The or This ??

One must never use "bread" in a Eucharistic hymn. Heretic.

That was of course a joke! Great text!

.

.

.

It has brought to my attention that the Lamb is not Slain at the Mass. The text is not saying the Lamb is Slain "again", however, it is held by the church that the sacrifice is being represented and that every Mass is the one and same sacrfice. Does anyone have issue with the phrase about the Lamb being slain?

---

Seems to me like we might be splitting hairs on this one.

I want to get the theology of this new hymn correct. If anyone is raising a concern and making a suggestion, then I take it seriously. I have a great trust for those on this forum.

I have great respect for the theology of the Doctors and Saints of our church who have written much about the Eucharistic Sacrifice. I take it upon myself to read and meditate upon those blessed writings. Today, a great assault is being waged upon the Holy Sacrifice. The work I do is often in defense of the truth which is many times presented in our hymnals as ambiguous or even bad theology.

Here are the documents which uphold the theology of this hymn:

Doctrine of the MassDoctrine of the Mass
“And inasmuch as in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass is contained and
immolated in an unbloody manner the same Christ who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, the holy council teaches that this is truly propitiatory and has this effect, that if we, contrite and penitent, with sincere heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence, draw nigh to God, we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid. For, appeased by this sacrifice, the Lord grants the grace and gift of penitence and pardons even the gravest crimes and sins. For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different. The fruits of that bloody sacrifice, it is well understood, are received most abundantly through this unbloody one, so far is the latter from derogating in any way from the former. Wherefore, according to the tradition of the Apostles, it is rightly offered not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions and other necessities of the faithful who are living, but also for those departed in Christ but not yet fully purified.” (Council of Trent, 22nd
Session)

"The priest holds the place of the Saviour Himself, when, by saying, 'Ego te absolvo' [I thee
absolve], he absolves from sin... To pardon a single sin requires all the omnipotence of God... But what only God can do by His omnipotence, the priest can also do by saying 'Ego te absolvo a
peccatis tuis.'... But our wonder should be far greater when we find that in obedience to the words of His priests - HOC EST CORPUS MEUM [This is my body] - God Himself descends on the altar, that He comes wherever they call Him, and as often as they call Him, and places Himself in their hands, even though they should be His enemies. And after having come, He remains, entirely at their disposal; ..." Alphonsus de Liguori, "Dignity and Duties of the Priest", 1927 (bearing the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Catholic Church) “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 sam Christ who offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner.” (Roman Catholic Catechism, § 1387, emphasis in the original) The ceremony described above in so many words may be boiled down to this: After ceremonial procedures and prayers, the priest takes the bread (special wafers), and pronouncing the mystical phrase “HOC EST CORPUS MEUM” [This is my body], calls Jesus down from heaven into the bread. The bread (called the “host” from the Latin “hostiam” or “victim”) is thus miraculously transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ, a process known as transubstantiation. The communicant then ceremonially eats the bread, re-offering the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The entire ceremony is known as the Eucharist.

++++++++++

The Council of Trent on the Atonement:

Against all this bluster, of course, is the Council of Trent - the greatest dogmatic council with which God has ever blessed the Catholic Church. The Council states Christ "made satisfaction for us to God the Father" (DS 799), and "Christ Jesus Who has satisfied for our sins" (DS 904), but never teaches that Christ paid a full eternal penalty for sin. Logically, if He had, then God would have no right to punish anyone in hell, since He could not, in justice, exact two eternal punishments for the same sin.

The connection between the Mass and Calvary is so profound, so identical, that when one listens to Trent's words about the Mass, he is listening to the echoes of the meaning of Calvary. Session 22, Chapter 2 put it this way:

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. Therefore, the holy Council teaches that this sacrifice is truly propitiatory, so that, if we draw near to God with an upright heart and true faith, with fear and reverence, with sorrow and repentance, through it 'we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.' For the Lord, appeased by this oblation, grants grace and the gift of repentance, and he pardons wrong-doings and sins, even grave ones.
What you find at Trent is the notion of "propitiation" and "appeasement," the very opposite of the forensic atonement offered by Luther and Calvin. For Trent, and all the Tradition prior (which Trent merely crystallized), the atonement was a personal sacrifice made voluntarily by the Son in an effort to appease the Father's wrath against mankind, preserve His honor among angels and men, and persuade Him to once again open the doors of mercy.

The Latin Mass and the Atonement:

There is no better portrayal of the principle of appeasement than in the Traditional Catholic Mass, and it is the very reason why it will never cease, despite the attempts of the post-conciliar church to have it die a natural death. Listen to these rich words - words which drip with honor and sacrifice to a Holy God.

The prayers before Mass include such statements as "To adore Thee and give Thee honor which is due to Thee...to appease Thy justice, aroused against us by so many sins, and to make satisfaction for them."(17)

The Confiteor says: "We beseech Thee, O Lord, by the merits of Thy saints, whose relics are here, and of all the Saints, that Thou wilt deign to pardon me all my sins."(18)

The Offertory states: "Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, this unspotted Host, which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, to atone for my countless sins, offenses, and negligences..." and "We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, entreating Thy mercy that our offering may ascend with a sweet fragrance in thy sight..." and "may our sacrifice be so offered this day in Thy sight as to be pleasing to Thee, O Lord God" and "this sacrifice which is prepared for the glory of Thy holy Name," and "Receive, O Holy Trinity, this oblation which we make to Thee in memory of the Passion...the them let it bring honor, and to us salvation."(19)

In the Orate Fratres we plead: "Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty."(20) Notice here that we cannot demand that God be appeased, but we humbly hope that it "may be acceptable." That is because God's mercy is completely personal and voluntary, not a legal remuneration He gives as if He were legally required to do so.

In the Secret we pray: "Sanctify, we beseech Thee, O Lord our God, by the invocation of Thy Holy Name, the Sacrifice we offer..." In the Canon we pray: "We, therefore, humbly pray and beseech Thee, most merciful Father...to accept and to bless these gifts, these presents, these holy unspotted Sacrifices, which we offer up to Thee..."(21)

In the prayers at Consecration the priest says: "We beseech Thee, O Lord, graciously to accept this oblation of our service...that we be rescued from eternal damnation..." and "Humbly we pray Thee, O God, be pleased to make this same offering wholly blessed, to consecrate it and approve it..."(22)

The prayers after Consecration say: "And now, O Lord, we...do offer unto Thy most sovereign Majesty out of the gifts Thou hast bestowed upon us, a Victim which is pure, a Victim which is holy, a Victim which is spotless...Deign to look upon them with a favorable and gracious countenance...we humbly beseech Thee, almighty God, to command that these our offerings be carried by the hands of Thy holy Angels to Thine Altar on high, in the sight of Thy divine Majesty..."(23)

Suffice it to say, the Latin Mass is saturated, from beginning to end, with the theme of sacrifice, propitiation and appeasement which is offered to God the Father so that His wrath against our sins will be abated and that His tender mercies will flow to us. I dare say that, without the daily offering of the Catholic Mass throughout the world, God would have no choice but to destroy it immediately for its sins. It is only through the propitiatory offering of the Mass that God is appeased enough to allow the world to go on existing one more day. This also means, of course, that if the Mass is ever taken away, time on earth will be over. Unfortunately, the Antichrist may have something to say about that in the future (cf., Dan 8:11-13; 11:31; 12:11).

===================

Eucharist as Sacrifice – Sacrament

The most serious challenge to the Catholic faith in the Eucharist was the claim that the Mass is not a real but merely a symbolic sacrifice.

To defend this basic Eucharistic mystery, the Council of Trent made a series of definitions. Originally drafted as negative anathemas, they may be reduced to the following positive affirmation of faith.

The Mass is a true and proper sacrifice which is offered to God.
By the words, “Do this in commemoration of me” (Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24), Christ made the apostles priests. Moreover, He decreed that they and other priests should offer His Body and Blood.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is not merely an offering of praise and thanksgiving, or simply a memorial of the sacrifice on the Cross. It is a propitiatory sacrifice which is offered for the living and dead, for the remission of sins and punishment due to sin, as satisfaction for sin and for other necessities.
The Sacrifice of the Mass in no way detracts from the sacrifice which Christ offered on the Cross (Council of Trent, Session XXII, September 17, 1562).
Volumes of teaching by the Church’s magisterium have been written since the Council of Trent. There has also been a remarkable development of doctrine in a deeper understanding of the Mass. For our purpose, there are especially two questions that need to be briefly answered: 1) How is the Sacrifice of the Mass related to the sacrifice of the Cross? 2) How is the Mass a true sacrifice?

Relation of the Mass to Calvary. In order to see how the Mass is related to Calvary, we must immediately distinguish between the actual Redemption of the world and the communication of Christ’s redemptive graces to a sinful human race.

On the Cross, Christ really redeemed the human family. He is the one true Mediator between God and an estranged humanity. On the Cross, He merited all the graces that the world would need to be reconciled with an offended God.

When He died, the separation of His blood from His body caused the separation of His human soul from the body, which caused His death. He willed to die in the deepest sense of the word. He chose to die. In His own words, He laid down His life for the salvation of a sinful mankind.

But His physical death on Calvary was not to be an automatic redemption of a sin-laden world. It would not exclude the need for us to appropriate the merits He gained on the Cross; nor would it exclude the need for our voluntary cooperation with the graces merited by the Savior’s shedding of His blood.

The key to seeing the relation between Calvary and the Mass is the fact that the same identical Jesus Christ now glorified is present on the altar at Mass as He was present in His mortal humanity on the Cross.

Since it is the same Jesus, we must say He continues in the Mass what He did on Calvary except that now in the Mass, He is no longer mortal or capable of suffering in His physical person. On Calvary He was, by His own choice, capable of suffering and dying. What He did then was to gain the blessings of our redemption. What He does now in the Mass is apply these blessings to the constant spiritual needs of a sinful, suffering humanity.

Before we look more closely at the Mass as a sacrifice of propitiation and petition, we should make plain that it is first and foremost, a sacrifice of praise (adoration) and thanksgiving. No less than He did on Calvary, in the Mass Jesus continues to offer Himself to the heavenly Father. Since the highest form of honor to God is sacrifice, the Mass is a continuation of Christ’s sacrifice of praise and gratitude to God the Father. But, whereas on Calvary, this sacrificial adoration was bloody, causing Christ’s physical death by crucifixion, in the Mass the same Jesus is now sacrificing Himself in an unbloody manner because He is now glorified, immortal, and incapable of suffering or dying in His own physical person.

------------------------------------

If anyone wants to make a critique of my work (text or music), I invite it openly. I would also like it to be on this board, otherwise, we cannot come to a consensus.

Most Humbly Yours,

Francis Koerber

"Designs are brought to nothing where there is no counsel: but where there are many counsellors, they are established."
Prov. 15:22

My resolution (so far) is thus as stated above and is why I crafted the text to express the clarity of this mystery.

"The Sacrifice of the Mass is not merely an offering of praise and thanksgiving, or simply a memorial of the sacrifice on the Cross. It is a propitiatory sacrifice which is offered for the living and dead, for the remission of sins and punishment due to sin, as satisfaction for sin and for other necessities."

This mystery takes place only within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the Catholic Church.

(comment deleted by author)