[Eli Soriano is the founder of the Church of God International and a
critic of the Catholic Church. This Church is primarily in the
Philippines but is growing as a result of its constant attacks on
Christ's own Church. Many are deceived into this false man-made sect
that is vehemently anti-Catholic. They do not have a Trinitarian belief in God but instead believe that Jesus is subordinate God to God the Father and was never a man]
(Eli Soriano) “The Mass is one of the many invented
doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church! It is regarded as the Sacrifice of the
Eucharist and is the central act of worship of the Catholic Church. Let us see
how they define “mass” and “eucharist” first.
MODERN CATHOLIC DICTIONARY (MCD)
MASS. The Sacrifice of the Eucharist as the central act
of worship of the Catholic Church. The “Mass” is a late form of missio
(sending), from which the faithful are sent to put into practice what they have
learned and use the graces they have received in the Eucharistic liturgy.
As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the
Mass, “The same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar
of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner.” Consequently, the
Mass is a truly propitiatory sacrifice, which means that by this oblation “the
Lord is appeased, He grants grace and the gift of repentance, and He pardons
wrongdoings and sins, even grave ones. For it is one and the same victim.………………
EUCHARIST. The true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, who
is really and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine, in
order to offer himself in the sacrifice of the Mass and to be received as
spiritual food in Holy Communion.(MCD)
According to the above definitions of the MCD, the Mass
is the offering (again and again) of the true body and blood of Jesus Christ!
Imagine that! This is contrary to the teachings of the Bible!”
(Cristoiglesia) It is truly unfortunate that you cannot
understand the teaching of Scripture because of your obvious prejudice against
the Catholic Church which is truly Christ’s own Church according to the Bible.
The ongoing celebration of the Mass is very different
from the Passover celebration in that it is not a recalling of a one time event
but a continuing sacrifice with Jesus as the priest and the victim. We are not
celebrating this to recall what we have read or been told but are really and
actually at the foot of the Cross with the blessed mother and St. John. In the
Bible it says that we are to do this in “remembrance” as it is often translated
into English but that same word in Koine Greek is actually “anamnesis” which
has no English equivalent. “Remembrance” is a rather crude and awkward approximation
in English of the true meaning of “anamnesis” which denotes a miracle. It is
instead the actual miracle of the past of the future being present. In this
case the past is being made present in the Eucharist. Recalling something to memory is hardly a
divine miracle. So, there is clearly a difference between the ongoing practice
of recalling the bondage of Egypt and the command of our Lord to “do this in
“anamnesis” of me which we do in the one miracle of the Eucharist. Jesus
provides the great feast of His actual Body and Blood in exactly the form, time
and place at the foot of the cross as He said. It is completely recognizing the
fact that we discern His Body and Blood in the Spirit of faith as He said and
not by our human carnal reason as heretics struggle to do.
In John 6:51 Jesus says that He is the bread from heaven.
He is not talking of a huge loaf of bread which all believers must partake but
makes it clear that it is His actual flesh that brings life eternal and not a
recalling or remembrance of His flesh. Obviously this is a miracle not unlike
the miracle of His feeding the multitudes before. The disciples would have
believed because they had just witnessed a similar miracle. Also His relating
this feast to manna (John 6:49-50) illustrates its temporary sustenance and
contrasts it to the enduring nature bestowed by eating His flesh.
“51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if
any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Surely if this was a remembrance or recalling only it
would necessitate a killing of another lamb which would not be the self same
sacrifice but another symbolic of the first whose blood spread on the entrance
to their homes with the hyssop branch saved their first born sons. It was this
Old Covenant celebration that necessitated the ongoing sacrifice of the temple
which was the only place that the lambs could be slaughtered because only the
priests could kill the Passover lamb in remembrance of the real and original
sacrifice. It is significant that St. John records, since He was the only one
of the Gospel writers present that, Jesus was killed at the exact same time of
the representative Paschal lambs at the Temple. This indicated a new ongoing
sacrifice once for all times of the New Covenant.
The Eucharist is not a recalling of Calvary. It is not a
remembrance of Calvary. Instead, it is the one, same sacrifice with the real
Christ as the victim and priest that transcends time and place as the heavenly
feast of His real flesh which is the food to endure to final salvation for all
mankind. At every Mass we eat the same flesh of our Lord that He served at the
last supper and we who abide in Him will continue for all times.
John6
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no
life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath
eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the
Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall
live for ever.
" The protestant revelation was that we ingest the
WORD of God by faith! Just as Jesus said to his disciples -John 15:3 "You
are ALREADY clean because of the word I have spoken to you" -later, John
17:17 he prayed the Father "Sanctify them by the Truth, your word is
Truth."
In instituting the practice of the Mass, Jesus fulfilled
the prophesy of Malachi:
Malachi 1:11
King James Version (KJV)
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going
down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall
be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.
(Eli Soriano) When the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself
in the cross, with the intent of redeeming the sins of mankind, He offered a
sacrifice whose effect is both retrogressive and progressive. He did it once
for all – and once forever! So why should that sacrifice be represented in
material things like bread and wine that is taken over and over?
HEBREWS 10:10, 12 (KJV)
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;
HEBREWS 10:10, 12 (GOOD NEWS BIBLE)
10 Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we
are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and
for all.
12 Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an
offering that is effective forever, and then he sat down at the right side of
God.
HEBREWS 10:10, 12(LATIN VULGATE)
10 in qua
voluntate sanctificati sumus per oblationem corporis Christi Iesu in semel
12 hic autem unam pro peccatis offerens hostiam in
sempiternum sedit in dextera Dei
HEBREWS 10:10, 12(DOUAY-RHEIMS VERSION)
10 In the which will, we are sanctified by the oblation
of the body of Jesus Christ once.
12 But this man, offering one sacrifice for sins, for
ever sitteth on the right hand of God,
HEBREWS 10:10, 12(REVISED STANDARD VERSION)
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single
sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
I cited various translations of the Scriptures above,
(even those officially accepted by the Catholic Church) to prove that when
Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins, He offered it once for all and
once forever!
The sacrifice of the Eucharist in the Mass of the Roman
Catholic Church is clearly against the Bible because such sacrifice is
unnecessary and thus constitutes an insult. It grossly disregards what the real
Jesus had done in Calvary.
Even the Father will not agree to the idea that His Son
is being sacrificed over and over again!
(Cristoiglesia) Through the miracle of our Lord of
anamnesis we, meaning the whole Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant,
participate in the one sacrifice for the salvation of all men. Your straw man
of multiple sacrifices is a false depiction of the Mass. It is one sacrifice
that is sufficient in all time and in all places in which we participate.
(Eli Soriano)
HEBREWS 9:24-26
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made
with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us:
25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26 For then must he often have suffered since the
foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Note the connotations of the following:
…..“Nor yet that he should offer himself often”
……“For then must he often have suffered since the
foundation of the world”
…….“but now once in the end of the world”
All these imply that it is not God’s will that His Son be
continually sacrificed – much more in a daily manner like the daily sacrifice
of the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church!
No loving Father would want to see a beloved Son being
killed and sacrificed daily!”
(Cristoiglesia) Again you labor to build your straw man
to attack which is a false depiction of the Mass. Christ died once for all and
that is what we participate in at Mass. It is not a re-sacrifice but the
self-same sacrifice as was prophesied by Malachi..
(Eli Soriano) And why is it necessary for anybody
requesting a priest for a Mass to pay a particular fee? The sacrifice made by
Jesus did not involve money! The sacrifice being officiated by Catholic priests
are paid for with a fixed amount of money!
(Cristoiglesia) It is not necessary to pay a fee for the
dedication of a Mass but is instead voluntary.
God bless!
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
No comments:
Post a Comment