Is the Eucharist a sacrifice offered to God, or only a memorial meal recalling the sacrifice of the Cross?
23 verses are cited on this page. Each one links to its chapter in the Greek text.
This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me.Luke 22:19
The body is described as given, sacrificial language, and the command is to do this, not merely to recall it.
This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you.Luke 22:20
Blood shed and a covenant made are the vocabulary of sacrifice, and covenants in Scripture are sealed in blood.
...do this for the commemoration of me.1 Corinthians 11:24-25
Paul hands on the same command twice, as a fixed rite of the Church.
For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.1 Corinthians 11:26
The rite proclaims and displays the Lord's death, not as a past event only but as an ongoing showing forth.
We have an altar, whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle.Hebrews 13:10
Christians possess an altar, and something at it is eaten.
Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar?1 Corinthians 10:18
Paul's premise, that eating of a sacrifice makes one a partaker of the altar.
You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils.1 Corinthians 10:20-21
The Lord's table is set in the same category as the altars of Israel and of the pagans. The argument only works if all three are sacrificial.
...we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once.Hebrews 10:10
The central objection, stated at full strength. Catholics affirm it entirely.
But this man offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God.Hebrews 10:12
One sacrifice, offered once, and the work finished.
For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.Hebrews 10:14
Nothing may be added to Calvary, and the Church teaches nothing is added.
...always living to make intercession for us.Hebrews 7:25
Yet Christ's one sacrifice is not simply past. He lives now presenting it, so the offering continues in heaven without being repeated.
...a Lamb standing as it were slain.Revelation 5:6
In heaven the Lamb appears still bearing the marks of slaughter: the one sacrifice, eternally present before the throne, not repeated and not merely remembered.
Hebrews is right and the Church says so without qualification: Christ offered himself once for all, and that sacrifice can never be repeated or added to (Hebrews 10:10-14). The Mass is not a new sacrifice. It is the one sacrifice of Calvary made present, the same Priest and the same Victim, offered now in an unbloody manner. That the one offering can be present without being repeated is exactly what Scripture shows of heaven, where the Lamb stands "as it were slain" (Revelation 5:6) and Christ lives always to intercede (Hebrews 7:25). Meanwhile Scripture calls the rite a memorial in the biblical sense that makes a saving deed present, sets the Lord's table beside the altars of Israel and the nations (1 Corinthians 10:18-21), and says outright, "We have an altar" from which we eat (Hebrews 13:10). The Council of Trent (Session 22) defined this: the Mass is a true and proper sacrifice, the very same as that of the Cross, differing only in the manner of offering, and it takes nothing whatever from Calvary. It does not add to the Cross. It brings the Cross to us.