This Week's Bulletin Sermon

Series on the Mass, Part 41: The Canon, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Part 1
November 29, 2020

Our Lord becomes truly present on the altar during the words of consecration. At the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening, Jesus anticipated in a sacramental fashion the sacrifice that He was to offer the next day on the Cross. At Mass, by the hands of the priest, Jesus makes this one same sacrifice present on the altar once again. The Mass is truly a sacrifice. The separate consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord is the sacramental separation of the Body and Blood of our Savior through the means of signs. When the Blood is separated from the Body, death occurs. Thus, by the means of signs, we have the separation of the Body and Blood on the altar and the sacramental making present once again of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

Christ is truly present on the altar, offering Himself to the Father, as He truly offered Himself at Calvary. He no longer suffers with His natural Body when Mass is celebrated, but His glorious Body, which suffered for us, still carries the marks of His crucifixion and Passion. That same love that inspired Him to offer Himself on the Cross continues to be the motive for His sacrifice at each Mass, wherein the same sacrifice is made present in an unbloody fashion. Our Lord does continue to suffer, however, in His Mystical Body, the Church.

St. Pius X said:

The Sacrifice of the Mass is substantially the same sacrifice of the Cross in that in both the one and the other Jesus Christ is the priest and victim. They differ, however, in the manner in which they are offered. On the Cross, Jesus Christ is offered by pouring out His Blood and meriting for us; while on the altar, He sacrifices Himself without the effusion of blood and He applies the fruits of His Passion and death. 

SIncerely in Christ,
Rev. Charles Van Vliet, FSSP
Pastor, Regina Caeli Parish