'Do ye this in remembrance of me,' he commissioned them and their successors in the priesthood to consecrate and offer his body and blood, as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught."[1] And further on the Council declares that the Lord, appeased by the oblation of the Sacrifice of Mass, grants us his graces and the remission of sins. It says: "It is one and the same victim; the one that offers sacrifice is the same one who, after having sacrificed himself on the Cross, offers himself now by the ministry of the priest; there is no difference except in the manner of offering."[2]
Jesus Christ has, then, paid the price of our redemption in the Sacrifice of the Cross. But he wishes that the fruit of the ransom given should be applied to us in the Sacrifice of Altar, being himself in both the chief sacrificer, who offers the same victim, namely, his own body and his own blood;—with this difference only, that on the Cross his blood was shed, while it is not shed at the
- ↑ "Is igitur Deus et Dominus noster, etsi semel semetipsum in ara crucis, morte intercedente, Deo Patri oblaturus erat, ut æternam illic redemptionem operaretur; quia tamen per mortem sacerdotium ejus exstinguendum non erat; in cœna novissima, qua nocte tradebatur, ut dilectæ sponsæ suæ Ecclesiæ visibile, sicut hominum natura exigit, relinqueret sacrificium, quo cruentum illud semel in cruce peragendum repræsentaretur, ejusque memoria in finem usque sæculi permaneret, atque illius salutaris virtus in remissionem eorum, quæ a nobis quotidie committuntur, peccatorum applicaretur, Sacerdotem secundum ordinem Melchisedech se in æternum constitutum declarans, corpus et sanguinem suum sub speciebus panis et vini Deo Patri obtulit; ac, sub earumdem rerum symbolis, Apostolis, quos tunc Novi Testamenti Sacerdotes constituebat, ut sumerent, tradidit; et eisdem eorumque in sacerdotio successoribus, ut offerrent, præcepit per hæc verba: 'Hoc facite in meam commemorationem;' uti semper Catholica Ecclesia intellexit et docuit."—Sess. 22, c. 1.
- ↑ "Una enim eademque est Hostia, idem nunc offerens Sacerdotis ministerio, qui seipsum tunc in cruce obtulit, sola offerendi ratione diversa."—Sess. 22, c. 2.
