As stated in the
Baltimore Catechism...
Q. How is the
Mass the same sacrifice as that of the Cross?
A. The Mass is
the same sacrifice as that of the Cross because the offering and the priest are
the same - Christ our Blessed Lord; and the ends for which the sacrifice of the
Mass is offered are the same as those of the sacrifice of the Cross.
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"The Mass is not an
imitation, or a memory of Calvary, it is identically the same sacrifice and
differs only from Calvary in appearance." (Fr. O'Sullivan)
"When you hear Mass,
do you come in the same frame of mind as the Blessed Virgin at Calvary? Because
it is the same God, and the same Sacrifice." (St. John Vianney)
"The Mass makes
present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does
it multiply it." (Pope John Paul II)
"We therefore
confess that the Sacrifice of the Mass is and ought to be considered one and the
same Sacrifice as that of the cross, for the victim is one and the same, namely,
Christ our Lord, who offered Himself, once only, a bloody Sacrifice on the altar
of the cross. The bloody and unbloody victim are not two, but one victim only,
whose Sacrifice is daily renewed in the Eucharist, in obedience to the command
of our Lord: Do this for a commemoration of me. The priest is also one and the
same, Christ the Lord; for the ministers who offer Sacrifice, consecrate the
holy mysteries, not in their own person, but in that of Christ, as the words of
consecration itself show, for the priest does not say: This is the body of
Christ, but, This is my body; and thus, acting in the Person of Christ the Lord,
he changes the substance of the bread and wine into the true substance of His
body and blood." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
"The august
[Eucharistic] Sacrifice of the Altar is, as it were, the supreme instrument
whereby the merits won by the divine Redeemer upon the cross are distributed to
the faithful: 'as often as this commemorative [Eucharistic] Sacrifice is
offered, there is wrought the work of our Redemption.' This, however, so far
from lessening the dignity of the actual sacrifice on Calvary, rather proclaims
and renders more manifest its greatness and its necessity, as the Council of
Trent declares. Its daily immolation reminds us that there is no salvation
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and that God Himself wishes that
there should be a continuation of this sacrifice 'from the rising of the sun
till the going down thereof' (Mal. 1:11), so that there may be no cessation of
the hymn of praise and thanksgiving which man owes to God, seeing that he
required His help continually and has need of the blood of the Redeemer to remit
sin which challenges God's justice." (Pope Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 1947 A.D.)
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