The Biblical Foundations of The Catholic Mass
(Part 7)
Paul Newcombe
Endnote
The Divine Liturgy, known as the Mass, has here been explored from a number of different angles in the hope of unpacking some of the mystery and wonder of this most important facet of the Catholic religion. It is hoped that this small work will spark the curiosity of many to further investigate the organic connections between Catholic worship and the liturgy of our Jewish forefathers. Many do not understand the New Testament because they have failed to comprehend the Old Testament. A clear view of Judaism’s sacrificial worship, its components and their significance is vital to grasping Christ’s actions during His final celebration of the Passover. Father James L. Meagher, in his How Christ Said The First Mass, recommends:
From times immemorial, the Holy Spirit, by and through the prophets, had gathered a long series of ceremonies and numerous objects recalling the history of God’s people. The consecration of the bread and wine changed these shadowy forms, emblems, types and sacramentals of the Hebrew religion into the substance they had so wonderfully foretold. The apostles therefore saw nothing new or strange when Christ changed the ancient Passover into the Mass.[20]
Jewish liturgical forms provide us with enormous insight into the actions of Christ:
(1). His overlapping of the Passover liturgy with his death upon the cross as a demonstration of their unity and oneness.
(2). His replacing the Passover lamb with His own Body and Blood as the sacrificial climax of the liturgical worship celebrated by His Church.
(3). His insistence that we must “take and eat” His body and blood as the new and eternal “bread of life”.
All of these deliberate actions are prepared for by the Jewish liturgy. Through Christ the prayers of men have finally been replaced by a divine prayer — a final liturgy that draws God’s people from every century into that saving event which occurred “once for all” upon Calvary.
Furthermore, it is hoped that this study has shed some preliminary light upon the biblical and historical evidence which supports the theology of the Catholic Mass; the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the celebration of the Mass by the apostles themselves; and the continuation of these distinctively Catholic principles into the writings of the early Christians. A biblical theory is heavily undermined if it has no counterpart in the earliest Christian literature. Fortunately, Catholics have both Scripture and the early Church to refer to when providing evidence for the sacrificial nature of the Christian liturgy and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. As explained by Thomas Howard, the alternative can be somewhat daunting:
Some non-Catholic Christians urge that the whole Church went off the rails by about A.D. 95, and hence that “Church history” is really the record of an immense botch. These Christians would urge that the Church of Jesus Christ, made up as she is exclusively of true believers, pursued its humble and obscure way in little assemblies here and remote groupings there, quite apart from the brontosaurian impostor that, early on, took unto herself the name of The Catholic Church.
The difficulty of maintaining this view arises from the nature of the topic itself. The Christian believers who were under the authority of the apostles and then under the bishops appointed by them understood this episcopal entity to be the Church. All the writings we have from the first and second century attest to this. If we will read the letters, sermons, and tracts of Ignatius and Clement and Justin and Irenaeus, we will find a church that, if she is not the Church, is certainly the only one anyone had any knowledge of. If we wish to forego any connection with this lineage, then we find ourselves obliged either to link ourselves with the Montanists, the Marcionites, or the Nicolaitans or to postulate some fugitive network of assemblies of which there is no record.[21]
In addition, it is hoped the reader will recognize the common Protestant arguments lodged against Catholic worship as either based upon an inaccurate conception of the Catholic Mass or merely based upon assumptions regarding its unbiblical nature. There is indeed a biblical case to be made in support of the divine liturgy and the Catholic Eucharist. Much more can be added to this introductory study and thus more interesting biblical data certainly exists to further edify the Christian mind in search of understanding the Catholic faith.
It is appropriate to end this study with the words of Pope John Paul II who, yet again, reminds us that the Mass and all its mystery comprises the very heart of Catholic worship and communion:
The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift — however precious — among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work. Nor does it remain confined to the past, since “all that Christ is — all that he did and suffered for all men — participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times”.[22]
In the wake of Jesus' own words and actions, and building upon the ritual heritage of Judaism, the Christian liturgy was born. Could there ever be an adequate means of expressing the acceptance of that self-gift which the divine Bridegroom continually makes to his Bride, the Church, by bringing the Sacrifice offered once and for all on the Cross to successive generations of believers and thus becoming nourishment for all the faithful?[23]
Footnotes:
[20] Fr. James L. Meagher, How Christ Said The First Mass, Rockford, TAN Books and Publishers, 1984, p.12.
[21] Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1997, p.50-51.
[22] Pope John Paul 2, Papal Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 2003, paragraph 11.
[23] Pope John Paul 2, Papal Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 2003, paragraph 48.