Transubstantiation

[dandy777]

Can you please help me to understand this:

During consecration, do we repeat the same exact sacrifice that Jesus did on the Golgotha 2000 years ago (in the sense that it is as if He is dying every day) or is the consecration an extension of that sacrifice (and so the sacrifice was done once but we are extending it through time)?

I hope the question is clear as I wasn't sure how to explain myself well.

[Cam42]

[quote name='dandy777' date='Nov 27 2005, 07:59 AM']Can you please help me to understand this:

During consecration, do we repeat the same exact sacrifice that Jesus did on the Golgotha 2000 years ago (in the sense that it is as if He is dying every day) or is the consecration an extension of that sacrifice (and so the sacrifice was done once but we are extending it through time)?

I hope the question is clear as I wasn't sure how to explain myself well. 
[right][snapback]801481[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Not exactly. It is a representation of the sacrafice on Calvary. It is not as if he is dying every day. He died once and for all for all humans. He then overcame death by rising from the dead on the third day.

What we can say is this. The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary.

The Mass is the same sacrifice as that of the Cross because the offering and the priest are the same--Christ Our Blessed Lord: and the ends for which the sacrifice of the Mass is offered are the same as those of the sacrifice of the Cross.

On the Cross the offering was the body and blood of Our Lord; the one who offered it was Our Lord; the reason for which He offered it was that He might atone for sin; the one to whom He offered it was His heavenly Father. Now, at Mass it is the same. The object offered is Our Lord's body and blood, the one suffering is Our Lord Himself, through the priest; it is offered for sin, and it is offered to the heavenly Father. All things are the same, except that the blood of Our Lord is not shed, and Our Lord does not die again.

The manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different. On the Cross Christ really shed His blood and was really slain; in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood nor real death, because Christ can die no more; but the sacrifice of the Mass, through the separate consecration of the bread and the wine, represents His death on the Cross.

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='dandy777' date='Nov 27 2005, 07:59 AM']....or is the consecration an extension of that sacrifice (and so the sacrifice was done once but we are extending it through time)?[right][snapback]801481[/snapback][/right][/quote]
this statement is correct. another way of saying it is, the mass is a "re-presentation" of the one sacrifice, or the mass perpetuates the one sacrifice for all time. for some helpful articles on this subject, see the following entry from the directory:

The Mass as a Sacrifice
[url="http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat_id/568"]http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat_id/568[/url]

pax christi,
phatcatholic