In the absence of anything truly newsy about the Church today, Fr. H's citations of Dom Gregory Dix and the Mass as Sacrifice above all else, makes an appropriate reflection for any day of the week...
Holy Mass:
A Sacrifice first before
it is a Sacrament
November 3-4, 2018
Traddies ... rightly ... complain that 'mainstrream' Catholics have usually never been taught about Transsubstantiation.
The poor things are even less likely to have been told about the Mass as a ... er ...
the Sacrifice. Once a well-meaning proof-reader corrected, in a ms of mine, "Sacrifice" to "Sacrament", convinced that I had simply made a typo!
Here is Dom Gregory Dix [1902-1952, Anglican Benedictine monk whose writings on liturgy Fr H loves to cite]:
"For the primitive Church the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass was of primary importance. Today Church-people make the Sacrifice to depend on the Sacrament. The Primitive Church made the Sacrament to depend on the Sacrifice.
I am speaking of something which is the essence of all religion - the attempt of the creature to achieve union with the creator, to leap the chasm between God and man; to ascend above its derived creaturely being to the self-existent being of God Himself.
It must contain two things: (1) the attempt to leave behind the status of being a creature; and (2) the attempt to ascend from its own natural being and rise to God.
Here we meet with tragedy. Man, being a sinner, cannot make that leap. That supreme act of religion is for him impossible. Death is the penalty which God has imposed on sinners.
- The acceptance of death is the supremely moral act of human existence.
- We have sinned but accepted the consequence of our sin.
That is one half - the negative side of the act of religion. But obviously, if there is to be sacrifice, it cannot be done by sinful people as an act of suicide.
It is here that we have the New Testament doctrine of our Saviour as the Second Adam. He is very Man - He accepted death, sinless though he was, as the penalty of sin. His death is the representative act of death of all mankind, as Head of the human race.
As St Paul said, 'To recapitulate in Christ all things'. His death is His entrance into the glory of God. So that His death has the full character of Sacrifice; and it is a representative act on behalf of all mankind. It is the Sacrifice, par excellence.
Before He died, Christ consigned the whole meaning of His sacrificial death to an Action.
- He took bread and broke it, and said 'This is my Body'.
- He took the cup and said 'This is the New Covenant in my Blood'. - He gave to that Act the character of a sign - an effective sign: 'As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do proclaim the Lord's death till he come'.
I only have time to insist on the enormous importance, in that connection, of bearing in mind the New Testament doctrine of the Church as the Body of Christ; a doctrine which Protestantism from the beginning has virtually denied. It took up the position that first the individual was 'justified' and then he joined the church.
That is not New Testament doctrine. It is not the Catholic doctrine. - Christ cannot be separated from His Church.
- Christ and the Church are one thing.
- Because the Church is the Body of Christ, Baptism actually makes us part of Christ, and Confirmation is the imparting of the Spirit to His members. That is a consequence of Baptism, and in the Primitive Church Confirmation immediately followed Baptism.
It seems to me strange that the doctrine of the Church is in very great danger of being lost sight of in questions of reunion. You and I believe that the Sacrifice of Christ is not renewed but extended in the Church's Sacrifice in the Eucharist.
- Because the Church is one with Him, its members rightly take upon their lips the words which were so often upon His lips: 'Our Father'.
- His prayer is the Church's prayer; His mission is her mission; His action is the Church's action - not associated with Him, but one action.
- He lives and reigns in the Church, which is His Body.
- Death is His entrance into glory; His death our entrance to God - our perfect sacrifice, proclaimed as such in every Eucharist.
First Mass in Brazil, Meirelles, 1860.
Victor Meirelles (1832-1903) was a Brazilian painter who is best known for his works relating to his nation's culture and history. The Mass painting (completed in 1860) is one of his best-knwon works, reproduced in many history textbooks and on Brazil's 1000-cruzeiro note.
Fr H has run two installments of the post so far. I will update this post as he runs the rest of it.