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The Eucharist as Sacrifice. 
Mary Clare Piecynski

The sacrificial nature of the Eucharist is a point often neglected in contemporary Catholic circles, especially by the laity who often view the Eucharist as either a symbolic means to create unity with the Almighty or a meal by which one comes into fuller communication with ones fellow man.  The Eucharist, however, is first and foremost a sacrifice, the re-presentation, so to speak, of the one and only Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Golgotha for the salvation of the human race.  The concept of sacrifice can be traced back to the earliest times and from the first pages of Genesis to this post-modern age and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass said throughout the world of today.  One can much better understand salvation history, the early Church and the Church of today if one comes to a deeper, more profound view of the Eucharist as a sacrifice and not merely a symbol or a meal. 
The necessity of sacrifice hearkens back to the first chapters of Genesis and the fall of man.  Through the sin of man’s first parents humanity became grossly indebted to Almighty God and one primary way of attempting to restore a right relationship with God was through offerings of sacrifice.  The first instance of sacrifice in the Bible was with the two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able.  Their offering involved both fleshy and grain sacrifices to God to atone for their sins.   A crucial aspect to sacrifice though is also seen in this story because God only accepts the sacrifice of Able, Cain did not apparently offer God a contrite heart as did Able.  Another important instance of sacrifice in the Old Testament was the sacrificial lamb of the Passover, prepared the night before the Hebrews left bondage to begin their journey to the Promised Land.  A spotless lamb was roasted and eaten by the Hebrew families while the angel of death slew the firstborn of all the land, excluding those Hebrews who had marked their doors with the blood of the animal.   The Lord said to the people ‘I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I strike.’” Exodus 12:13
This sacrifice foreshadows the New Testament and the Lamb of God who gave His Body and Blood in the Eucharist upon the night of another Passover to free man from the bondage of sin.  Sacrifice then was present in the pages of the Old Testament, to atone for sins such as the instance of Cain and Able and also to save from bodily death as seen in the Passover.
             The concept of sacrifice stems from the fact that man fell from sanctifying grace and stood in a humbled and sinful state before the perfect God.  By man offering things such as animals and grains, he acknowledges his sinfulness while showing his desire to better his relationship with God.  Though it was one man who fell, human nature was wounded and so sacrifices were required as reparation for the sin of the first parents as well as for personal offenses.  A sacrifice, in general is “the offering of a victim by a priest to God alone, in testimony of His being the Sovereign Lord of all things” and so through sacrificial worship one brought, in humility to God, an offering in hopes of attaining divine favor, forgiveness of sin and justification.  Further, sacrifice “denotes some kind of ritual action performed in the community and directed towards God in the form of intercession, thanksgiving, praise and whatever else may be called worship.   True sacrifice then requires of necessity a contrite heart and an offering to the Lord to atone for wrongdoings.  Sacrifice is the offering of temporal creation to God with a contrite heart in order to achieve atonement and forgiveness of wrongdoings and special favors or blessings from God.  
The sacrifices of the Old Testament and the Old Law were, however, unable to expiate sins and so a perfect sacrifice was needed to again allow man to enjoy a right relationship with Yahweh.  One reason that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were inadequate was the simple fact that it was not the animals that had so gravely offended the Almighty, but it was man who through free will had deviated from the path of holiness.  Further, simply of their very nature the offering of oxen and sheep, some of the Old Testament sacrificial animals, do not yield forgiveness of sins.  The sacrifices of the Old Testament, moreover, failed to elevate man’s status as a fallen creature and more and more sacrifices were required as man and his sins multiplied and covered the face of the earth.   The offerings of the old law were altogether insufficient and so the Israelites looked forward to God somehow rectifying their wretched situation.  The solution came in the Person of Jesus Christ who offered one Sacrifice for all upon Calvary and allows men to directly benefit from His saving work through reception of the Eucharist.  By the Eucharist the sacrifices of the Old Law are fulfilled and perfected while being replaced with something new, perfect and everlasting.  For instance, the offering of Cain and Able is completed in Jesus’ offering, though their sacrifice created strive between brothers, the Eucharist makes all men brothers, members of one Body while offering the fruits of the earth to God in perfect Sacrifice.  Furthermore, the Passover of the Old Testament is fulfilled and surpassed by the offering of the perfect Lamb of God in the holy and unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass.  Just as the Hebrews were delivered from the angel of death that slew all the first-born of the land so at the Last Supper, which took place during the annual Passover celebration of the Jews, Christ instituted the new offering that saves humanity from the death grip of sin.  The curse of death passes over the man who has been bathed in the Blood of the Lamb that he receives in the Eucharist.  Man now is redeemed “with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.”   The Catechism affirms that “Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.  Jesus’ passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the New Passover...fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom.”   This new Passover of redemption was an endless source of inspiration for the early Church Fathers such as Melito of Sardis.  In a homily regarding the connection between the Passover and the Last Supper, Melito wrote
“the mystery of the Passover is new and old, eternal and involved in time, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal.  It is old according to the Law, but new according to the Word.  By being figure it is involved in time, but by being grace it is eternal.  As the slaughter of a sheep it is corruptible; as the life of the Lord it is incorruptible...As lamb he is slaughtered, but as God he is risen.”  

Melito of Sardis goes on in the same homily to assert that “For in place of the lamb, God appeared, and in place of the sheep a human being, and within the human being, the Christ...the figure became reality, and the lamb became the Son and the human being became God.”   The Lamb of God became the final Sacrifice and reconciliation of man with God who, in the Person of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, offered in perfect obedience to His Father His very lifeblood and thus gave to the human race a means for forgiveness and redemption.  Saint Paul writes in Hebrews of the necessity of blood for the remission of sins.  He asserts “almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood: and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”   Vatican II highlights the importance and primacy of the Eucharist in the life of Christ and in the pages of the Old Testament when the authors write, “the Eucharist shows itself to be the source and the apex of the whole work of preaching the gospel.”   Thus, the Gospel would be incomplete without the Eucharist since, according to the Second Vatican Council, it is the culmination of Christ’s preaching throughout the New Testament.  Furthermore, Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, elucidates in his work God is Near Us the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist and its connection to the worship of the Old Testament.
“‘This is My Body, this is My Blood’: these are expressions taken from the Israelite language of sacrifice, which designates the gifts offered in sacrifice to God in the Temple.  If Jesus makes use of these words, then he is designating himself as the true and ultimate Sacrifice, in whom all these unsuccessful strivings of the Old Testament are fulfilled.
 
Ratzinger is essentially teaching that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice and thus nothing further is required beyond the once and for all Sacrifice of Christ’s Passion and Death. Because the Eucharist is such a great gift there are many potential misuses and even abuses that can occur when the sacrificial element is taken away or forgotten in the Eucharistic celebration. One might for instance, inquire how the Eucharist can exactly be a Sacrifice, since it could perhaps seem that it was instituted to be merely a remembrance, a memorial, or even a simple meal commemorating Christ’s Last Supper and subsequent Death upon the Cross.  For since the Eucharist was instituted during a meal, not a bloody sacrifice it might seem as if Christ merely wished Himself to be remembered during a fraternal gathering.  To the contrary, John Paul II in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia referred to the Eucharistic abuse of reducing the Eucharist to a simple fraternal meal.  He writes that when the Eucharist is “stripped of its sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet.”   Celebrating the Eucharist as merely a meal creates an attitude of apathy towards the Eucharist and tends towards a view that forgets the sacrificial character and soon altogether ignores the fact that Calvary is in a way present upon the altar of the Mass.  Even the pages of the New Testament remind us of this when St. Paul writes “for as often as you shall eat this Bread and drink the Chalice, you shall show the Death of the Lord, until He comes.”   When this happens, faith erodes, Mass attendance decreases and the wonder and awe of the sacrament fades into the background to be gradually replaced by indifference and even unbelief in the Sacrament of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  In response to this assertion, the Catholic Church unyieldingly defends the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist and even deems it primary to the aspect of the Eucharist as Sacrifice.  The recent Catechism of the Catholic Church for instance is firm in defending the Eucharist as sacrifice and explains the connection by asserting that “The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because It represents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because It is Its memorial and because It applies Its fruit.”   Therefore, according to the Catechism, one cannot as a Catholic set forth the position that the Eucharist is simply a meal in memory of a past event since It, as the Catechism defines, makes present the Sacrifice of Calvary.  Further, the mention by Christ of Him giving His Body and Blood denotes sacrifice since in the Old Testament animal sacrifices of necessity involve offerings of blood.  The Catechism brings this also out and states the Eucharist of necessity involves the element of sacrifice because of Christ’s very words of institution “This is the cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in My Blood.”   St. Paul also seems to assert that the Eucharist is much more than a meal in his words, “is not the Cup of Blessing we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?  And is not the Bread we break a sharing in the Body of Christ?”   Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, affirms in line with orthodox Catholic teaching that “The Eucharist is a Sacrifice, the presentation of Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross.”   Ratzinger goes on to emphasize later in his same work that “the Sacrificial element that has ever and always been characteristic of the Eucharist.”   Vatican II, though heralded by some as a means by which to dispense with ancient Catholic dogma, is clear in teaching of the connection between Eucharist and sacrifice and in its dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium writes “the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life.”   It is then clear that one cannot have any sort of Eucharistic celebration apart from the Sacrificial aspect and to do so not only negates the entire meaning of the Eucharist but renders it fruitless and stops the Eucharist from being a source of grace and redemption.
The sacrifice of Christ upon the cross though it of necessity involves death it’s primary importance is to impart life.  Eternal life is given through the Sacrifice of Calvary which is applied to mankind through the Sacrifice of the Mass and specifically the Holy Eucharist.  The Israelites saw the life as in the blood so it logically follows that Christ would use similar language to illustrate the need for reception of the Eucharist.  Christ emphasized the life-giving nature of His Body and Blood poured out for all upon the hill of Golgotha in John 6 when he assured the people that “except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.  He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting life and I will raise him up in the last day.”   St. Augustine writes that “All who wish to have life are exhorted to drink the Blood of the Sacrifice.”   Pope St. Gregory the Great stresses the importance of reception of Communion to avoid spiritual death when he writes, “this Sacrifice alone has the power of saving souls from eternal death...where His body is eaten, there is His flesh distributed among the people for their salvation.”   The Blood of the Cross therefore has a life-giving characteristic that is necessary if one wishes to inherit eternal life. 
One of the primary reasons that the Eucharist has a sacrificial nature is because of its intimate relationship with the Cross and Calvary, making it the one and the same Sacrifice of Christ.  John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia explains the Sacrificial nature of the Eucharist when the former pontiff writes, “by virtue of its close relationship to the Sacrifice of Golgotha, the Eucharist is a Sacrifice in the strict sense.”   In addition, clarification about the relationship between the Cross and the Eucharist is elucidated in Drs. Dauphinais and Levering’s book Knowing the Love of Christ where they draw the reading into the true meaning of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. 
“The Eucharist is thus a ‘Sacrifice,’...not merely because it re-presents Christ’s sacrifice, but also because it brings about our fullest sharing in the power of Christ’s sacrifice.  It is both a sacrifice and a meal, a sacrificial meal in which those who eat enter into the sacrifice...it enables us to share in Christ’s perfect sacrifice.” 

St. Paul himself speaks of the connection between the bread broken in the Mass and the sacrifice upon Golgatha when he writes to the Hebrews.  Paul affirms his discourse that “In Christ was offered up a sacrifice capable of giving eternal salvation; what then do we do?  Do we not offer it up every day in memory of His Death?”   Further, according to the late John Paul II “The Eucharist is indelibly marked by the event of the Lord’s Passion and Death, of which it is not only a reminder but the sacramental re-presentation.  It is the Sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the ages.”   The late pope continues along the same vein further in the same encyclical when he asserts “the sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of Calvary.”   Moreover, Dauphinais and Levering bring out this theme of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Calvary when they write “Each celebration of the Eucharist enables us to enter into the eternal offering of the Son to the Father...By sharing in His Sacrifice...we share in the forgiveness of sins and outpouring of the Holy Spirit that His sacrificial love brought about for humankind.”   John Paul II’s writings express the same theme in his encyclical on the Eucharist when he affirms “Jesus did not simply state that what He was giving them to eat and drink was His Body and His Blood; He also expressed its Sacrificial meaning and made sacramentally present His Sacrifice which would soon be offered on the Cross for the salvation of all.”   The Eucharistic of necessity has some semblance of a meal, but, as John Paul II’s encyclical letter stresses, that “the ‘banquet’ always remains a sacrificial banquet marked by the Blood shed on Golgotha.” St. Thomas Aquinas also stresses the importance of the Eucharistic sacrifice when he writes in his Summa Theologica that “the celebration of this sacramental Body and Blood is an image representing Christ’s Passion, which is His true Sacrifice.  Accordingly the celebration of this sacrament is called Christ’s Sacrifice.”   Vatican II echoes Aquinas’s remarks when it sets forth the statement in its Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests that “by the celebration of the Mass, men offer sacramentally the Sacrifice of Christ.”   In sum, though the Eucharist was instituted during a meal, the entire context of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist was surrounded by the reality of sacrifice, without with the Eucharist is incomplete. 
Some claim that Catholics put an undue emphasis upon the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist and others go so far as to say that Catholics believe they are resacrificing Christ when they celebrate this great sacrament.  On the contrary, the Eucharist is not a re-Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross but it is the same Sacrifice re-presented, or made present by the priest at the altar during the Consecration.  The Eucharist as a sacrifice is also not a mere memory but a remembrance in the sense of making something active that took place in a specific time and date in history.  The priest and the congregation enter into a sort of timeless worship through the Mass that transcends the barriers of time and space and brings the faithful into a timeless embrace with eternity and into the very scene of Calvary where the God-man became the perfect Victim sacrificed for an imperfect humanity.  The Catechism teaches that “the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single Sacrifice.”   The Catechism also explains that the Eucharist can be a sacrifice
“because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice.  The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of instituion: ‘This is My Body which is given for you’ and ‘This is the cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in My Blood.”  CCC 1365

The offering of Christ upon Calvary has an intrinsic relation to the Eucharist the Catechism goes on to say since it is “the heart and the summit of the Church’s life, for in it Christ associates His Church...with His sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross to His Father.   The Eucharist further has a timeless character since it is at the focal point of the Pascal mystery and it is that“at the center of this worship is the priestly action of Christ in His Passion and His Resurrection.  It is this priestly action which, abstracted from time and place, constitutes the heart of the heavenly liturgy and which is rendered present sacramentally by the Eucharist.”   Furthermore, the Eucharistic link to Christ’s passion is expressed eloquently by Danielou when he writes “what is rendered present on the altar is not only the Body and Blood of Christ, it is His sacrifice itself, that is to say, the mystery of His Passion, His Resurrection and His Ascension.”   It is only because of the Eucharist being the same Sacrifice as Calvary that the benefits can be applied today to the believer.  Moreover, the Sacrifice of the Eucharist cannot be thought of apart from Christ and His salvific action because the “sacrifice offered is not a new Sacrifice, but the one Sacrifice of Christ rendered present.”   The Cross becomes close to man and the fruits of Christ’s saving work become applied to the Christian through the Eucharist on account of the Eucharist re-presenting the Sacrifice of Calvary.  The Catechism clearly states that “In the Eucharist the Sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of His Body...Christ’s Sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with His offering.”   The Eucharist then is the one and the same action as Calvary when by the power of the Almighty space and time disintegrate and man becomes a participant in the great work of redemption upon Golgotha. 
The Eucharist also has the important quality of bringing about the forgiveness of sins, not only forgiving general sins but also absolving the recipient.  The Catechism states “the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this Living Charity wipes away venial sins.” “as sacrifice, the Eucharist is also offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God.”    Further, St. John writes that “the Blood of Jesus Christ...cleanseth us from all sin.”   It would therefore follow that a person “cannot drink the Chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of the devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils” since receiving Communion presupposes that you are repentant of sin and wish to receive forgiveness.  If however, one goes from the Eucharist to sinful behavior one seems to despise the very grace and nature of the sacrament just received.  In essence, the Eucharist is such a wonderful gift and grace that it not only imparts the ability to live a holy life to the recipient but even forgives their non-mortal sins. 
The wonder of the Eucharist should inspire greater reverence and piety since it is nothing but the very Sacrifice of Calvary where the graces of redemption overflow for the salvation of humanity.  Vatican II reaffirmed the importance of the Eucharist when in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy the authors wrote:
“The renewal in the Eucharist of the covenant between the Lord and man draws the faithful into the compelling love of Christ and sets them afire.  From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as a fountain, grace is channeled into us; and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God.”  

The grace of the Sacrament of the Eucharist does not simply end with man becoming closer to God but of necessity it brings man closer to his fellow men and together they comprise the Body of Christ.  St. Paul explains this concept in his letter to the Corinthians when he states “for we, being many, are one Bread, one Body, all that partake of one Bread.”   Vatican II teaches that through “Truly partaking of the Body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another.”   According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church “the Eucharistic sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with Christ through communion.   Furthermore, the Catechism also teaches that “the Eucharist makes the Church.  Those who receive the Eucahrist are united more closely to Christ.  Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body-the Church.”
As a sacrifice, the Eucharist brings together the old and the new, it enlivens the pages of the Old Testament while bringing us to the scene of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion while pointing us to the Lamb’s supper prepared for those who enter into eternal reward.  In summary, though Christ’s gift of the Eucharist to the Catholic Church is an intrinsically inexhaustible topic, the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist is primary and fundamental to an orthodox understanding of this Treasure and can never be promulgated enough.  The idea of the Eucharist as a sacrifice echoes back to the Old Testament, is found throughout the pages of the New, has been constantly taught by the Fathers of the Church and the Magisterium while being present yet often misunderstood in the world of today or forgotten entirely lest one descend into a sort of nihilism of traditional Catholic dogma instituted by Christ, brought to the peoples by the apostles, eloquently expressed by the Fathers of the Church and upheld and cherished by the current successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. 

Bibliography.

Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica. Q 83, Art 1. III. (New York, Banzinger Brothers Inc, 1947)
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition,
Colman E. O’Neil OP.  Sacramental Realism, A General Theory of the Sacraments.  Michael Glazier Inc.  Wilmington, Delaware.  1983. 
Danielou, Jean The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1966) pp. 135-6
Dauphinais, Michael and Matthew Levering, Knowing the Love of Christ, An Introduction to the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.  Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 2002
Holy Bible.  Douay-Rheims.  Tan Books and Publicshers.  Rockford, Illinois.  1971.
John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Boston, Pauline Books and Media, 2003
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O’Neil Colman,  Sacramental Realism, A General Theory of the Sacraments. Wilmington: Michael Glazier Inc.  1983,
Ratzinger Joseph Cardinal, God is Near Us. San Francisco: Ignatius
Ripley Francis Canon, This is the Faith, A Complete Explanation of the Catholic Faith.  (Rockford, Tan Books and Publishers, 2002)
The Documents of Vatican II New York: Guild Press, 1966