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Often whenever we hear the word “sacrifice” we are tempted to think of an ancient priest offering a sacrifice of an animal on an altar. This includes a ceremony in which the priest kills the animal in hopes that it will satisfy God’s justice.
When it comes to the Mass, there appears to be no visible blood and no animal or human is on the altar actively being sacrificed.
Yet, the Roman Missal uses the word “sacrifice” more than 300 times and one of the official names for the Mass is the “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
Why is that?
Mass as a sacrifice
The Catechism of the Catholic Church sets out to explain the use of this word in its section on the Eucharist:
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.” 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.”
CCC 1365
The Catechism further explains how the Mass re-presents the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
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.
CCC 1366
One sacrifice for all time
An important distinction to note is that the Mass does not re-enact Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but is the same sacrifice, brought into the present moment:
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.” “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.”
CCC 1367
While the Mass may not appear to be a sacrifice at first glance, if you dig deeper, you will find that you are spiritually transported to the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary each time the Mass is celebrated.
