When the Church calls the Mass the "Holy Sacrifice", she is not saying that Christ dies again, nor that anything is added to his death. She is saying something more striking: the one sacrifice offered on Calvary is made really present on the altar, so that its fruits may be applied to men and women of every age. The Mass is not a second sacrifice beside the Cross; it is the same sacrifice, offered in another manner.
This sacrificial dimension does not oppose the meal or communion: it grounds them. The Eucharist is at once the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated, and the sacred banquet in which Christ gives himself as food[1]. To understand why Catholics speak of the presence of Christ's body and blood, see the Real Presence in the Eucharist; the present article answers another, long-disputed question: why is the Mass a sacrifice, and not merely a remembrance?
The answer runs through the whole Tradition. It is written in Jesus' own words — a body "given", blood "poured out" —, attested from the Didache and the Fathers, solemnly defined by the Council of Trent (1562) against the Reformers, and taken up without rupture by the Catechism and the contemporary Magisterium. The heart of the doctrine is contained in a formula from Trent that the Catechism quotes word for word: "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"[2].
What sacrifice means, and why the Eucharist is one
Sacrifice: offering, immolation, communion
Before any technical distinction, here is the simple picture. In almost every religion, to sacrifice is to offer something to God — often a victim — in order to acknowledge that he is Lord of life, to give him thanks, to repair a fault and to obtain his favor. Sacrifice is not first of all destruction: it is a gift, of which immolation is the outward sign. It normally ends in communion: the offered victim is shared, and the worshipper is united to God by eating what has been consecrated to him.
The Old Testament is full of such offerings: the Passover lamb, the sacrifices of the Temple, the blood of the Covenant sprinkled by Moses. But the Letter to the Hebrews says it bluntly: those sacrifices could not, by themselves, "take away sins"[3]. They announced and prepared the one sacrifice capable of saving: the sacrifice of Christ.
The misunderstanding to remove at once
Saying that the Mass is a sacrifice often provokes an immediate objection: "So you claim to make Jesus die again at every Mass?" Catholic doctrine says exactly the opposite. Christ dies once, and that death is absolutely sufficient. What the Mass makes present is not a new killing, but Christ's act of self-offering, his sacrifice, which remains eternally actual before the Father.
This is how the Catechism summarizes it: the Eucharist "is a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit"[4]. Three verbs should be remembered: to make present, to memorialize, to apply the fruit. The whole article unfolds those three verbs.
What Jesus' words at the Supper say
The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is not a late deduction: it is manifested by the very words of institution[5]. At the Last Supper, Jesus does not merely say "this is my body"; he specifies why and for whom.
"My body given", "my blood poured out": the vocabulary of immolation
"This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. [...] This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." — Gospel according to Saint Luke 22:19-20[6]
"For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew 26:28[7]
These expressions are sacrificial, not merely descriptive. A body "given", blood "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins": this is the language of immolation and expiation. By ritually separating the bread (his body) and the cup (his blood), Jesus signifies his death in advance — blood separated from body — and offers it as the sacrifice of the new Covenant.
"The blood of the Covenant": the echo of Sinai
The formula "the blood of the Covenant" directly recalls Moses sealing the Covenant at Sinai: "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you"[8]. There, the blood of the victims was sprinkled on the people and on the altar. In the Upper Room, Jesus announces the new and definitive Covenant, sealed no longer in the blood of animals, but in his own. The Supper is therefore not an ordinary meal: it is the institution of a sacrificial rite of Covenant.
"Do this in memory of me": the memorial that makes present
The decisive word remains memorial. For a modern reader, "to remember" means to call an absent past event to mind. But in the Bible, the memorial (Hebrew zikkaron, Greek anamnesis) is much more.
"In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1363[9]
As the Jewish Passover made present the liberation from Egypt for each generation, the Christian memorial makes present the one Passover of Christ. The Second Vatican Council puts it this way: "As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out"[10]. When the priest repeats "Do this in memory of me", he is not organizing a nostalgic commemoration: he is obeying Christ's command to actualize his sacrifice.
The Eucharistic sacrifice in the rest of the New Testament
The institution narrative is not isolated. Saint Paul, the prophets and the Letter to the Hebrews converge toward the same sacrificial reading.
Saint Paul: altar, table and cup
Writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul contrasts the Eucharistic table with pagan sacrificial banquets — and places them on the same logical plane, that of sacrifice:
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? [...] You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." — First Letter to the Corinthians 10:16-21[11]
Paul's argument would make no sense if the Eucharist were only a symbol: he compares the "table of the Lord" with the altars of Israel and the altars of the pagans, that is, with sacrificial realities. The Council of Trent will rely precisely on this passage, noting that the word "table" here designates the altar[12].
"You proclaim the Lord's death"
A few lines later, Paul gives the Eucharist its explicit sacrificial scope: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes"[13]. The rite does not evoke a teaching of Christ: it proclaims his death, that is, his sacrifice, and inscribes it in the time of the Church "until he comes".
The priest "according to the order of Melchizedek", who offered bread and wine
Why bread and wine, and not a lamb? The answer lies in a figure from Genesis taken up by the Psalms and by Hebrews. Melchizedek, "king of Salem" and "priest of God Most High", brought out bread and wine (Gen 14:18). Psalm 110 announces a Messiah "a priest forever according to the order of king Melchizedek" (Ps 110:4), and the Letter to the Hebrews applies this priesthood to Christ[14]. Trent sees the key there: declaring himself "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek", Christ "offered to God the Father his body and blood under the species of bread and wine", then commanded the apostles and their successors "to offer them"[15].
Malachi's prophecy: "in every place a pure offering"
Five centuries before Christ, the prophet Malachi announced the end of the sacrifices of the single Temple of Jerusalem and the coming of a universal sacrifice:
"From the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts." — Book of Malachi 1:11[16]
A "pure" sacrifice, offered "in every place", among all nations: neither the Levitical priesthood nor any ancient liturgy tied to a single place could fulfill it. The first Christians recognized in it, with one voice, the Eucharist.
How the first Christians understood the Mass
If the idea of the Eucharistic sacrifice were a medieval invention, it would not appear in the earliest texts. Yet it is there, from the end of the first century, with remarkable constancy — and always linked to Malachi's prophecy.
The Didache: "that your sacrifice may be pure" (late 1st century, c. 90-120)
The oldest Christian liturgical manual, the Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), already speaks of the Sunday Eucharist as a sacrifice:
"On the Lord's Day gather together, break bread and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. [...] For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations." — Didache, 14:1-3 (late 1st century, c. 90-120)[17]
The Greek term used is thusia — sacrifice — and the final citation is precisely Malachi 1:11. From the generation of the Apostolic Fathers, then, the Eucharist is named sacrifice and linked to the prophecy.
Justin Martyr: the fulfillment of the prophecy (c. 155-160)
Around 155-160, in his Dialogue with Trypho, the philosopher and martyr Justin takes up the argument and addresses it to a Jewish interlocutor:
"God speaks of those nations — that is, of us — who in every place offer sacrifices to him, namely the bread of the Eucharist and also the cup of the Eucharist." — Saint Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 41 (c. 155-160)[18]
Irenaeus of Lyons: "the new oblation of the new covenant" (c. 180)
Around 180, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons gives this doctrine its classic formula. Christ, taking bread and wine, "taught the new oblation of the new covenant, which the Church, receiving from the apostles, offers to God throughout the whole world"[19]. In it he too recognizes the pure oblation of Malachi:
"The oblation of the Church, which the Lord taught to be offered throughout the whole world, is counted by God as a pure sacrifice and is acceptable to him." — Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, IV, 18, 1 (c. 180)[20]
Cyprian of Carthage: the priest acts "in the place of Christ" (c. 253)
In the middle of the third century, Saint Cyprian already sets out what Trent would define thirteen centuries later: at the altar, the priest does not perform a new work; he reenacts Christ's act and offers his sacrifice.
"The priest truly performs the office of Christ when he imitates what Christ did; and he then offers in the Church to God the Father a true and full sacrifice. [...] For the passion of the Lord is the sacrifice which we offer." — Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 63, 14 and 17 (c. 253)[21]
The Latin expression — sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur — anticipates word for word the notion theology will call acting in persona Christi: the priest acts "in the place of Christ".
Cyril of Jerusalem: a sacrifice also offered for the dead (c. 350)
Around 350, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, explaining the liturgy to the newly baptized, witnesses to an already well-established practice: the Church offers "the holy and tremendous victim" while interceding for the living and for the dead[22]. The propitiatory dimension of the sacrifice — for the remission of sins, including those of the departed — therefore belongs to the faith of the ancient Church, long before the controversies of the sixteenth century.
Why the Council of Trent had to define it
For fifteen centuries, the sacrificial character of the Mass was a shared evidence. The rupture came with the Protestant Reformation.
The Reformers' rejection
For Martin Luther, making the Mass a sacrifice offered by a priest meant turning a gift of God into a work of man — something he judged incompatible with salvation by faith alone. As early as 1520, he denounced:
"The third captivity of this sacrament is the most wicked abuse of all: there is at present no opinion more generally received or more firmly believed in the Church than this — that the Mass is a good work and a sacrifice." — Martin Luther, De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae, 1520[23]
In 1537, the Smalcald Articles hardened the point still further: the Catholic Mass is called there "the greatest and most horrible abomination"[24]. As for John Calvin, he held the idea of a renewed sacrifice to be an insult to the one sacrifice of Christ: in his eyes, erecting an altar to renew the sacrifice overturns what the cross accomplished once for all[25]. The Reformers' logic rested on one precise text — the Letter to the Hebrews — which we will examine below.
A "true and proper sacrifice" (Session XXII, 1562)
In the face of this rejection, the Council of Trent devoted its Session XXII, on 17 September 1562, to the Doctrine on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The council did not invent anything: it fixed what "the Catholic Church has always understood and taught"[26]. The first canon is unambiguous:
"If anyone says that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God, or that being offered means nothing other than that Christ is given to us to eat: let him be anathema." — Council of Trent, Session XXII, canon 1 (DS 1751)[27]
"One and the same victim": identity with the Cross
Chapter 2 of the decree gives the doctrinal key, the one the Catechism will take up:
"Since, in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who once offered himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, the holy council teaches that this sacrifice is truly propitiatory. [...] For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests who then offered himself on the cross, only the manner of offering being different." — Council of Trent, Session XXII, chapter 2 (DS 1743)[28]
Everything is said: same victim (Christ), same priest (Christ, through the ministry of his priests), one sacrifice. Only the manner of offering differs: bloody on Calvary, unbloody and sacramental at the altar.
A propitiatory sacrifice, for the living and the dead
The same chapter specifies the effects of this sacrifice: it is "propitiatory", that is, it obtains pardon and grace. Its fruits — those of the bloody sacrifice of the Cross — are "received most abundantly through this unbloody oblation", and it is legitimately offered "not only for the sins, punishments, satisfactions and other needs of the living faithful, but also for those who have died in Christ and are not yet fully purified"[29]. The Mass offered for the dead, attested already by Cyril of Jerusalem, is here solemnly confirmed.
The nine canons of Session XXII
The council translated its doctrine into nine canons, each rejecting a precise error. The table below gives a synthetic reading.
| Canon | Error condemned | Catholic affirmation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (DS 1751) | The Mass is not a true sacrifice, only a meal offered | The Mass is a true and proper sacrifice |
| 2 (DS 1752) | "Do this" does not institute priests charged with offering | Christ instituted the apostles as priests to offer his body and blood |
| 3 (DS 1753) | The Mass is only praise or a mere commemoration | The Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, offered for the living and the dead |
| 4 (DS 1754) | The Mass blasphemes or diminishes the sacrifice of the Cross | The Mass does no injury to the one sacrifice of the Cross |
| 5 (DS 1755) | Celebrating in honor of the saints is an imposture | We give thanks to God for the saints and implore their intercession |
| 6 (DS 1756) | The canon of the Mass contains errors to be abolished | The Roman canon is free from all error |
| 7 (DS 1757) | Ceremonies and vestments are impious mockeries | They are signs of piety that honor so great a sacrifice |
| 8 (DS 1758) | Masses in which only the priest communicates are illicit | Such Masses are public and legitimate |
| 9 (DS 1759) | Everything must be in the vernacular, aloud, without water in the chalice | The Church preserves her ancient rites and the water mixed with wine |
The first four canons bear on the heart of the doctrine; the following five defend liturgical points attacked by the Reformers.
Christ died once for all — the objection from Hebrews
This is the major objection, and it must be taken in its strongest form. The Letter to the Hebrews insists more than any other text on the oneness and definitive sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice:
"But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. [...] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." — Letter to the Hebrews 10:12-14[30]
The high priest Jesus, the epistle adds, "has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily [...] since he did this once for all when he offered up himself"[31]. The Protestant objection draws an apparently irresistible consequence: if Christ offered himself once for all, then claiming to offer a sacrifice at every Mass either repeats it — and so denies its sufficiency — or multiplies it — and so insults it.
The answer: re-presenting, not repeating
The Catholic answer does not evade Hebrews: it embraces it. Yes, Christ's sacrifice is unique and definitive. No, the Mass does not repeat it. The Mass does not make a new sacrifice: it makes present the one sacrifice, already accomplished, so as to apply its fruit here and now. John Paul II stated it with definitive clarity:
"The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. [...] "The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice."" — Saint John Paul II, encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, § 12 (2003)[32]
The decisive distinction is between the historical act (the bloody death of Good Friday, which is never reproduced) and its sacramental actualization (the offering made present under the signs of bread and wine). Just as the living Christ eternally intercedes for us in heaven, "always living to make intercession for them"[33], so his sacrifice remains eternally actual; the Mass gives us access to it.
Saint Thomas Aquinas: "an image representing the Passion"
Three centuries before Trent, Saint Thomas Aquinas had already answered this objection — which he explicitly cites from Hebrews 10:14. For him, saying that "Christ is immolated" at Mass is justified in two ways.
"Images are wont to be called by the names of the things of which they are images. [...] Now the celebration of this sacrament is a certain image representing Christ's Passion, which is his true immolation; and therefore the celebration of this sacrament is called Christ's immolation. [...] The other reason regards the effect of Christ's Passion: by this sacrament we are made partakers of the fruit of the Lord's Passion." — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 83, a. 1 (c. 1273)[34]
Thomas then cites Saint Ambrose: "There is one victim, and not many, because Christ was offered once, and this sacrifice is the pattern of that one"[35]. And Saint Augustine: "Christ was immolated once in himself, and yet he is immolated daily in the sacrament." The unity of the sacrifice is preserved: this is not repetition, but the renewed presence of the same and unique act.
Why this is not "blasphemy" against the Cross
Calvin's objection — that the Mass overthrows the cross — is precisely what Trent's canon 4 rejects: "If anyone says that by the sacrifice of the Mass a blasphemy is cast upon the most holy sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross, or that it is thereby derogated from: let him be anathema"[36]. Far from diminishing the Cross, the Mass proclaims it, makes it present and distributes its fruits. A mother who shows her children every day the testament of their deceased father adds nothing to that testament and does not contradict it: she makes it present and applies its provisions. The same chapter of the decree specifies: "The fruits of that bloody oblation are received most abundantly through this unbloody one; so far is the latter from derogating in any way from the former"[37].
What the sacrifice of the Mass is for: the four ends
Every true sacrifice pursues four ends. Classical theology, synthesized by Pius XII in the encyclical Mediator Dei (1947), finds all of them in the Mass[38].
| End | Traditional name | What the Church offers |
|---|---|---|
| Adoration | latreutic | Recognizing God's absolute sovereignty and rendering him the worship due to him alone |
| Thanksgiving | eucharistic | Thanking God for creation, redemption and sanctification |
| Propitiation | propitiatory | Obtaining forgiveness of sins and reparation, for the living and the dead |
| Petition | impetratory | Imploring the graces needed by the Church and the world |
These four ends are not external to Christ's sacrifice: they are his own. He is the one who perfectly adores the Father, gives him thanks, expiates our sins and intercedes for us. At Mass, the Church merely unites herself to this already perfect offering. Pius XII recalls this by taking up Trent's formula: "It is one and the same victim; the same person offers now by the ministry of his priests who then offered himself on the cross, only the manner of offering being different"[39].
The sacrifice of the whole Church
The Eucharistic sacrifice is not only the sacrifice of Christ and of the priest: it is also the sacrifice of the whole Church, which offers herself with her Head.
"In what she offers, she is herself offered"
"The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. [...] With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. [...] The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1368[40]
Saint Augustine had summarized this in a luminous formula, cited by the Catechism: in the sacrifice of the altar, "the Church is shown that in what she offers she herself is offered"[41]. At every Mass, the Christian is invited to place his own life — joys, sorrows, work — on the altar, so that it may be taken up into Christ's offering.
Ministerial priesthood and baptismal priesthood
How can the one sacrifice of Christ be offered by priests without diminishing the uniqueness of his priesthood? By participation:
"The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all. And yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The same is true of the one priesthood of Christ: it is made present through the ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1545[42]
The ordained priest acts in persona Christi — exactly the vice Christi of Saint Cyprian. But the faithful, through their baptismal priesthood, "offer the divine victim to God, and offer themselves along with it"[43]. And this offering unites the Church of heaven and the Church on earth: "It is in communion with the most holy Virgin Mary [...], as well as with all the saints, that the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice"[44] — and for the departed who are still being purified.
Source and summit of the Christian life
This is why the Second Vatican Council calls the Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian life"[45]. Summit, because nothing on earth is greater than the sacrifice of Christ made present; source, because the whole life of grace flows from it. The dying Saint Monica asked only one thing of her son Augustine: "All I ask of you is that you remember me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be"[46]. She knew that there, on the altar, the sacrifice that saves the world becomes present — and that no prayer carries greater weight.
Further reading
- The Real Presence in the Eucharist — how bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Christ
- What a sacrament is
- What transubstantiation is
- Why Jesus had to die
- What redemption is
- Why Sunday Mass is obligatory
- Why God asked for animal sacrifices
- Corpus Christi
- Answers to Protestantism
Notes and References
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), § 1382. The Mass is "at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord's body and blood."
1CCC, § 1367, citing the Council of Trent, Session XXII, Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, ch. 2 (Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1743).
2Letter to the Hebrews 10:10-14 (AELF).
3 30CCC, § 1366. The passage cites the Council of Trent, Session XXII, ch. 1 (DS 1740).
4CCC, § 1365: "The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution."
5Gospel according to Saint Luke 22:19-20 (official liturgical translation, AELF).
6Gospel according to Saint Matthew 26:28 (Bible de la liturgie, AELF).
7Book of Exodus 24:8 (AELF): "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you, on the basis of all these words."
8CCC, § 1363, on the biblical meaning of memorial (cf. Ex 13:3).
9CCC, § 1364, citing the Second Vatican Council, dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, § 3.
10First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 10:16-21 (AELF).
11Council of Trent, Session XXII, Doctrine on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, ch. 1 (Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1738-1742), 17 September 1562. The council shows that Christ, "a priest according to the order of Melchizedek", offered his body and blood under the species of bread and wine, and applies Malachi 1:11 and 1 Cor 10:21 to the Eucharist.
12 15 26First Letter to the Corinthians 11:23-26 (AELF), especially v. 26: "you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes."
13Psalm 110 (109):4; Genesis 14:18; Letter to the Hebrews 5:6; 7:11-17 (AELF).
14Book of Malachi 1:11 (AELF).
16Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), 14:1-3, late 1st century (c. 90-120, range used by critical editions). Full text and translation on newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm. The Greek term is thusia (sacrifice); the final citation is Malachi 1:11.14. Reference critical edition: La Didachè, Sources Chrétiennes n° 248.
17Saint Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 41 (and ch. 117), c. 155-160 (newadvent.org/fathers/01283.htm). Justin interprets the Eucharist as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 1:11.
18Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses), IV, 17, 5 (c. 180). Reference edition: Sources Chrétiennes n° 100. Latin: "novam oblationem novi testamenti"; English text verified on newadvent.org/fathers/0103417.htm: "taught the new oblation of the new covenant; which the Church receiving from the apostles, offers to God throughout all the world".
19Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses), IV, 18, 1 (c. 180). Reference edition: Sources Chrétiennes n° 100. Latin: "Ecclesiae oblatio [...] purum sacrificium reputatur apud Deum"; English text verified on newadvent.org/fathers/0103418.htm: "The oblation of the Church, which the Lord gave instructions to be offered throughout all the world, is accounted with God a pure sacrifice".
20Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Letter 63 (Ad Caecilium, de sacramento dominici calicis), 14 and 17, c. 253 (= Epistle 62 in the numbering of the Ante-Nicene Fathers). Latin: "sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur, qui id quod Christus fecit imitatur, et sacrificium verum et plenum tunc offert in Ecclesia Deo Patri"; "Passio est enim Domini sacrificium quod offerimus."
21Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses, V, 9-10, c. 350 (PG 33, 1116B-1117A), cited by the CCC, § 1371.
22Martin Luther, De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium, 1520. Critical edition: Weimarer Ausgabe (WA), vol. 6, p. 512, l. 7-9. Latin verified word for word: "Tertia captivitas eiusdem sacramenti est longe impiissimus ille abusus, quo factum est, ut fere nihil sit hodie in Ecclesia receptius ac magis persuasum, quam Missam esse opus bonum et sacrificium." Luther argues that the Mass is a testamentum received by faith, not a work or sacrifice offered by man.
23Smalcald Articles, Part II, art. II, § 1, 1537 (Martin Luther). German original verified word for word (Book of Concord, text as reproduced in the Concordia Triglotta): "Daß die Messe im Papsttum muss der grösste und schrecklichste Greül sein..."; verified Triglotta English translation: "That the Mass in the Papacy must be the greatest and most horrible abomination..." The English rendering in the body ("the greatest and most horrible abomination") faithfully follows the German (grösste... schrecklichste Greül).
24John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, book IV, ch. 18, § 3 (Latin edition 1559; French edition 1560, translated and revised by Calvin himself). The body paraphrases his thesis without quotation marks: the exact French text of 1560 could not be verified word for word in session, so no French quotation is attributed to Calvin. Meaning verified against the standard English translation (Beveridge, from the 1559 Latin, text checked on ccel.org): "the cross of Christ is overthrown the moment an altar is erected".
25Council of Trent, Session XXII, canons on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, canon 1 (DS 1751) and canon 4 (DS 1754), 17 September 1562.
27 36Council of Trent, Session XXII, ch. 2, The visible sacrifice, expiation for the living and the dead (DS 1743), 17 September 1562.
28 29 37Letter to the Hebrews 7:24-27 (AELF).
31 33Saint John Paul II, encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, § 12, 17 April 2003 (vatican.va).
32Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa pars, q. 83, a. 1, c. 1273. Thomas cites Saint Augustine (images designated by the name of what they represent; "Christ was immolated once in himself, and yet he is immolated daily in the sacrament") and Saint Ambrose ("one victim").
34 35Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei, §§ 71-74, 20 November 1947 (vatican.va), on the four ends of sacrifice: latreutic (adoration), eucharistic (thanksgiving), propitiatory (expiation) and impetratory (petition).
38Pius XII, encyclical Mediator Dei, § 68, 20 November 1947 (vatican.va), taking up Trent's formula on the identity of the victim and the offerer.
39CCC, § 1368, on the Eucharist as the sacrifice of the Church united to the offering of her Head.
40Saint Augustine, The City of God, book X, ch. 6, c. 413-426, cited by the CCC, § 1372.
41CCC, § 1545, on the one priesthood of Christ made present through the ministerial priesthood (citing Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Hebr. 7, 4).
42Second Vatican Council, dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, § 11, 21 November 1964 (vatican.va): the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life" (Latin: fons et culmen); the faithful "offer the divine victim to God, and offer themselves along with it." Cf. also Presbyterorum Ordinis, § 2, cited in CCC § 1369.
43 45CCC, § 1371, on the sacrifice offered for the dead and in communion with the Virgin Mary and all the saints; cites Saint Cyril of Jerusalem and Saint Monica's words (Saint Augustine, Confessions, IX, 11, 27).
44 46