event, but by stepping into the original sacrifice of the cross through the New Covenant Passover liturgy. This Christian liturgy is the transformation of the Passover sacrifice into its final liturgical form where animal sacrifice is superseded by the body and blood of God and the liturgy itself becomes the means by which God’s children participate in the eternal sacrifice of “the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).
It must be noted that the “once for all” argument (used as a means of debunking the Catholic Mass) certainly misunderstands the Catholic Mass and relies almost completely upon the previous miseducation of its adherents. Individuals who have already embraced the flawed framework that presents the Mass as a ghastly system of re-sacrifice, one which forces Jesus to endure His death pains again and again, are understandably happy to receive St. Paul’s words as a hammer to crush this bizarre theology. However, with none of these principles being advocated by the Catholic Church the entire “once for all” argument loses its cogency and is, at best, taking swipes at an invisible Catholic doctrine that doesn’t exist outside the pages of ill-advised literature.
A Christian Altar?
With authentic Catholic theology maintaining a backdrop in our minds — we may now move on to highlight an important phrase contained in Hebrews chapter thirteen. The main design of the book of Hebrews is to show that salvation comes by the grace and merits of Christ, and not from the ceremonial Law of Moses. St. Paul explains that our justice could not be had from the sacrifices of the old law, but instead, can only come through the sacrifice of Christ — slain as the perfect Lamb of God. Does this mean that all sacrifice has been done away with—no more priests, no more altars? Protestant apologists have insisted this is the case! However, we find a curious passage in Hebrews which mentions the continued use of a Christian altar:
“We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat”. (Hebrews 13:10).
St. Paul does not say, we had an altar. He says we have (at present) an altar, and consequently a sacrifice, which the Jewish priests have no power to eat because they continue to serve at the tabernacle, confiding in the law and in Moses, not in Christ and the gospel. Catholic theologian Steve Ray refers to St. Paul’s mentioning of a Christian altar in the following way:
Is the altar a New Testament concept, or only a remnant of the past? The Catholic Church has an altar (Heb 13:10, 1 Cor 10:21; etc). Ignatius (A.D. 35-107) and the earliest believers concur: “Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with His Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice—even as also there is but one bishop, with his clergy and my own fellow-servitors the deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God” (The Epistle to the Philadelphians 4, in Early Christian Writings, 94, written about 106 A.D.). Notice the four key words that continually crop up: body, blood, altar, and sacrifice. Protestant scholar J.N.D. Kelly comments on this last quotation, “Ignatius reference to the ‘one altar, just as there is one bishop,’ reveals that he too thought of the Eucharist in sacrificial terms”.
There is also an altar in heaven, a golden one (Isa 6:6; Rev 6:9; 8:3, 5; 9:13; 11:1; 14:18; 16:7). It seems we can’t get away from altars, all the way from offerings sacrificed by the sons of Adam, through Abraham, up to the Cross and the Table of the Lord, the altar referred to by the writer of Hebrews, and then at the very end of the written revelation of the inspired text, we find out that God has not dispensed with such things in this new “spiritual” era, but that He has a golden altar before His throne with a Lamb of sacrifice eternally before his eyes.[16]
Both the Christian altar described in Hebrews and the altar in heaven are rather curious if Protestantism is correct about the need for altars being abolished with the death of Christ. Rather, what we see in Hebrews is a continuation of the Catholic ethos where the New Covenant Eucharistic sacrifice is perpetuated in every place where there is Christian worship. A particular Old Testament prophet, Malachias, predicts this exact scenario, a scenario where the Gentile nations will offer the perfect New Covenant sacrifice:
From the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachias 1:11).
Steve Ray continues by commenting upon this prophecy:
Notice the plurals and singulars here. In every place (plural) and a clean oblation (singular). One offering is offered in every place. [That is], we have a single offering offered in multiple locations, in the future among the nations throughout the whole world—an excellent description of the Mass.[17]
Malachias effectively foretells the coming of Christ; the reprobation of the Jews and their sacrifices; and the coming of the Gentiles, who shall offer up to God in every place an acceptable sacrifice. The earliest Christians were numerous in pointing out how this corresponds beautifully with the Christian liturgy. Justin the martyr, for example, in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (written in 155 A.D.) utilizes the prophet Malachias in what is the oldest Christian apology against Judaism:
Moreover, as I have said before, concerning the sacrifices which you at that time offered, God speaks through Malachias, one of the twelve, as follows: ‘I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord; and I will not accept your sacrifices from your hands; for from the rising of the sun until its setting, my name has been glorified among the gentiles; and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a clean offering: for great is my name among the gentiles, says the Lord; but you profane it.’ (Mal 1:10-12). It is of the sacrifices offered to Him in every place by us, the Gentiles, that is, of the bread of the Eucharist and likewise the cup of the Eucharist, that he speaks at this time; and he says that we glorify His name, while you profane it.[18]
This clean offering occurred “once for all” upon the cross of Calvary, however, it is an eternal sacrifice which is continually offered to the Father in the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus stands before the Father on the golden altar as the perfect and infinite sacrifice that redeems the human race. This setting is faithfully depicted for us by St. John as he explains the type of worship being offered in heaven. In describing the ascended Jesus as the conquering “lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5), St. John declares:
“And I saw between the throne, with the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb standing as if slain. (Revelation 5:6).
Even after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement He is the Lamb of God “standing as if slain” in the heavenly realms. Christ appears to St. John in this manner, because, as our great High Priest and our perfect Victim—He eternally offers the New Covenant Passover sacrifice to the Father. Not by being re-crucified over and over, but by continuing to offer up His body and blood as the unblemished Lamb in a perpetual, timeless, everlasting sacrifice of praise to the Father.
With the Catholic Mass understood as the New Covenant Passover liturgy which provides God’s people with direct access to this “once for all” “clean oblation”, John Paul II produced his 2003 Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, in which he reminds all people:
When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the work of our redemption is carried out. This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived. The Church's Magisterium has constantly reaffirmed this faith with joyful gratitude for its inestimable gift.[19]
Footnotes:
[15] Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1997, p.81-83.
[16] Steve Ray, Recrucifying Christ Every Day?, Defenders of the Catholic faith, http://www.catholic-convert.com/writings/mass1.html, Accessed 15 March 2004.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Justin the Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 155 A.D., in William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Volume 1, Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 1970, p. 58.
[19] Pope John Paul 2, Papal Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 2003, paragraph 11.