The One Sacrifice

The different perspectives of my complicated Anglican soul do not always sit well with each other, forcing me to think them through. It would be so much easier simply to be what most people call “Catholic” or what most people call “Protestant.” But, an Anglican is not only free from that particular false choice, he is also bound to reconcile the truth with the truth, no matter how successfully the forces of history have fragmented it, no doubt with the help of other forces who choose to remain invisible. Therefore, think we must while others are free merely to react, using as they do phrases like “too Catholic” or “too Protestant.”

          When I come across “Reformed” or “Evangelical” denunciations of Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Anglo-Catholic inside of me is quick to defend it. In every age and place the Church called the Eucharist a sacrifice. After all, our tradition has expressly rejected only the double plural “sacrifices of masses,” an idea that each time a priest celebrates it is a propitiation for the quick and the dead, in and of itself and by itself. And the condemnation of that in Article XXXI may have been written to correct popular misunderstanding rather than any actual doctrine.

But, the Evangelical inside of me, though usually quite content to live with the Catholic in there, begins to be uncomfortable. That is because no one can deny that the words of the Article are absolutely true and correct according to the only possible understanding of what the Bible clearly teaches, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews. “The offering of Christ once made is the perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone,” says our Article.

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb. 9:24-28)

          So, there is only one sacrifice; as we say in every Anglican celebration: “Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.”

          But, the Scriptures also speak of an altar of the Church, not merely a table, which means that sacrifice is offered by the Church. “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” (Heb. 13:10) Lest anyone try to interpret the plain meaning away, we know from all the evidence of Patristic literature, history and archeology, that Christians had altars even in the chapels that were in homes or hidden away during the time of Roman persecution.

          So, how do we reconcile apparent contradictions? We must reject “the sacrifices of Masses,” on one hand, and yet celebrate what clearly is called sacrifice at an altar. The words, “our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” really mean the same as Eucharistic Sacrifice. Then we have, “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee.” What is all this? Is it now sacrifices of the Mass, with only a single plural? The we come to, “And although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service.” In the context and by the grammar, the “service” is, indeed, sacrifice, clearly hinting by way of the Biblical allusion (Rom. 12:1) to the word λατρεία (latreia), meaning worship, or service in the sense of a liturgy or service of worship.

          Of course, sacrifice means not only an offering for sin, but any and every act of worship. Nonetheless, that does not explain everything in our Book of Common Prayer Service of Holy Communion. Yes, there is only one sacrifice for sin, and it was made, as everyone knows, once for all by Christ on the altar of the cross. “There is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone.” It was the one perfect offering for sin, for all the sins of the entire human race (I John 2:2).

          It was also the one perfect act of human worship from the one who lived in perfect obedience. In truth, we cannot offer sacrifice at all, not even worship, except through and in Christ and by His cross and passion. Indeed, this is the key for reconciling the truth to the truth, for reconciling the fact of Christ’s once for all sacrifice with the offering of the Church in every time and place on the altar we have; that altar from which we eat, but from which those who serve under the old system of types and shadows may not partake, “for the newer rite is here.”

          We may indeed call the Eucharist the sacrifice, not really a sacrifice as much as the sacrifice. “This do in remembrance of Me” was spoken in the context of the New Covenant meal (Jer. 31: 31-34), something that Jewish understanding could not miss. Just as every year Jews hold not a Passover, but the Passover – the same Passover that Moses held – so there is only one Eucharist, or Mass, or Divine Liturgy or service of Holy Communion.

          This one Eucharist is the same supper that Christ gave to His disciples in the upper room; and it is the same sacrifice that He offered once for all on the altar of the cross. We do not sacrifice Christ again, but neither do we merely celebrate a metaphor. We gather with the disciples and our Lord in the Upper Room for the one feast that never ends until He comes again (I Cor. 11:26); and we worship at the altar of His cross where He offered the one sacrifice for everyone throughout all time. We are really there with Him without a barrier, neither time nor space dividing. There is one Sacrifice, and every celebration of the Eucharist is mystically joined to that one event, that offering by Christ of Himself as "priest and victim, in the Eucharistic feast." There is one Supper of the Lord, and every Eucharist is the same supper that Christ held in the night in which he was betrayed.

          Writing in 1624, speaking for the Anglican position, a Church of England priest named William Bedell wrote about Eucharistic Sacrifice:


"[If by it you mean] a memory and representation of the true Sacrifice and holy immolation made on the altar of the cross...we do offer the sacrifice for the quick and the dead, by which all their sins are meritoriously expiated, and desiring that by the same, we and all the Church may obtain remission of sins, and all other benefits of Christ's Passion."

          
By thinking through the apparent contradictions, both my inner Catholic and my inner Evangelical come together as an Evangelical Catholic, which is what constitutes an Anglican.