The Mass as eternal sacrifice that saves us

The Ascension of Christ 1958 Salvador Dali

Jesus' sacrifice of himself on Calvary to his father is able to continue for all eternity because of Jesus' ascension to heaven. In Revelation, Jesus is the Lamb, in glory but "as if slain". Jesus is both God and victim, saving us by the unceasing sacrifice he offers his father.

Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota made his latest Sunday TV sermon on how the ascension is central to this gift on our behalf:

Open up to the Letter to the Hebrews, this wonderful, mysterious text, written by someone who was deeply acquainted with the Jerusalem temple because it’s all about temple worship and sacrifice.

But here’s his basic insight:  For centuries earthly priests, on the Day of Atonement, would bring animals for sacrifice into the Holy of Holies.

Throughout the year, priests would facilitate the sacrifice of animals, the pouring out of blood and offering to the Lord.

These are commanded by God. But did they accomplish their purpose? No was the answer.

Why? Because the blood of cattle and goats and sheep is not sufficient for righting the wrongs of the world.

What alone satisfies the Father? Answer: The sacrifice of the Son. Jesus now on the cross, the lamb of sacrifice.

We say, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” So think of all the lambs and sheep and cattle and so on that were sacrificed. Did they take away the sin of the world? Well, not definitively. They were anticipations, they were the foreshadowing of this one great sacrifice of the cross.

The sacrifice with an eternal dimension

Now, because the one who performed that sacrifice is not just a human figure, not just a rabbi or a teacher or a social reformer, but is the very Son of God, that sacrifice has an eternal dimension.

Here’s the climax of the Letter of the Hebrews: That sacrifice on Calvary now takes place eternally in the heavenly temple.

So yes, on Mount Calvary in around the year 30 AD, but because it has an eternal dimension, it’s taking place forever in the heavenly temple.

It’s the resurrected and ascended Christ who is eternally presenting this sacrifice to the Father. In space and time, yes, in the year 30, but now eternally in the heavenly temple.

Every time we attend Mass, we are communing with this eternal sacrifice of the Son. What takes place on the altar — how important that is, by the way — not just the table. It is that, but also an altar; it’s a place of sacrifice because we represent the sacrifice of Jesus, uniting ourselves to the eternal sacrifice present in the heavenly temple.

It’s powerful, mystical stuff, I realize that, and if we think of the Mass as just a religiously themed jamboree or a chance for us to get together and hear stories about Jesus, I mean, that ain’t enough.

That’s not a sufficient understanding of the Mass.

The Mass is a link to heaven. It’s a link to the risen and ascended Jesus who is presenting his sacrifice eternally before the Father.

That wouldn’t be possible unless the Ascension were true.

Not of Jesus’ absence, no, on the contrary, of his more intense presence to us as the one directing our operations in the world, and as the one with whom we are united every time we celebrate the Mass.

Further insights

Christ IS “always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). What is the basis of this intercession? The sacrifice of the Cross (Heb. 7:27; 9:12; 10:14), which is forever present before God in the heavenly tabernacle because he who was both offered as victim and who offered the sacrifice as priest “appears before God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24).

Christ’s perfect offering of himself present in heaven (Heb. 9:11-12) is brought to earth in an unbloody, sacramental manner in the Mass. As Frank Sheed puts it, “The Mass is the breaking through to earth of the offering of Himself that Christ makes continuously in heaven simply by His presence there.”

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The Mass is the ‘once for all’”, perfect sacrifice of Calvary, which is presented on heaven’s altar for all eternity. It is not a “repeat performance”. There is only one sacrifice; it is perpetual and eternal, so it need never be repeated. Yet the Mass is our participation in that one sacrifice and in the eternal life of the Trinity in heaven, where the Lamb stands eternally “as if slain”.

The Lamb’s Supper, Scott Hahn (p150).

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Ω See also 

Dali and the beauty of science

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