The Eucharist: Sacramental Sacrifice

By DON FIER

Over the past two weeks, we have briefly examined the fundamental structure of the liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly summarizes how the celebration is carried out: “The Eucharist unfolds in two great parts which together form one, single act of worship. The Liturgy of the Word involves proclaiming and listening to the Word of God. The Liturgy of the Eucharist includes the presentation of the bread and wine, the prayer or the anaphora containing the words of consecration, and communion” (n. 277).
The celebrant is a validly ordained priest who acts in the Person of Christ the Head (“in persona Christi capitis”) and in the name of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.
Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, concisely encapsulates what we spoke of last week in considering the second part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
First, in the presentation of the gifts or Offertory, it is made clear that the Eucharist is a sacrifice: Along with bread and wine, the gifts of the faithful are brought to the altar. Then, in the Eucharistic Prayer, bread and wine are separately consecrated to become the Body and Blood of Christ — the sacrifice offered once for all on Calvary is reenacted on the altar. The intercessions that follow show that the Eucharist is offered everywhere throughout the world.
In Holy Communion, the faithful who are in communion with the Church and properly disposed are nourished on the living Christ (cf. The Faith, p. 119).
The next subsection of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which comprises 26 paragraphs (nn. 1356-1381), considers the sacramental sacrifice of the Eucharist under three dimensions: thanksgiving, memorial, and presence. As a prologue, however, we are reminded that from the Church’s very beginning, “Christians have celebrated the Eucharist . . . in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of times and liturgies” (CCC, n. 1356).
Why is this true? Simply put, it can be attributed to the binding command, as recorded by St. Paul in his institution narrative, that our Lord gave at the Last Supper on the eve of His Passion and death on the cross: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24, 25).
Our Lord’s command is carried out whenever and wherever the Mass is offered, for each Mass is a memorial of His sacrifice on Calvary. In the Eucharistic Celebration, the Church offers to God the Father the gifts of His creation, bread and wine, which, by the words of Christ (through the priest) and the action of the Holy Spirit, become really and truly the Body and Blood of Christ — Jesus Christ’s presence is mysteriously made real (cf. CCC, n. 1357).
During the Mass, gratitude and thanksgiving are offered to the Father, “for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification” (CCC, n. 1360).
The Catechism also recognizes the fittingness of relating thanksgiving, memorial, and presence to the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: “thanksgiving and praise to the Father; the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body; and the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit” (CCC, n. 1358).
Let us now consider each of these three aspects in more detail, first looking at the Eucharist as an act of thanksgiving and praise to the Father. As we saw in an earlier column (see volume 149, n. 17; April 28, 2016), Eucharist is the Greek word for “thanksgiving.” The Eucharist is the greatest conceivable gift of God to man. As St. John Paul II so beautifully wrote in his 2003 encyclical on the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church:
“The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 9).
This profound reflection is reminiscent of something the same Vicar of Christ said 24 years earlier in 1980 near the beginning of his papacy:
“We cannot, even for a moment, forget that the Eucharist is a special possession belonging to the whole Church. It is the greatest gift in the order of grace and of sacrament that the divine Spouse has offered and unceasingly offers to His spouse. . . . We should remain faithful in every detail to what it expresses in itself and to what it asks of us, namely, thanksgiving” (Dominicae Cenae, n. 12).
When given a gift, is it not fitting that gratitude and thanksgiving should be expressed? In God’s Providence, the Mass is the most perfect means for the faithful to give thanks — not only for the Eucharist itself, but all also for the manifold benefits bestowed upon each of us by God. Why? In his 1947 encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy, Pope Pius XII explains:
“Only the divine Redeemer, as the eternal Father’s most beloved Son whose immense love He knew, could offer Him a worthy return of gratitude. This was His intention and desire at the Last Supper when He ‘gave thanks.’ He did not cease to do so when hanging upon the cross, nor does He fail to do so in the august sacrifice of the altar, which is an act of thanksgiving or a ‘eucharistic’ act; since this ‘is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation’” (Mediator Dei, n. 72).
The Catechism further explains the dimension of thanksgiving in the Mass: “The Eucharist . . . is a sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for the work of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is presented to the Father through the death and the Resurrection of Christ. Through Christ the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for all that God has made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity” (CCC, n. 1359).
It goes on to describe the Mass as a sacrifice of praise that is possible only through Christ, for He “unites the faithful to his person, to his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the Father is offered through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him” (CCC, n. 1361).
We now focus our attention on the second of the dimensions under consideration, the Mass as a sacrificial memorial of Christ and His Church. “The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover,” teaches the Catechism, “the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church which is his Body” (CCC, n. 1362).
The Holy Mass is not merely a recollection of past events, but a memorial of Christ’s Paschal Mystery: His Passion, death, and Resurrection. As Fr. Hardon explains in his Basic Catholic Catechism Course, “in a mysterious way, Christ really offers Himself as the Eternal Priest, and His oblation is not only a psychological remembrance. It is, rather, a mystical reality” (p. 142).
Furthermore, when we say that Holy Mass is a memorial of His Resurrection, “we mean that Christ, Who is now in Heaven and also the principal Priest at the altar, is the risen Savior,” Fr. Hardon continues. “His Resurrection is not only an event that took place once, but [is] a continuing fact of salvation history. In the Mass, the risen Lord is present and in our midst. He bids us to unite ourselves, still mortal, with the One Who is our resurrection” (ibid.).
In considering this dimension of the Eucharist, let us recall a verse from the Old Testament Book of Exodus regarding the Passover: “Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place’” (Exodus 13:3).
As the Catechism explains, “This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them” (CCC, n. 1363).

Sacrifice And Redemption

The memorial, however, takes on new meaning in the New Testament. “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist,” teaches the Catechism, “she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: The sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present (cf. Heb. 7:25-27)” (CCC, n. 1364).
The Vatican II fathers take up this theme in the council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church by solemnly proclaiming: “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7), is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on” (Lumen Gentium, n. 3).
In other words, explains Fr. Hardon, in every Mass that is offered throughout the world, “These events become present and actual. Christ is now carrying out His Sacrifice of the Cross” (The Faith, p. 119).
Christ’s Paschal Mystery “transcends all times while being made present in them all” (CCC, n. 1085).
“Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice” (CCC, n. 1365). We will pick up this theme next week, with the intention of drawing on definitions from the Council of Trent, the writings of Pope Pius XII, and Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)