RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Mass
a purely hierurgic transaction. For Ambrose it will suffice to cite merely the Enarratio in Psalm xxxviii., nos. 25, 26. He says that the " priests " offer the " body of Christ," i. e., the elements with their true content perceived by faith, viz., " Christ himself." But the truth of the matter is for Ambrose this, that Christ continually offers to God in heaven the " perfect man," i. e., the Christian who has actually received Christ at the hands of the priest. Ambrose regards the eucharistic bread and wine as " medicine "; the conception of a " sacrificial meal " has quite disappeared. With Augustine (De civitate Dei, x. 4 sqq.) a sacrifice is something which is addressed to God that we may have close connection with God. Every "visible sacrifice " is only a "sacrament of an invisible sacrifice." The sacrifice of the death of Christ makes it possible that " the congregation of saints be presented a general sacrifice to God by the great high priest, who also in his passion sacrificed himself for us that we might be the body of so great a head." The thought that the " body of Christ " in the Lord's Supper is the Church — " in a sacrament " — and the question, whether merely bread and wine or a wonder in reference to the real body of Christ constituted the sacrament, are discussed further in Sermon cclxxii. In Contra Faustum Manichceum, xx. 15 sqq., all of Augustine's thoughts on the Christian sacrifices are summed up. The influence of both Ambrose and Augustine on the interpretation of the eucharistic sacrifice has always been great. And the rich subjective passionmysticism which Roman Catholicism connects with the sacrifice of the mass is derived chiefly from the Ambrosian-Augustinian tradition.
Passing over the theologians of the next two centuries, at the boundary between the patristic and the medieval time stands Gregory the Great, theologically without originality, yet by his position one of the greatest of teachers, and even more so because of the popular, pastoral manner 3. Gregory in which, with citation of many exthe Great, amples preferably from his own knowledge and experience, he expounded what seemed to him of most practical importance. The official dogmas are not prominent in his works. But questions of the cult and of the spiritual discipline interested him both as preacher and writer. He considers it fully settled how one should think about sacrifice. In the Horn, in Evangelia (II., xxxvii. 7) he treats of the significance of the sacrifice of the mass for "absolution," for release from the effects of any fault. A " legation " must be sent to God and works of mercy shown to him, but before all " let us offer on his altar the sacrifices [hostias] of propitiation; for the sacrifice of the sacred altar, offered with tears and benevolence of mind, pleads especially for our absolution, because he who, having risen from the dead, now no longer dies, still in this dies again for us in his mystery. For as often as we offer to him the sacrifice of his passion, so often do we renew for ourselves his passion for our absolution." Especially celebrated in the Middle Ages were certain remarks of Gregory's in the " Dialogues " (iv. 58, 59). He has been speaking of the efficacy of the sacrifice of the mass for departed souls, prisoners, etc., and says it is
better " to die free than to seek freedom after chains." So he commends " the daily sacrifice of tears to God and to offer daily the sacrifice of his flesh and blood. For that victim especially saves the soul from everlasting death which by a mystery renews for us that death of the only begotten, who in himself living immortal and incorruptible is sacrificed again for us in this mystery of the sacred offering. For his body is taken there, his flesh is broken for the salvation of the people, his blood is poured not on the hands of unbelievers but in the mouths of the faithful. So let us appreciate what this sacrifice for us is, which imitates for our absolution the passion of the only begotten son. For who of the faithful can doubt that in the very hour of the sacrifice the heavens are opened to the voice of the priest, that a choir of angels attends that mystery of Jesus Christ, that the lowest are joined with the highest, the earth with the heavens, and that one thing is done by those visible and invisible ? "
The ideas of the East do not differ essentially from those of the West between 300 and 600. Eusebius of Csesarea (Demonstratio evangelica, i. 10) conceives of the Eucharist as self-evidently a propitiatory sacrificial act. If Christ on the cross was
the predicted atoning sacrifice for Jews 4. The and Gentiles, then both as Christians East. attain forgiveness of their sins " by
daily making mention of his body and blood." Christ's sacrifice was made once for all, but he has commanded us to " offer a memorial of it to God perpetually." Eusebius's idea of the ceremony as a sacrifice was purely representative. He considers the ritual part as exclusively hierurgic and interprets only the incensing as a sacrifice of Christians. In the Apostolic Constitutions (ii. 25) the " gifts " are fixed requirements for the Eucharist and the support of clergy and widows. The " offering of the Eucharist " (ii. 57) depends on the " gifts," since the " sacrifice " follows after they have been made. Book viii. 12 gives the first complete liturgy. As in Justin, the entire ceremony is thought of as " sacrifice," in which the " offering " has a special place. The offering of the body and blood signifies also " thanks." Cyril of Jerusalem calls the elements a " spiritual sacrifice " and a " sacrifice of propitiation " (" Catechetical Mysteries," v. 8). When " the holy and most awful sacrifice has been made," we offer to God, in prayers for the departed, " Christ slain for our sins, propitiating the benevolent God for them and for us " (v. 9). A definite theory of the manner of the sacrifice is sought in vain in Cyril, Eusebius, and the other Fathers of the time. Evidently the thought of the Supper as a meal counted for more in the speculation of the East than of the West, but perhaps not in popular interest. The recollection of the sacrificial meal seems to have lasted longer than in the West. Little attempt was made to explain what a sacrifice is or what there is sacrificial in the Lord's Supper. The Alexandrian and Antiochian schools are in accord when they come to treat of the doctrine of sacrifice as an act.
Apart from sermons and the productions of the mystagogical literature (see Mystagogic Theoit
Mass