Page |1 Sacrifice of the mass and the Sacrifice of Christ. Thomas Aquinas against later Thomist theology Harm Goris An old and until recently very common name for the Eucharistic celebration among Catholics is ‘sacrifice of the mass’. For centuries, the priest celebrating mass at the altar was the dominant picture of the Eucharist. Until a few decades ago, the decisive part in the ordination ceremony of a priest was the so-called rite of handing over the sacrificial instruments, viz. the chalice and paten, to the ordinand, and the pronunciation of the formula ‘receive the power of offering sacrifice for the living and the dead’ (Denzinger 1991, 1326). This rite was changed only in 1947 by pope Pius XII (Denzinger 1991, 3858-3860). The consecrated bread is called ‘host’, from the Latin hostia, which means ‘sacrificed animal’ or ‘victim’. During mass, the host is divided into parts and it is ritually consumed in a communal meal by the faithful. And, finally, it is still a widespread devotional custom in the Catholic Church to offer masses for special intentions, in particular for deceased family members. Together with the actual participants, they are thought to share in the expiatory effects of the sacrifice of the mass. With the liturgical reforms in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the ecumenical overtures, and the rehabilitation of the role of the laity in the Church, the idea and the experience of the mass as a sacrifice have become less popular (Levering 2005, 11-26). However, recent magisterial teaching stresses again its sacrificial character (John Paul II 1980, 9; John Paul II 2003, 12-13). Moreover, the ecumenical consensus documents that have been produced in the past years on the Eucharist as sacrifice may have helped to clear misunderstandings and historical misrepresentations, and to rediscover the overall Trinitarian framework of sacramental theory and practice, they also tended to bypass a thorough reflection on the concept of ‘sacrifice’ and the real differences between the various churches (Hönig 1989, 255-257, 274-277). The traditional language and practices surrounding the Eucharist, like the (male) priest, altar, host, dismemberment of the victim, communal meal and expiatory effects, show that Catholicism somehow acknowledges the permanent validity of cultic sacrifice. It recognizes the religious meaning not only of historical sacrifices in Page |2 Judaism and the one of Jesus Christ on the cross, but also of cultic sacrifices today. In this, the Catholic Church is unique within the Abrahamic religions, differing from Judaism, from almost all Protestant churches and also from Islam, where the slaughtering of an animal during the Feast of the Sacrifice (Id al-Adha), is generally understood more as a commemoration or almsgiving than as cultic sacrifice (Henninger 2005, 8006). However, it is not an easy task to spell out exactly what it means to call the mass a sacrifice. It might even prove to be impossible to determine exactly the theological meaning of the sacrificial character of the mass. There are three main conceptual reasons for its elusiveness. The first one is the problem of giving a general definition of ‘sacrifice’ from a religious studies perspective. Can we come up through anthropological research or philosophical speculation with a neutral, universally valid definition of ‘sacrifice’, univocally applicable to all instances of ‘sacrifice’ across times and religions (Carter 2003, 1-9; McClymond 2008, 1-24)? Second, even if we manage to construct such a universal definition, there is the theological question about the meaning of the specifically Christian – maybe also Jewish – sacrifices, in particular of Christ’s sacrifice. Are these sacrifices just particular exemplifications of a general, anthropological idea of sacrifice, or do they in fact question and criticize human all too human ideas about what a real, genuine sacrifice is? Does the term ‘sacrifice’ have exactly the same meaning when predicated of pagan sacrifices and of Jewish and Christian sacrifices, or is the term used analogically? In short, should a theologian work from an outsider perspective and etic approach to sacrifice, or should he/she adopt an insider perspective, using an emic view on sacrifice (Daly 2009, 1-5)? Third, with regard to the mass itself, there is the internal theological question about the relation between Christ’s historical death on Calvary, interpreted as a sacrifice, and the celebration of the mass. Are they related or not, and if so in what sense? Here, a specific methodological question arises: by what evidence and arguments can we determine theologically the relation between the mass and Christ in terms of ‘sacrifice’? The sacrificial interpretation of Christ’s passion and death has been criticized because of the image of a bloodthirsty God it suggests, in particular against the background of the so-called satisfaction theory of atonement developed by Anselm in the eleventh century Anselm of Canterbury: by dying Christ gave satisfaction to God whose honour was robbed by sin and so placated God’s anger (Daly 2009, 107-113). Be that as it may, we can discuss such an interpretation on Page |3 the basis of Holy Scripture, because the gospels, Paul’s letters, the Letter to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation use sacrificial language to express the salvific meaning of Christ’s passion and death. But we cannot have a similar discussion about the mass. Scripture never talks about the mass as a sacrifice, if it talks about the mass at all. The theological evidence about the mass as a sacrifice is not to be found directly in biblical texts, but rather in great variety of ecclesial practices of worship. Hence, speculative, theological reflection on the Eucharist is rooted in and remains dependent upon traditions of celebrations and devotions in the Church. This methodological approach, which focuses on the lex orandi as a locus theologicus, is nowadays labelled as ‘liturgical theology.’ There are already traces in very early Christian, post-biblical texts that suggest some kind of connection between sacrifice and the gathering of the faithful on the Day of the Lord. Later, fourth-century Eucharistic Prayers show an increase in sacrificial language and imagery (Bradshaw & Johnson 2012, 129-132). However, the texts do not always bear clear testimony as to what the sacrificial practice exactly was. And when they do, they show a great variety of liturgical forms. Nevertheless, already in Antiquity there was a fundamentally different perspective between the East and the West regarding the interpretation of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist. The Greek Fathers tended to see it based on the liturgical commemoration (anamnesis) of Jesus’s historical sacrifice on the cross. In contrast, Latin Fathers like Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258) and Ambrose (ca. 340-397) tended to break the unity of Christ’s historical death and the Eucharistic celebration so that the latter was seen as a sacrifice in its own right: Christ is sacrificed again in the Eucharist, as Pope Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604) stated (Mazza 1999, 10-23). The Latin West also had a particular liturgical reason for developing its own understanding of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Typical of Western Eucharistic prayers is the great number of supplications to God that He will accept the gifts offered to Him (Stevenson 1986, 74-99). This is also evident in the so-called Roman Canon, which during the early Middle Ages was to become dominant in the Western church. The supplicatory character of the text and the fact that praying the canon became more and more a solitary activity of the priest, done in silence (Spinks 2005), promote a sacrificial interpretation. Page |4 After the common cultural context of the Antiquity with its ubiquitous sacrificial rites had disappeared, more explicit theological discussions on the sacrifice of the mass began to develop in scholastic theology. However, the debate focused on the dogma of Christ’s real presence (praesentia realis) in the Eucharist, not on its sacrificial character. The disputes between Paschasius and Ratramnus in the ninth and between Lanfranc and Berengar in the eleventh century stimulated theological creativity, leading to Aquinas’s doctrine of transubstantiation and subsequent discussions (McCord Adams 2010). Serious ecclesial controversy over the mass as sacrifice did not occur till the sixteenth century when Reformers seriously questioned certain mass practices in the Catholic Church. Their criticisms provoked explicit magisterial teaching on the subject by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and subsequent development of elaborate theological theories on the sacrifice of the mass, which have been determinative of Catholic theology, spirituality, and magisterial teaching regarding the Eucharist until the present day (Lepin 1926, 414-415; Daly 2000, 256-257). In this paper, I shall contrast the view on the mass as sacrifice of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) with the theories of later sixteenth century Thomists, I shall focus on one key issue, the relation between the mass and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. As the Reformers pointed out, It is a basic tenet of the Christian faith that Christ’s sacrifice was absolutely decisive, once-and-for-all. How then can there be any later Christian sacrifice? First, I shall give an overview of the main theories that were developed in the sixteenth century. Next, I shall contrast the later Thomist positions with Aquinas’ own view, as reconstructed on the basis of his main work, the Summa Theologiae, followed by a short conclusion. 1. Discussions in the sixteenth century The Reformers of the sixteenth century reacted against concrete practices that also in the eyes of Catholics were considered abuses of the mass: commercial trade in masses, the accumulation of stipends by priests, the ordination of poorly trained priests just for reading as many masses as possible etc. But they also raised more fundamental objections against the very idea of ‘sacrifice of the mass’. Page |5 Most Reformers did not question the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, although they did not accept the theory of transubstantiation. Also, they accepted the interpretation of Christ’s saving work as an expiatory or propitiatory ‘sacrifice’ to God, as set out in an Anselmian theory of satisfaction. But they had serious ecclesiological, soteriological and Christological objections to the mass as a sacrifice (Hunsinger 2008, 95-110). Luther denounces the mass as a sacrifice insofar as it is thought to be a good work, having expiatory efficacy prior to and independent from subjective, conscious devotion or act of faith. That is, he objects to the ex opere operato efficacy of the mass. Luther allows only two things in the mass, viz. God’s promise or proclamation of forgiveness and salvation and, on the other hand, human faith, accepting that divine promise and proclamation. Only by personal commitment of faith, sola fide, not by good works, are we saved. Also the example of Christ, Luther says, shows that the mass is not a sacrifice. We read in the gospel that at the Last Supper, when he instituted the mass, Christ did not offer himself as a sacrifice to the Father standing at an altar, but he sat at a table and gave his verbal testament or promise and a sign thereof to the disciples (Luther 1888, 523). The most decisive argument for Luther is that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was definitive, once-and-for all, and totally sufficient. Christ is the sole priest and the sole sacrifice (Hunsinger 2008, 101102). Philip Melanchthon also rejects any human expiatory sacrifice and accepts to talk about Eucharistic sacrifices only in the sense of sacrifice of praise, that is, of the preaching of the Gospel, faith, prayer, thanksgiving, confession, the trouble of saints, yes all good works of saints’ (McCain 2006, 224). Zwingli adds the argument that by definition sacrifice implies death and bloodshed and Christ died and shed his blood only once, on the cross (Zwingli 1905, 585). Calvin uses both the theological argument against human expiatory sacrifices and Zwingli’s logical argument: an unbloody expiatory sacrifice is unbiblical and illogical (Institutes IV c. 18 s. 5, 1434). Like Melanchthon, he only accepts speaking about sacrifices of praise and of thanksgiving (ibid. s. 16,1443-1444). In reaction, Catholic theologians emphasized that the mass is really a propitiatory sacrifice, but not different from Christ’s. They focused on three topics: (1) the relation between the Last Supper, the sacrifice of the cross, the mass, and Christ’s heavenly high priesthood; (2) the exact definition of ‘sacrifice’; and (3) the identification of a Page |6 specific ritual element that would represent Christ’s immolation. Most of the apologetic theologians assumed a real identity of the sacrifice of the mass and the sacrifice of Christ. In the mass the event of Christ’s sacrifice becomes really present: not of course in its physical or historical mode, but in a sacrificial manner. It was presumed that for a true and propitiatory sacrifice, the immolation of a victim was a necessary condition. As a consequence, the central question was how and at what moment Christ’s immolation is sacramentally enacted during the celebration of the mass (Lepin 1926, 252-291). It was also in this time that Aquinas became the most influential authority in Catholic theology. The Dominicans and the newly established Jesuit order endorsed his thought and began to replace Peter Lombard’s Sentences by the Summa Theologiae as the theological textbook at the university. All Catholic theologians tried to find support for their theories in Aquinas, also with regard to interpreting the mass. The most extensive and mature theories on this topic were developed after the decisions of the Council of Trent. In 1562 the Council of Trent promulgated the official teaching on the sacrifice of the mass. The council sanctioned speaking about an ‘unbloody immolation’: Because in this sacrifice, which is performed in the mass, Christ himself is contained and is immolated in an unbloody manner (incruente immolatur), who on the altar of the cross offered himself once in a bloody manner (cruente ... obtulit), [therefore] the holy council teaches that it is a truly propitiatory sacrifice ... It is one and the same host (hostia), the same one who offers himself now through the ministry of the priests, offered himself then on the cross, while only the mode of offering (offerendi ratio) differs. The fruits of that offering (that is, the bloody offering) are most fully received through this unbloody one (Denzinger 1991, 1743). And it emphasized the propitiatory character of the mass: If anyone says that the sacrifice of the mass is one only of praise and thanksgiving; or a mere commemoration of the sacrifice performed on the cross but not a propitiatory one ... let him be anathema (Denzinger 1991, 1753). The council did not solve all questions and did not settle all disputes among Catholic theologians (Power 1987, 157-161). In the aftermath of Trent, the paths that had been set out by the pre-Tridentine theologians continued to determine the debate on Page |7 the sacrifice of the mass. One continued to oppose Protestantism, but also the intra Catholic debate became more heated, with advocates of divergent positions referring to Aquinas. Marius Lepin put together a large collection of texts dealing with these discussions (Lepin 1922, 335-415). His findings have been summarized by Robert Daly (Daly 2000). According to Lepin, most post-Tridentine theologians started to make more stringent demands on the ritual representation of Christ’s sacrifice. While he thinks that Trent did not suggest that ‘the mass should contain any reality of immolation’, but only an image or a memorial of the real immolation on the cross, later theories began to require some kind of real change of the host, to the point of an actual, physical destruction and one tried to identify a ritual element where that change or destruction would occur. Some related what happens on the altar not only with Christ’s historical sacrifice on the cross, but rather with Christ’s heavenly sacrifice as eternal high priest. John Hesselius (1522–1596) states: ‘The New Law (…) contains an image of what takes place in heaven where Christ, in exercising his priesthood, stands before God and intercedes for us in representing his passion to his Father and in consummating the sacrifice of the cross (…). On the altar Christ does what he is doing in heaven’ (Daly 2000, 251). Most influential were the views of Gaspard Casal (1510-1585), who thought the destructive change of Christ happened by the (double) consecration, and of Bellarmine (1542-1621), who saw it accomplished in the communion (of the priest). The latter view evoked Gabriel Vasquez’s (c. 1550-1604) sharp criticism that, in that case, the sacrifice would not be accomplished on the altar, but in the stomach of the priest (Daly 2000, 255). However, besides this group of ‘hyper-realistic’ theologians, others remained more traditional and denied any real change of Christ himself in the mass. These theologians acknowledged there was only an image (figura) of Christ’s immolation. Melchior Cano (c. 1509-1560), for example, saw the fraction of the Host and the distribution of the Blood during communion as such images, which do not involve a real destruction or change of Christ himself: the ritual actions are only performed on the sacramental species, not on the Body or Blood of Christ (Lepin 1922, 346-349). Others, like Gabriel Vasquez and Leonard Lessius (1554-1623), regarded the consecration as such a mere symbol. This did not prevent them from using highly expressive language. ‘The words of consecration,’ Lessius writes, ‘are a kind of sword. The Body of Christ which is now living in heaven, is to be slaughtered here instead of a living victim. The Body, placed under the species of bread, and the Page |8 Blood under the species of wine, are like the body and blood of a lamb now immolated’ (Daly 2000, 256). However, also the more traditional group held on to a general definition of ‘sacrifice’ that implies a real change or destruction of the victim. Therefore, one had to admit that the sacrifice of the mass constitutes an exception to the general rule. This raises then the question whether the mass is a genuine, expiatory sacrifice. Both groups, the hyper-realist and the more traditional theologians, referred to Thomas Aquinas for support of their views. Were their appeals justified? 2. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas himself did not elaborate a systematic doctrine about the Eucharist as sacrifice (Lucien 1998). This fact may account for the many and divergent interpretations of later Thomists. In what follows, I shall interpret texts and basic ideas of Aquinas that deal with the topic and that were to become very significant in later discussioins. I shall limit myself to the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas’s mature and, as of the sixteenth century, most authoritative work.1 A thorny problem in interpreting the texts concerns the meaning and (English) translation of Latin terms. First, sacramentum can be used in a wider sense as ‘sacred sign’, including the ‘sacraments of the Old Law’, or in a stricter sense of the seven, grace bestowing sacraments of Church (Yocum 2004, 160-164). Next, the meaning of words like repraesentare seems ambiguous: does it mean ‘to make present again’ or ‘to represent’? Finally, different Latin expressions like sacrificium, hostia, victima, immolatio, and oblatio can all be translated by ‘sacrifice’, but then important differences in meaning are lost. Aquinas distinguishes two aspects of the mass: the sacrament and the sacrifice. The mass has the character (ratio) of a sacrament insofar as something is received; it has the character of a sacrifice insofar as something is offered (S.Th. III q. 79 a. 5 and a. 7; q. 83 a. 4). In other words, ‘sacrament’ indicates a movement or act from God to humans, ‘sacrifice’ from humans to God. It is important to keep the two distinct without, however, separating them. 1 I use the Latin text of the Latin-English Blackfriars edition, but all English translations are my own. Citations are according to the standard system of reference for the Summa. Page |9 Aquinas also distinguishes between external and internal sacrifices (S.Th. II-II q. 85 a. 2 and a. 4). He thinks the internal sacrifice is primary. It is signified by the former and consists in offering a devout mind to God. However, we must not forget that because the Eucharist is an external, sensible sign, it is (also) the external sacrifice that matters here. We should resist the temptation of a premature spiritualization and take the material and sensory performance of the sacrament seriously. ‘Offering’ (oblatio) to God is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for sacrifice. Also some special action is needed with regard to the things offered. Aquinas gives two examples: animals are killed or bread is broken, eaten, and blessed. The latter obviously refers to the Eucharist. This, he says, is consistent with the etymology of sacrum facere, ‘to make holy.’ If nothing is done with the gifts, they are offerings, but not sacrifices, as e.g. the wave loaves or the first-fruits (S.Th. II-II q. 85 a. 3 ad 3). The condition that something must be done with the gif offered played in important role in sixteenth-century discussions. It was usually interpreted as a destruction of the gift. Bellarmine, for example, emphasized Aquinas’s words about the Eucharistic bread being eaten (by the priest, Bellarmine adds), and he compares this not with the sacrificial eating (comestio) of a victim, but with the combustion, the destruction, of a burnt-offering (Lepin 1926, 386). However, Aquinas does not suggest that the sacrificial gift must be killed, consumed or destroyed. He only says that something special must be done with it, without specifying the act. Breaking, eating, and blessing the bread do not mean the same as destroying it. How does Aquinas conceive of the relation between the mass as a sacrifice and the sacrifice of Christ? In line with the patristic tradition, Aquinas holds that offering the sacrifice of the mass is not an autonomous, independent, and isolated activity of the presiding priest or of the local community. It is related to the self-offering of Christ on the cross, in which He is both the priest and the victim according to his humanity (S.Th. III q. 22 a. 2). Aquinas characterizes the relation between the sacrifice of the mass and Christ’s historical sacrifice with two, apparently equivalent terms, which he takes from the standard theological textbook of the Middle Ages, the Sentences of Peter Lombard (IV Sent. d. 12 c. 5; Petrus Lombardus 1981, 308-309). The terms are: ‘representation’ (repraesentatio: S.Th. III q. 79 a. 7; cf. q. 73 a. 4 co. and ad 3; q. 76 a. 2 ad 1; q. 79 a. 1; q. 83 a. 3 and a. 5) and ‘commemoration’ (commemoratio, memoriale: S.Th. III q. 22 a. 3 ad 2; q. 73 a. 4 co. and ad 3; q. 74 a. 1; q. 76 a. 2 ad P a g e | 10 2; q. 83 a. 4 ad 7). The sacrifice of the mass is not another, different, or new sacrifice compared to Christ’s sacrifice, because it ‘represents’ or ‘commemorates’ the latter. But what does this mean? The ‘hyper-realist’ group of post-Tridentine Thomists, but also many later and present-day commentators interpret ‘representation’ as some kind of ‘objective’ reactualisation, making present again, thereby linking or identifying the presence of the sacrifice with the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ. Such are the readings of Odo Casel (Casel 1926, 194-196), Anscar Vonier (summarized in Kilmartin 1998, 252-254), and, more recently, Thierry-Dominique Humbrecht (Humbrecht 1998) and Matthew Levering (Levering 2004, 191-192; Levering 2005, 88-93, 160-164). However, others, for example Ferdinand Pratzner, have argued on textual evidence that repraesentatio and commemoratio are to be understood in the sense of ‘depiction’ (bildhafte Darstellung) and ‘subjective recollection’ (Pratzner 1970, 70-76; and, less convincing, Mazza 1999, 210-214). Pratzner refers to the comparison Aquinas makes between the paschal lamb, ‘the chief sacrament’ in the Old Testament – where ‘sacrament’ has the wider meaning of ‘sacred sign’ – and the Eucharist. As the former prefigured Christ’s future passion, the latter reminds of Christ’s historical passion (S.Th. III q. 73 a. 5). Pratzner also discusses the separate consecration of the bread and the wine, of which Aquinas says that it represents or commemorates Christ’s passion (S.Th. III q. 74 a. 1; 76 a. 2 ad 1). He points out that Aquinas says that the double consecration ‘serves to represent Christ’s passion, in which the blood was (fuit) separate from the body’ (S.Th. III q. 76 a. 1 ad 2), but that ‘now the blood of Christ is not separated from his body, as it was at the time of the passion and death’ (ibid. in co.). In other words, during the mass, the body and blood of Christ are not separated as they were at the time of the crucifixion. However, there is more evidence to corroborate Pratzner’s interpretation. One text in Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences (also known as Scriptum) brings out the contrast between ‘real identity’ and ‘representational identity’ unequivocally (Script. super Sent. IV 4 d. 8 q. 2 a. 1 qc. 4 ad 4, 336): This sacrament is directly representative of the Lord’s passion, by which Christ as priest and host offered himself on the altar of the cross. However, the host that the priest offers, is one with that host which Christ offered in reality (secundum rem), because it really contains Christ. But the offering priest is not really the same (idem P a g e | 11 realiter). Therefore, he must be the same by representation (idem repraesentatione). And therefore, the consecrating priest, as impersonating Christ, utters the words of the consecration by reciting them in the person of Christ, so that the victim (hostia) may not seem to be a different one. What Aquinas here says about the priest being not really identical with Christ, but only ‘by representation’, should also be applied to Christ’s sacrifice as represented in the mass. While Christ’s body is really present in the mass, his passion is not. Aquinas also contrasts the term ‘to represent’ with ‘to contain.’ The Eucharist ‘represents’ the passion but ‘contains’ Christ: ‘the Eucharist is called a sacrifice, insofar as it represents the passion itself of Christ, but it is called ‘host’ (hostia) insofar as it contains (continet) Christ himself, who is the host of sweetness, as is said in Eph. 5’ (S.Th. III q. 73 a. 4 ad 3). Next, unlike the transubstantiation, which Aquinas locates exclusively in the utterance of the words of institution, the representation of Christ’s sacrifice is not limited to one element in the celebration, but happens by the whole rite (Fitzpatrick 1991, 139-140). Apart from the double consecration, Aquinas mentions many other gestures and objects during the mass that refer to Christ’s historical passion: the altar representing the cross (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 1 ad 2), the signs of the cross made by the priest during mass (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 5 ad 3), the stretching out of the arms by the priest after the consecration signifying the stretching of the arms by Christ on the cross (ibid. ad 5), the linen corporal representing the shroud in which Christ’s body was wrapped (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 7). Aquinas also mentions the breaking of the bread as a ‘sacrament [again in the meaning of ‘sign’] of the Lord’s passion, which was in Christ’s true body.’ However, he states that ‘we cannot say that when the consecrated bread is broken, Christ’s true body itself is broken’ (S.Th. III q. 77 a. 7) for two reasons. The first one is that Christ’s body cannot perish (incorruptibile) or suffer (impassibile). The bread has been converted into Christ’s risen body, which is now in the state of glory (Script. super Sent. IV d. 12 q. 1 a. 1 qa. 2, 500). The second reason is that, in accordance with Aquinas’s doctrine of transubstantiation, the size and, hence the fraction, of the consecrated bread belongs to the accident of quantitative dimension, not to the substance, which is Christ’s body. On the other hand, the Eucharistic rite does not only refer to the passion. There are even elements that are less expressive of the passion, for example, the use of bread P a g e | 12 instead of animal flesh (S.Th. III q. 74 a. 1 ad 1). Moreover, the ritual acts and objects that commemorate the passion, signify more than just that. The consecrated bread and wine also signify the unity of the Church, and they are spiritual food, the bread protecting the body and the wine protecting the soul (S.Th. III q. 74 a. 1). The linen corporal also signifies the purity of conscience (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 7). The fraction of the bread also signifies the differentiation of the mystical body (that is, the Church) according to the various states and it signifies the distribution of graces, which come from Christ’s passion (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 5 ad 7), etc. The elements have a semantic richness that is not exhausted by their reference to Christ’s historical sacrifice. Next, all seven sacraments have a threefold signification according to temporal dimensions: as a ‘commemorative’ sign each sacrament signifies something in the past, viz. the passion of Christ, which is the cause of our sanctification, as a ‘demonstrative’ sign it signifies something in the present, viz. our sanctification by grace, and as a ‘prognostic’ sign it refers to the future, eschatological reality (S.Th. III q. 60 a. 3). The same goes for the Eucharist. Insofar as it signifies the past, it commemorates the Lord’s passion, the true sacrifice. And Aquinas states: in this respect it receives the name of ‘sacrifice’ (S.Th. III q. 73 a.4). It is clearly as signifying something in the past, not something present, that the Eucharist is called a sacrifice. Moreover, unlike some later Thomist theologians like Hesselius, Aquinas relates the sacrifice of the mass only to Christ’s historical sacrifice, not to the idea of an eternal sacrifice to the Father in heaven. The topic that figured most prominently in sixteenth-century discussions was the sacrificial killing or immolation of Christ. It is only once that Aquinas addresses this question within the context of the Eucharist. In S.Th. III q. 83 a. 1, he quotes the then standard phrase: ‘once Christ was sacrificially slaughtered (immolatus est) in himself, and yet he is daily sacrificially slaughtered in the sacrament’ (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 1 s.c.).2 Aquinas attributes the words to Augustine, though they have rather Lanfranc as author, were later adapted, incorporated into the Decretum Gratiani, and found their way into the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Lepin 1922, 50-52). However, Aquinas reinterprets the authoritative statement in such a way that there is no question of a real, actual immolation during the mass. There are two reasons, he says, why the celebration of the mass is called ‘the immolation of Christ.’ The first The Blackfriars edition has the translation ‘sacrifice’ for the Latin immolatio, which blurs the distinction with the Latin sacrificium. 2 P a g e | 13 reason is that the mass is a ‘certain image representing the passion of Christ, which is his true (vera) immolation,’ and Aquinas corroborates this reading with Augustine’s own words that ‘images are usually called by the names of those things of which they are the images; looking at a picture or wall painting, we say “that is Cicero” or “that is Sallust”.’ And he adds that likewise we could say that Christ was sacrificially killed in ‘the signs of the Old Testament.’ This is wholly in line with Pratzner’s interpretation: just as Christ was not actually sacrificed in the Old Testament signs, but his death was prefigured, likewise he is not actually killed in the Eucharist, but his death is commemorated. The other reason Aquinas gives is in view of the effects of the mass, because ‘by this sacrament we come to participate in the fruits of the Lord’s Passion’ (S.Th. III q. 83 a. 13; cf. also a. 2 co. and ad 2). This second reason does not apply to the Old Testament prefigurations like the paschal lamb, but is proper to the Christian sacrament. The fruits of Christ’s Passion consist in sanctifying grace by which we are liberated from sin, reconciled with God, and start a new way of living (cf. S.Th. III q. 49; q. 62 a. 5). However, elsewhere Aquinas makes clear that we come to enjoy these fruits through the Eucharist, not insofar as it is a sacrifice, but insofar as it is a sacrament (also Lepin 1926, 190): ‘For insofar as in this sacrament Christ’s passion is represented4, by which Christ offered himself as victim to God, as is said in Eph. 5, it has the character of ‘sacrifice’, but insofar as in this sacrament grace is invisibly given under a visible species, it has the character of ‘sacrament’ (S.Th. III q. 79 a. 7). More specifically, we come to share in the fruits of Christ’s passion by actually receiving together the sacrament of Body and Blood of Christ in the communion (cf. S.Th. III q. 62 a. 5 and 6). To this effect, Aquinas quotes John of Damascus: the Eucharist ‘is called “communion” because through it we are joined to Christ; and because we participate in his flesh and godhead; and because we are joined and united to each other through it’ (S.Th. III q. 73 a. 4). In other words, according to Aquinas we can speak about Christ’s immolation during the mass only in a derivative and improper sense: by pictorial reference and in its effect. It is not that Christ himself is really, actually immolated. 3 The Latin text is incomplete in the Blackfriars edition. The translation in the Blackfriars edition of repraesentatur as ‘makes present’ is misleading. 4 P a g e | 14 What is more, it seems that Aquinas thinks that Christ is not even symbolically immolated in the mass. The act or event of being immolated is not ritually symbolized by a specific gesture like the breaking or eating of the bread or the double consecration. As mentioned earlier, the breaking and eating of the bread need not to signify a kind of destruction. Also the (double) consecration need not be understood as a symbolic re-enactment of the event of Christ’s immolation. It can also be understood as representing the result of the act of immolation, as representation of Christ having been killed, not of his being killed. In fact, Aquinas speaks about the body and blood – or the bread and the wine – as in the state of being apart (seorsum: S.Th. III q. 74 a. 1; 76 a. 2 ad 1; q. 78 a. 3 ad 1 and ad 2) from each other in the Eucharist, not as in the act or process of being separated (also Lepin 1926, 187). If the event of Christ being sacrificed is not ritually signified, then it cannot belong to the sacrament in the strict sense of the word, that is, a sign that causes and makes present what it signifies. For the sign is ‘the only door’ (Vonier) to what is signified and sacramentally made present. As Vonier says: ‘[the sacrament of the Eucharist] does not contain more than it signifies, because if it did contain more that it signifies, it would not be a sacrament, but an absolute act of God’s omnipotence, an act of which we would know nothing’ (quoted in Humbrecht 1998, 377). 3. Conclusion According to Aquinas, Christ’s body and blood are really present in the Eucharist, his historical sacrifice on the cross is not. The latter is said to be ‘represented’ in the Eucharist, but the expression does not mean that it is made present in the way Christ’s body and blood are. Christ’s passion and sacrifice are to be remembered by the faithful as a historical event of the past. This is in contrast with the ‘hyper-realist’ Thomist interpretation of Bellarmine. But, unlike the more moderate theories of Cano and others, Aquinas also does not seem to think that the act of Christ being immolated is ritually re-enacted in the mass by some specific ritual gestures. Many questions remain to be discussed. Does Aquinas think the Eucharist is only an actual (external) sacrifice insofar as we offer and bless bread and wine? How can people who do not participate in the celebration, for example the dead, benefit from it? Can Aquinas’s position, as interpreted here, be reconciled with the statements of Trent about the propitiatory character of the Eucharistic sacrifice? If these questions P a g e | 15 can be answered in a satisfying way, Aquinas could offer a fruitful contribution and a creative impulse to rethinking the sacrifice of the Eucharist. Bibliography Bradshaw, P. & M. Johnson, The Eucharistic Liturgies: Their Evolution and Interpretation. Collegeville MN 2012 Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion. John T. McNeill (ed.), Ford Lewis Battles (transl.). 2 vols. Philadelphia 1960 Carter, Jeffrey, Understanding Religious Sacrifice: A Reader. 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