Accept This Sacrafice

[dairygirl4u2c]

in the early church they talked about "accept this sacrafice at your hands" during the eucharist. prots get mad bc there was one sacrafice, once and for all, as the bible says. the CC says "sacrafice" means participating in the same one. i've heard one high catholic priest say time bends and the eucharist is the same now as it was then, so it can be participating in the same.

my question. that seems an fishy explaination, both what the priest said and simply saying it's participating. it'd seem the early church had in mind sacrafice, the same as a goat, right here and now. and the the notion of participating in the same was only conjured after attacks by prots.

i've heard this argument before. i thought i'd get responses here before too much interneting. i'm not sure if this teaching and issue is de fide or not.

Edited May 6, 2007 by dairygirl4u2c

[Apotheoun]

You might want to proofread and edit your posts better.

[dairygirl4u2c]

duly noted

[Apotheoun]

The doctrine that the Eucharist and Calvary are one and the same sacrifice was not "conjured up" after the Reformation. In fact, St. John Chrysostom (just to mention one Father) taught this in his [i]Homilies on Hebrews[/i].

[Apotheoun]

St. John Chrysostom, [i]Homily 17 on Hebrews[/i]:

"What then? do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of His death, and this [remembrance] is one and not many. How is it one, and not many? Inasmuch as that [Sacrifice] was once for all offered, [and] carried into the Holy of Holies. This is a figure of that [sacrifice] and this remembrance of that. For we always offer the same, not one sheep now and tomorrow another, but always the same thing: so that the sacrifice is one. And yet by this reasoning, since the offering is made in many places, are there many Christs? but Christ is one everywhere, being complete here and complete there also, one Body. As then while offered in many places, He is one body and not many bodies; so also [He is] one sacrifice. He is our High Priest, who offered the sacrifice that cleanses us. That we offer now also, which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done in remembrance of what was then done. For (says He) "do this in remembrance of Me" (cf. Luke 22:19). It is not another sacrifice, as the High Priest, but we offer always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a Sacrifice."

[Apotheoun]

Just a reminder: in biblical theology (both of the Old and New Testaments), "Remembrance equals participation" [B. S. Childs, [u]Memory and Tradition in Israel[/u], (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1962), page 56].

[Apotheoun]

As I wrote in another thread:

The Greek word [i]anamnesis[/i] bears the same meaning as the Hebrew word [i]zikkaron[/i], and both words can be translated into English as "memory" or "remembrance," but the memory that is manifested through a liturgical celebration is not the memory of man, nor is it even the memory of the worshipping community [i]per se[/i]; instead, it is the eternal and everliving memory of God [cf. Matthias Scheeben, [u]The Mysteries of Christianity[/u], (London: B. Herder Book Company, 1946), page 509]. Now, the divine memory is manifested through the recitation of the inspired narrative and through the proper use of the sacred signs established for this very purpose (i.e., the bread and wine, etc.) by God Himself while He walked upon the earth as Man. That said, the liturgy of the Church manifests three distinct realities simultaneously: (1) the liturgy renders present a past event, i.e., the incarnation and paschal mystery of Christ; (2) it gives grace, i.e., divine energy, in the present moment; and (3) it anticipates the [i]Parousia[/i] at the end of time, making it a living reality for the members of the worshipping community. In fact, this third element was manifested on Mt. Tabor when Christ was Transfigured in front of the three Apostles, because Christ Himself is the Kingdom of God realized in human form, and -- as a consequence -- all those who become members of His body, the Church, are living the reality of the Kingdom here and now, and not simply as something that will happen in the future. In other words, the life of divine grace ([i]energy[/i]) given in the sacraments is an eschatological reality in which time itself is transcended, so that the participants in the liturgy experience what was, is, and is to come in the mystery of Christ incarnate, and in the process all the members of the Church -- each one in his own way -- experience a foretaste of the divine eternity.

[Katholikos]

I'd like to underscore Apotheoun's request. Your posts are often borderline intelligible. Thank you.

Jay