Of the Lord's Supper, XXIX:2b

In this sacrament, Christ is not offered up to His Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all, for remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a commemoration of that one offering up of Himself, by Himself, upon the cross, once for all: and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God, for the same: so that the popish sacrifice of the mass (as they call it) is most abominably injurious to Christ's one, only sacrifice, the only propitiation for all the sins of His elect.

With yesterday's several citations from the 1994 Roman Catholic catechism fresh in mind, we consider today the words of Ludwig Ott from his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma:

“The sacrifice of the Mass effects the remission of the temporal punishments for sin which still remain after the forgivement of the guilt of sins and of the eternal punishment, not merely mediately by the conferring of the grace of penance, but also immediately, because the atonement of Jesus Christ is offered as a substitute for our works of atonement and for the sufferings of the poor souls. The measurement of the punishments of sins remitted is proportional, in the case of the living, to the degree of perfection of their disposition. In the case of the suffering souls, the satisfactory operation of the Sacrifice of the Mass is applied by way of intercession…As they are in the state of grace and those oppose no obstacle, theologians generally teach that at least part of their punishments for sins is infallibly remitted.”

As James White observes, “In Roman Catholic theology, a person can attend a thousand masses and still leave this life ‘not yet fully purified.’ The ramifications of this should not be missed, especially in light of the claim that the Mass is the same sacrifice as that of Calvary.”

Tomorrow: The biblical doctrine of the Supper examined.