New Evangelizers Post: The Sacrifice of the Mass

                                             

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

Some people express confusion about the Mass when we say that it is a sacrifice. They ask “If this was the case, then wouldn’t we be sacrificing Jesus over and over?” It is a good question, and I am glad to address it here.

To be clear, the Council of Trent in Chapter VIII on its decrees on the Eucharist stated that the Eucharist is a true and real sacrifice (Canon 1) and that it is a “propitiatory” sacrifice, meaning that it brings reconciliation to God (Canon 2).

I am a philosopher by training. I like to always refer to the Father of Philosophy: Socrates. And whenever Socrates struggled with a problem, he would always go back to defining our terms. What is it we are actually talking about? In this case, I think we need to define the word “sacrifice.”

Pope Benedict XVI wrote a book before he was pope called The Spirit of the Liturgy. He addresses our common understanding of sacrifice as “something to do with destruction.” (pg. 41) We often think of sacrifice as giving something up, like our Lenten sacrifices of candy or social media. These are indulgences that hurt to lay aside. Sometimes we think of sacrifice in terms of life. Many ancient religions would kill an animal or even a human being as an act of sacrifice to their gods. But that is not the real meaning of “sacrifice.” Pope Benedict XVI understands the heart of sacrifice is union with God. What God wants is not some external gift: He wants me.

Even thinking about our Lenten sacrifices, what good does it do to give up candy or social media, if it does not draw us closer to God? Because that is the entire point of those sacrifices: to be brought more and more into union with God by letting go of the things that keep us away. It is the same with the sacrifice of the Mass. The sacrifice of Jesus is meant to bring us into union with Him. Pope Benedict writes, “Belonging to God has nothing to do with destruction… [i]t means emerging from the state of separation… of existing only for oneself in oneself.” (pg 42) In other words, the sacrifice of Jesus draws us out of our selfish separation from God and into union with Him through Jesus.

Christ on the Cross is an act of true sacrifice because it is an act of true love. Love is a gift of the self that God wants. Pope Benedict writes, “Such sacrifice has nothing to do with destruction. It is an act of new creation, the restoration of creation to its true identity.” (pg 48) In other words, this view of sacrifice is not about death or killing. Therefore we are not “re-killing” Jesus at the Mass. This view of sacrifice is about transforming us, which is something that should happen at the Mass.

Pope Benedict makes the distinction between two types of sacrifices: representation and replacement. In representation, there is something of the one who sacrifices in the gift. Pope Benedict points to Abraham sacrificing the ram or the Passover sacrifice of Exodus (pg. 52-53). There is something of the one who sacrifices in the offering. But with the replacement image, the sacrifice is done in place of the giver, literally a scapegoat. Someone else pays so that I do not have to. This is why God, in the Old Testament, kept rejecting Israel’s sacrifices: because they were more like economic transactions than tokens of love. If you take out the trash at home so you can guilt your wife into doing the dishes, your sacrifice is not done out of love, but rather it is a transaction. But if you take the trash out seeking nothing in return, and only do it because you love your wife and want to be closer to her. This is the representational sacrifice. This is the sacrifice of Christ at the Mass. 

You can read the whole article here.