Section I. On the Existence and Essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass

I. The existence of the sacrifice of the Mass. In the Mass a true and properly so-called sacrifice is offered; this proposition is of faith from these words of the Council of Trent: "If anyone says that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God, or that to be offered is nothing other than Christ being given to us to be eaten, let him be anathema."¹

¹ Session 22, canon 1.

II. The essence of the sacrifice of the Mass. It suffices to note briefly the principal things which pertain here:

1. The victim to be sacrificed is Christ as existing under the species. It is said:

a) Christ; this the Council of Trent teaches in these words: "In this divine sacrifice which is performed in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated unbloodily who once offered Himself bloodily on the altar of the cross."¹

b) As existing under the species. For the Mass is a true and properly so-called sacrifice, and therefore the offering of a visible victim, namely a visible sacrifice. But Christ is not visible to us, nor can He be visibly sacrificed by us, except insofar as He exists under the species. Hence the Council of Trent says: "Our Lord... at the Last Supper, on the night on which He was betrayed, in order that He might leave to His beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice, as the nature of human beings requires,... offered His body and blood under the species of bread and wine to God the Father, and under the symbols of those same things commanded the Apostles... and their successors in the priesthood to offer them."²

Note. Bread and wine are only the matter from which the victim is confected. But the species of bread and wine are not constitutive or essential parts of the victim, but are the condition without which the victim is not given.

2. The principal offerer is Christ Himself; the secondary offerer is the priest.³ Co-offerers are added, that is, the Church or the whole faithful people, the minister, and those assisting (St. Alphonsus, VI, 307).

3. What the sacrificial action is, or the constitutive act, or the properly so-called essence of the sacrifice of the Mass, is not one opinion among authors. Now:

a) According to the opinion of all today, consecration pertains to the sacrificial action; and according to the more common opinion, the consecration of both species. It is disputed whether Communion also pertains to the essence. Those who deny this admit that it is an integral part of the sacrifice.

b) Of those who judge that the essence of the sacrifice of the Mass is constituted by consecration alone, some formally place the sacrificial action in consecration insofar as it places Christ in the more abased state of food and drink; others place it in consecration insofar as in it there is a mystical destruction, either because the words of themselves tend toward the real separation of body and blood, or because the sacramental species exhibit a sacramental representation of that separation.

¹ Session 22, chapter 2.

² Session 22, chapter 1.

³ Session 22, chapter 2.

III. The character of the sacrifice of the Mass. The sacrifice of the Mass is both an absolute and a relative sacrifice: absolute, insofar as considered in itself it has all the elements of a true sacrifice; relative, insofar as it essentially says relation to the sacrifice of the cross, or insofar as it is essentially representative and commemorative of the sacrifice of the cross¹ (St. Thomas, III, q. 79, a. 7; q. 83, a. 1).

¹ Council of Trent, session 22, chapter 1.

IV. The agreement of the Mass with the sacrifice of the cross, and its difference from it.

1. Both sacrifices agree as regards substance, namely as regards the victim and the principal offerer. Therefore the Mass, by reason of substance, is identified with the sacrifice of the cross, so that this sacrifice is truly repeated as often as Mass is celebrated.

2. They differ:

a) In the fact that the sacrifice of the cross was absolute, as it is called, while the Mass is essentially also relative, or is referred to the sacrifice of the cross.

b) By reason of the secondary offerer, namely, on the cross there was only the principal offerer, namely Christ; in the Mass there are the principal offerer, namely Christ, and the secondary offerer, namely the priest.

c) By reason of the mode of offering, which was bloody on the cross, but is unbloody in the Mass.

d) By reason of the end and effects, insofar as the sacrifice of the cross perfected satisfaction and merits, whereas the Mass applies them to us.