A Biblical Walk Through the Mass by Edward Sri (Book Review) [Ecumenical]
Posted on 02/08/2015 12:34:39 PM PST by RnMomof7
Do you know and understand the story to which I am referring?
The catholics are still not understanding the story about King David refusing to drink the blood of his soldiers that was retrieved from the well in Bethlehem.
I find it all confusing, too, however. But it's pointless to argue about it.
At the Last Supper. Did that get taken out of your Bible?
“Do this in memory of me.” Jesus’ words.
Now, as to you misunderstanding. There is NOTHING in Luke 22:19 that indicates anything about "re-present Christ in His victimhood". It only states that we are to remember that He did it and that once for all never to have to be repeated, re-presented, or considered ongoing. By participating in the Catholic mass you are participating in a pagan ritual.
I do not consider “this do in memory of Me” to be synonymous with “remember this”.
Amen.
Jesus paid it ALL.
He paid it ONCE for all.
“It is finished”., as am I with this thread.
Oh crikes how many times does this carpola have to get posted before it gets a wooden stake? LOL!
Some argue against the Catholic teaching that the Mass is a sacrifice. The early Church Fathers tell us that it is. In Genesis 14:18 Melchisedek the High Priest and King of Salem offers a sacrifice of bread and wine. In Hebrews 7 Christ is priest after the order of Melchisedek in fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 110:4: “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”
Did Christ then offer up bread and wine like Melchisedek, who prefigured His eternal priesthood?
Answer: At the Last Supper in the Gospels Christ the High Priest commands His Apostles to do as He did with the bread and wine in commemoration of Him.
Were the Apostles then meant to share in that one priesthood of Christ as His instruments offering His Body and Blood under the appearances of a sacrifice of bread and wine?
Answer: Yes. We read that the Apostles offered the Eucharist in Jerusalem and Troas (Acts 2 and 20), and in Corinth the sacrifice of Christians is contrasted with the sacrifices of the Temple and to the sacrifice of the pagans (1 Cor. 10-11). In Malachy 1:11 the last of the Old Testament prophets declares: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation” (Mal. 1:11).
Has this prophecy of Malachy come true? Is there everywhere in the world offered a sacrifice which is, according to the Hebrew word he uses (minhah) an unbloody or grain offering?
Answer: Just go to Holy Mass in any Catholic Church and you’ll find the answer is “yes.” You’ll see the fulfillment of that biblical prophecy: “so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.” What is true of the Mass today has been true since the beginning of Christianity.
Let’s see what the early Fathers of the Church taught about the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the offering up under the appearances of bread and wine of the Body and Blood of Christ, which were offered for our salvation on the cross at Calvary. These quotations are drawn from Eastern and Western Church Fathers and span the first six centuries of Christianity. They attest to the universal teaching in the early Church that the Eucharistic Liturgy is a sacrifice.
The Didache
This passage contains a direct reference to the fulfillment of Malachy’s prophecy being the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf. Malachy 1:11, 14). The Didache is one of the most ancient and authoritative Christian writings, reflecting the teachings and liturgical practices of the first-century Church.
“On the Lord’s own day assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure . . . your sacrifice must not be defiled. For here we have a saying of the Lord: ‘In every place and time offer Me a pure sacrifice’ (Greek: thysia) . . . for I am a mighty king says the Lord and My name spreads terror among the nations’” (A.D. 98).
St. Ignatius of Antioch
Writing just after the end of the first century, only a few years after the death of St. John the Apostle, St. Ignatius gives us a short but powerful indication of the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. He refers to those who absent themselves from the Eucharist celebrated by the bishop and his priests. The Greek word he uses for the “altar” used in Christian worship is thysiasterion, which means “place where sacrifices are offered.” “Let no one deceive himself,” St. Ignatius warns, “whoever keeps away from the altar (thysiasterion) deprives himself of the divine bread” (Letter to the Ephesians 5:2; A.D. 110).
Epistola Apostolorum
This work, only discovered in 1895, was originally composed in Greek but exists today only in Coptic, Ethiopian, and Latin translations. The Ethiopian version is the most complete and contains a beautiful dialogue between Christ and His Apostles after the Resurrection about the offering of the Christian paschal sacrifice. This passage, translated especially for Envoy magazine, is not found in any English language collections of the Fathers. It’s as though the objections of Protestants against the sacrifice of the Mass where already being anticipated and answered back then:
“The Lord said, ‘You will celebrate the memorial of My death, that is, the Passover Sacrifice . . . at the cock’s crow, at dawn, you will perform My feast of love and My memorial’ . . . . The Apostles said, ‘Lord, haven’t You drunk to the full of the Passover Sacrifice? Is it then necessary that we do it again?’ Jesus responded, ‘Yes, it is necessary, until I come again from the Father’” (Epistola Apostolorum 13; A.D. 140).
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
This great Church Father was a disciple of St. Polycarp and, as such, was the “spiritual grandson” of St. John the Apostle, since St. Polycarp knew the Apostle. This means that the teachings St. Irenaeus received from his mentor came directly from the Apostles. This fact is important to keep in mind, since it demonstrates that the purity of apostolic teaching was handed on intact to each subsequent generation of Christians. The teaching on the Eucharist and the Mass as a Sacrifice that St. Irenaeus speaks of in this passage he received from the Apostles, through St. Polycarp.
“He took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks and said, ‘This is My Body.’ And the cup likewise, which is part of that creation to which we belong, He confessed to be His Blood, and taught the new oblation of the new covenant, which the Church, receiving from the Apostles, offers to God throughout the world . . . concerning which Malachy, among the twelve prophets, thus spoke beforehand: ‘From the rising of the sun to the going down, My name is glorified among the gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to My name and a pure sacrifice . . . ‘ indicating in the plainest manner that in every place sacrifice shall be offered to Him, and at that a pure one” (Against Heresies 4,17,5; A.D. 170).
St. Hippolytus of Rome
St. Hippolytus composed a beautiful Eucharistic prayer at the beginning of the third century. The second Eucharistic prayer of the Missal of Pope Paul VI, which we use now, is based on it. In a commentary on Daniel 4:35 St. Hippolytus refers to the outlawing of the Church’s sacrifice by the Antichrist at the end of time. Like many other Fathers who teach on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he too uses the language of the prophecy of Malachy.
“For when the gospel is preached in every place, the times being then accomplished . . . the abomination of desolation will be manifested, and when he (the Antichrist) comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed, which are now offered up to God in every place by the gentiles” (Commentary on Daniel 22; A.D. 220).
St. Cyprian of Carthage
Later in the same century, this martyr bishop of Carthage, in the midst of the ferocious persecution of Christians by the Romans, clearly explains the Lord’s Eucharistic Sacrifice as being “according to the order of Melchisedek.”
“In the priest Melchisedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what Divine Scripture testifies, and says, ‘And Melchisedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine.’ Now he was a priest of the most High God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchisedek was a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: ‘Before the morning star I have begotten Thee; Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek.’ This order is assuredly the one coming from that sacrifice: that Melchisedek was a priest of the Most High God; that he offered wine and bread; that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the most high God than Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered the very same thing which Melchisedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His Body and Blood? . . . For if Jesus Christ Our Lord and God is Himself the chief priest of God the Father, and has first offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, and has commanded that this be done in commemoration of Himself, certainly the priest truly discharges the office of Christ, who imitates what Christ did; and he offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father, when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered” (Letter 62: 4,14; A.D. 253).
St. Serapion of Thmuis
This great bishop of Lower Egypt (that means Northern Egypt Ñ the Nile is lower near the sea) was a good friend of St. Athanasius, the defender of the Divinity of Christ against the Arian heretics. He offers us the earliest text we have of a Eucharistic prayer which was actually used in the Divine Liturgy of the Eucharist.
“Heaven is full, and the earth as well is full of your magnificent glory, O Lord of Hosts. Fill too this sacrifice with Your power and communion, for we offer You this living sacrifice and unbloody offering . . . Thus we offer bread, celebrating the likeness of His death and we implore You, O God of Truth, to reconcile us to all and have mercy on us through this sacrifice . . . and we offer wine using the likeness of blood. May Your holy Word come upon this bread, O God of Truth, that it might become the Body of the Word, and upon this chalice that it might become the Blood of the Truth” (The Anaphora of Serapion 4; A.D. 339 [original translation]).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
The newly baptized converts of the Church in Jerusalem were treated to the classiest instruction on the sacraments ever given, the amazingly beautiful lectures of their bishop, St. Cyril. He describes the Holy Eucharist as an “awe-inspiring” sacrifice. Here he explains the liturgy after the consecration:
“Next, when the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless worship has been completed, over that sacrifice of propitiation we beseech God for the public peace of the Churches . . . for all, in a word, who need help, we all pray and offer this sacrifice. Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep . . . for all those who have gone before us, believing that this [Eucharistic sacrifice] will be the greatest benefit to the souls of those on whose behalf our supplication is offered in the presence of the holy, of the most dread sacrifice” (Catechetical Lectures 5, 8-9; A.D. 350).
St. Ephraem the Syrian
This is my favorite patristic text on the sacrifice of the Mass. You won’t find it anywhere published in an English translation Ñ except for here. St. Ephraem so closely identifies the action of Christ in the Eucharist with His sacrifice on the cross that he counts the three days of Christ’s death and burial as beginning with His mystical, sacramental ‘slaying’ at the Last Supper:
“From the moment when He broke His Body for His disciples, and gave it to them, one begins to count the three days during which He was among the dead. Adam practically, after eating of the fruit of the tree, lived a long time, even though he was counted among the dead for having disobeyed the commandment of God. God had spoken to him thus ‘The day when you eat of it, you will die.’ Thus it was for Our Lord. It was because He had given them His Body to eat in view of the mystery of His death that He entered into their bodies as He entered later on into the earth” (Commentary on the Diatessaron 19, 4 [translated from the Armenian version]; A.D. 363).
The Liturgy of St. Maruthas
This liturgy of Syrian origin is attributed to St. Maruthas, the great Syrian missionary bishop in Persia and ally of St. John Chrysostom. St. Maruthas, known for his corpulence (there have been some fat saints!), was martyred around A.D. 412. He expands on the words of institution and consecration in the Mass to identity the Eucharistic Sacrifice with the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. (This text is not found in any English selections, so I have translated the passage.)
“On that last night on which He was about to save His creatures, observe and fulfill the law, and begin His New Covenant, while teaching those saved by Him the true doctrine, He took the bread into His pure hands, and giving thanks to His Father, He blessed, sanctified, broke, and divided it among His disciples and said: ‘Take eat, believe, and be certain, and so teach and preach that This is My Body which is broken for the salvation of the world, and to those who eat it and believe in Me it gives the expiation of sins and eternal life’ Truly Lord we have done wickedly, evilly, and foolishly, and we have provoked Your wrath, nor have we kept even one of Your commandments. May you, O Good Lord, excuse us and be merciful for our crimes for the sake of the Sacrifice placed before You this day. Indeed it is You who have told us, ‘Whosoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood, and believes in Me, abides in Me and I in him, and I will raise him up on the last day May He (the Holy Spirit) change this simple bread and make it the very Body which was immolated for us on the cross for the remission of sins and the eternal life of those receiving it.” (Liturgy of St. Maruthas of Maiferkat; circa A.D. 390).
St. Ambrose of Milan
The Roman Canon, or “First Eucharistic Pray-er” of the Latin Church, is cited by St. Ambrose in his instructions on the sacraments given to the newly baptized during the week of Easter:
“And the priest says, ‘Therefore, mindful of His most glorious passion and resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, we offer You this immaculate victim, a reasonable sacrifice, an unbloody victim, this holy bread, and the chalice of eternal life. And we ask You and pray that You accept this offering just as You deigned to accept the sacrifice the high priest Melchisedek offered You.’ So as often as you receive, what does the Apostle say to you? As often as we receive, we proclaim the death of the Lord. If death [then], we proclaim the remission of sins. If as often as blood is shed, it is shed for the remission of sins, I ought always to accept Him, that He may always dismiss my sins. I, who always sin, should always have a remedy” (On the Sacraments 4,6; A.D. 392 [original translation]).
In his Commentary on the Psalms, not yet available in English, St. Ambrose speaks clearly of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered on Christian altars:
“We priests follow [Christ’s cross] as we are able, so that we might offer sacrifice for the people, since, even though Christ is not seen to offer, nevertheless He is offered on earth when the Body of Christ is offered. Or rather, He is shown to offer in us, by whose word is consecrated the sacrifice which is offered” (Commentary on Psalm 38, 25; circa A.D. 395 [original translation]).
St. Augustine of Hippo
There are so many texts of St. Augustine in which he speaks of the Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass, that it’s hard to choose which ones to quote! Here are two representative examples of his teaching on this subject.
“Was not Christ immolated once in Himself, and nevertheless under the sacrament He is immolated for the people not only on every Paschal Feast Day, but even every day, and is it not also the case that he does not err at all who, when asked, responds that He is so immolated?” (Letter 98, 9; A.D. 410 [original tanslation]).
“Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.” (Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 [original translation]).
(Source: Envoy Magazine)
If Jesus had done it or encouraged others to do it, He would have been breaking the Law, thus sinning, and disqualifying Himself from being the pure, spotless lamb of God who could take away the sins of the world.
Jesus knew the cup was wine and said so Himself.
Matthew 26:29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Mark 14:25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 22:18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Don't eat the blood, the life is in the blood
Genesis 9:4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life , that is, its blood.
Leviticus 3:17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”
Leviticus 7:26-27 Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.”
Leviticus 17:10-14 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
“Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Deuteronomy 12:16 Only you shall not eat the blood ; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life , and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Deuteronomy 15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Acts 15:12-29 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter:
“The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Yup. *Do this IN MEMORY of me*.
Not *Do this TO me*.
“...most Catholics don’t realize that the mass is a real and true sacrifice...”
Says who? That phony looking dude with the make up on? Why do we believe him? Does he have any credible research for this statement?
Actually all Catholics realize that the mass is a real and true sacrifice because otherwise they would not be Catholic!
Mass is not re-sacrificing Christ. Do you read your bible? 1 Peter 3:18; Christ died for our sins once for all. So of course Catholics don’t do anything unbiblical.
The Mass does not repeat or add to the Sacrifice of the Cross, even though protestants try to give to Catholics perverse and distorted explanations of their own perfectly biblical doctrines.
The Mass is a time machine - it returns us in time to the ONE sacrifice on calvary.
Non Catholics and anti Catholics have no authority to explain Catholic doctrine because they have no idea.
Bkmk
And Paul clarifies that quite nicely in Galatians. (Pay attention this time I am getting tired of having to repeat myself.)
Gal 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties,
Gal 5:21 envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.
Here is the Greek word used; ἀνάμνησιν - anamnēsin - a recalling, remembrance, memory.
I suppose you can make up any meaning you want in your cult.
Nope, its insane on the face of it. No matter what the context. And also old testament, which has been superseded
It is not cake, it is unleavened bread until the consecration at which point it becomes the body, blood, soul and divinity or our Lord Jesus Christ.
You would think that someone that claimed to have been Catholic would know that. The prots are the ones that use cake, cookies, oyster crackers etc...
12. What are the Words of Institution?
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
13. Do you believe, then, that the true body and blood of Christ are in the Sacrament?
Yes, I believe it.
14. What convinces you to believe this?
The word of Christ: Take, eat, this is My body; drink of it, all of you, this is My blood.
15. What should we do when we eat His body and drink His blood, and in this way receive His pledge?
We should remember and proclaim His death and the shedding of His blood, as He taught us: This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
The Little Catechism-Martin Luther
A Biblical Walk Through the Mass by Edward Sri (Book Review) [Ecumenical]
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