Haeralis
Puritan Board Freshman
Recently, I presented the following quote to a few of my Roman Catholic friends which had to do with the RC teaching of the Eucharist. The quote was from James O'Brien, a priest who is well-respected in Roman Catholic circles. In, The Faith of Millions, O'Brien stated:
“When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.”
Using the statement, I argued for the clear and terrible heresy that the mass promulgates. It suggests that Christ can "be brought down from His throne" and continually be offered up as a sacrifice again and again as an “eternal Victim” who dies not once, but thousands of times.
The RC whom I am in dialogue with claimed that it is a misrepresentation of the mass to claim that it is a perpetual resacrificing of Christ. They claimed that the act of transubstantiation transports participants to the one sacrifice on the Cross and does not actually sacrifice Jesus again. I pointed out that the priest's phrasing, “offered up again” clearly suggests that this is not a return to one single event, but is in fact a new sacrifice every time someone attends the mass.
Still, these RC’s insist that, even if the priest is saying that, it isn’t so. Does anyone know how to respond to Catholics who say that the mass is not a new propitiatory sacrifice?
“When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.”
Using the statement, I argued for the clear and terrible heresy that the mass promulgates. It suggests that Christ can "be brought down from His throne" and continually be offered up as a sacrifice again and again as an “eternal Victim” who dies not once, but thousands of times.
The RC whom I am in dialogue with claimed that it is a misrepresentation of the mass to claim that it is a perpetual resacrificing of Christ. They claimed that the act of transubstantiation transports participants to the one sacrifice on the Cross and does not actually sacrifice Jesus again. I pointed out that the priest's phrasing, “offered up again” clearly suggests that this is not a return to one single event, but is in fact a new sacrifice every time someone attends the mass.
Still, these RC’s insist that, even if the priest is saying that, it isn’t so. Does anyone know how to respond to Catholics who say that the mass is not a new propitiatory sacrifice?
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