Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: finnerty@electra.la.locus.com (Brian Finnerty) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Importance of sacrifice Message-ID: Date: 12 Aug 90 08:51:02 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inglewood, CA Lines: 44 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu (I don't have my Bible with me today, but I will look up the exact scriptural citations, if requested.) >If the elements of the Lord's supper are literally the body and blood >of Jesus, would it follow that Jesus still suffers at every mass or >not necessarily? What is the Catholic view of this? Absolutely not. Christ died once for all. He is not crucified again at Mass. >If the answer >is no, why not if the host is *literally* Christ's body? I cannot answer this question fully. I accept on faith that Christ has given me His Body and His Blood. In John 6, the Jews ask him a similar question: "How can the man give us his body to eat?" Christ told them "Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life in you...For my body is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed." The Jews could not believe him, so they left him. But like the apostles, I will remain and say,"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life." Part of the answer to the question may be that Christ can only incur pain if He permits it. Also, Christ now has his post- resurrection, glorified body. It is a real body, but some limitiations of pre-resurrection bodies may not apply. So if Christ says he is giving me his body and his blood to eat, I believe Him. >If the answer is yes, please defend the answer in light of the following >passage from the book of Hebrews:... The answer is no. As Hebrews makes clear, Christ suffered and died once for all. The Catholic Church reaffirms this. The book of Hebrews also says, "Christ intercedes for us for our salvation forever before the Father." This intercession is not independent of the redemption which Christ won for us on the Cross. Christ says to the Father, "Here am I; I was crucified once for all so that men may be saved." This is exactly what happens at Mass. Christ, acting through the Priest, offers to the Father the Holy Victim Jesus Christ who was crucified for us once for all on the cross. Brian Finnerty