280. In what way is the Eucharist a memorial of the sacrifice of Christ? (part 2 continuation)
(Comp 280 repetition) The Eucharist is a
memorial in the sense that it makes present and actual the sacrifice which
Christ offered to the Father on the cross, once and for all on behalf of
mankind. The sacrificial character of the Holy Eucharist is manifested in the
very words of institution, “This is my Body which is given for you” and “This
cup is the New Covenant in my Blood that will be shed for you” (Luke 22:19-20).
The sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one and the
same sacrifice. The priest and the victim are the same; only the manner of
offering is different: in a bloody manner on the cross, in an unbloody manner
in the Eucharist.
“In
brief”
(CCC 1362)
The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the
sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church
which is his Body. In all the Eucharistic Prayers we find after the words of
institution a prayer called the anamnesis
or memorial.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1365)
Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a
sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very
words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and
"This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my
blood" (Lk 22:19-20). In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which
he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt 26:28). (CCC 1367) The sacrifice of
Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the
same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on
the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "And since in
this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who
offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained
and is offered in an unbloody manner… this sacrifice is truly
propitiatory" (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1743; cf. Heb 9:14, 27).
On
reflection
(CCC 613)
Christ's death is both the Paschal
sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through
"the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29; cf.
8:34-36; 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pt 1:19), and the sacrifice
of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by
reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt 26:28; cf. Ex 24:8;
Lev 16:15-16; 1 Cor 11:25). (CCC 1366) The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice
because it re-presents (makes
present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies
its fruit: [Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to
God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an
everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his
death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he
wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the
nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish
once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until
the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of
the sins we daily commit (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740; cf. 1 Cor 11:23;
Heb 7:24, 27). [END]
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