Dissertation III. On the Most Holy Eucharist as Sacrifice

(St. Thomas, II-II, q. 85; q. 86, a. 1; q. 100, a. 2, ad 2; III, q. 22; q. 79, a. 7, ad 2; q. 82; q. 83; q. 85; q. 86, a. 1; q. 100, a. 2, ad 2; St. Alphonsus, Theologia Moralis, book VI, nn. 304-424; Homo Apostolicus, tract 15, nn. 59-88.)

I. The notion of sacrifice. Sacrifice is the offering of a sensible thing, through some change of it, made to God, and that legitimately, to testify to His supreme dominion and our subjection (St. Alphonsus, VI, 304).

1. The sensible thing itself is the remote matter; the offering of the sensible thing through some change of it is the proximate matter of sacrifice. The end of professing the supreme dominion of God and our subjection is the form of the sacrifice, which, namely, informs the whole act.

2. All admit that some change is required. But it is disputed whether a change for the worse, or destructive change, is required, or a change for the better, insofar, namely, as the thing offered through its sacrification becomes morally more perfect and more pleasing to God.

3. Of those who require a destructive change, some demand a real change, whether physical, as in the killing of an animal, or moral, by which, namely, the thing becomes unfit for common use, as in the pouring out of oil. Others judge that a mystical change suffices.

II. The division of sacrifice. Sacrifices are distinguished:

1. By reason of matter, into victims or hosts, oblations, and libations, according as an animal, or an inanimate solid thing, or an inanimate liquid thing is offered.

2. By reason of mode, into bloody and unbloody.

3. By reason of end, into latreutic, eucharistic, propitiatory or expiatory, and impetratory, according as they are principally offered in homage to God, or in thanksgiving, or for remission of guilt or punishment, or for obtaining goods (St. Alphonsus, VI, 304).

III. The principal sacrifices of the Old Testament were:

1. Holocausts, which were principally offered in homage to God. In these the whole thing was consumed by fire.

2. Peace offerings, which were chiefly offered in thanksgiving or for obtaining benefits. In these one part was consumed by fire, another fell to the use of the priests, who ate it in the court of the temple.

3. Offerings for sin, which were principally offered for the remission of guilt or punishment. In these one part was consumed by fire, another fell to the use of the priests, and a third to the use of those offering, who consumed it as a sign of union with God.

Now all the sacrifices of the Old Testament prefigured:

IV. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross, by which Christ offered Himself on the cross, and by which He perfected the redemption of the human race, that is, so consummated satisfaction for sins and merit for obtaining all graces that satisfaction and merit cannot be further increased, according to that saying of the Apostle: "For by one oblation He has perfected forever those who are sanctified."¹

Nevertheless the sacrifice of the cross does not exclude the sacrifice by which the satisfaction and merit completed on the cross are continually applied, that is:

¹ Heb. 10:14.

V. The Eucharistic sacrifice, or the Mass, about which something must be said specifically. We shall treat first of the sacrifice of the Mass considered in itself, then of the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass.