The Eucharist in the West: History and Theology by Robert J. Daly

Author:Robert J. Daly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2016-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

II. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

During the centuries separating the Council of Trent from the contemporary Catholic Church, numerous theories have been proposed to explain the essence of the eucharistic sacrifice. All Catholic theologians have maintained that the Mass has a sacrificial character and that the sacrificial trait is expressed in the visible ritual activity of the liturgy. Beginning with this presupposition, the question that remains to be answered is this: Precisely in what does the visible sacrifice of the Mass consist?

Trent seemed to many post-Tridentine theologians to provide the key in the “doctrine” it attached to the canons concerning the eucharistic sacrifice. Here it is stated that the prophecy of Malachi about the pure oblation offered by the Gentiles is fulfilled in the Mass.4 This teaching influenced some theologians to identify the sacrificial element of the Mass in terms of a food offering. But Trent’s doctrine, in fact, supplied no clarification concerning what elements constitute the general notion of sacrifice, and wherein the Mass corresponds to this definition of sacrifice.

Among the more popular theories proposed by Catholic theologians concerning the constitution of the visible sacrifice of the Mass was the following: In the twofold consecration, the separation of the species is a sign of the separation of the body and blood on the cross. However, this theory was finally rejected as unsatisfactory, for the symbolic reference could not be identified as that which constitutes the sacrificial character of the Mass. For the twofold consecration signifies the separation of body and blood of a victim of a sacrifice; this is a comparative-religions concept of the effect of a sacrificial death. The eucharistic action, on the other hand, was understood as a “true and proper sacrifice,” that stands in a real relation of dependence on the once-for-all sacrifice of the cross.

Moreover, in biblical and patristic thinking, the grounding of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist in the separation of flesh from blood is inconceivable. For the terms flesh and blood, or body and blood, express the total representation of the life and the offering of it to God in sacrifice. In brief, this theory which identifies the sacrificial trait of the Eucharist with the separate consecration of the species is not biblical, because both actions represent together the total giving of Jesus.

The problem with all theologies of the Mass of the post-Reformation period originates in the search for the grounds of sacrifice in the rite itself, and not in the representation of the sacrifice of the cross. Catholic theology did not take seriously enough the fact that “sacrifice” in the history-of-religions sense was abolished with the Christ-event. In the Christ-event, sacrificial activity on the part of the creature is reduced to the obedience of Jesus before the Father, even unto death.

But how should Catholic theology employ the teaching of Trent on the sacrifice of the Mass? First of all, one has to take into account the relation between Scripture and the official teaching of the Church. The office of teaching, in its dogmatic statements, “receives” the interpretation of Scripture furnished by theologians.

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