The Mass multiplies not the one sacrifice, but the
presences of the one sacrifice. This is misunderstood by Protestant
commentators, who since Luther and Calvin, avail themselves of this verse [Heb
10:27] in order to condemn the mass. (Charles Cardinal Journet, The Mass:
The Presence of the Sacrifice of the Cross [trans. Victor Szczurek; South
Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press, 2008], 22 n. 27; comment in square brackets
added for clarification)
If the unbloody sacrifice of the Last Supper
sacramentally contains the reality of Christ and His bloody sacrifice already
begun, it must be said for that same reason that it is a true and proper
sacrifice—not another sacrifice than the unique sacrifice but another presence
of this unique sacrifice. TO speak formally, the notion of presence is
analogous: fir a natural presence, then a sacramental presence of the one sacrifice;
the notion of Christ’s sacrifice is not analogous but rather univocal.
We ought to speak of the Mass as we do of the Last Supper: it is a true and
proper sacrifice if it is a real presence of Christ and His one sacrifice. (Ibid.,
49)
The Eucharistic presence is, in fact, a presence of
Christ’s Body in a place, but not by way of place or dimension. It
is a real and true corporal presence, but of a new character. Before the consecration
the substance of bread, which sustains the species or appearances of the bread,
is found in the place by reason of its dimensions, directly, by way of place
or dimension After the consecration the substance of the Body of Christ,
along with the Word Who is united to it personally, is contained under the
species or appearances of bread in an essentially different manner. Now
it no longer sustains these appearances and thus enters into direct contact
with the place; but rather, it assumes the veil of these borrowed appearances
in order to enter thus into indirect contact with the place—now no
longer by manner of place, of dimension, of co-extension of each of the
parts of its proper expanse with the corresponding part of the surrounding body,
but in a more secret manner, the entire undivided Body of Christ (and
consequently Christ Himself, the Word made Flesh) being present under each
divided piece of species or appearances, and each divided piece of species or
appearances containing the entire undivided Body of Christ. This is what is
called the corporeal presence is a place, not by way of place, but by way of
substance. Between these two corporeal presences there is an analogy, a
proportion: just as before the consecration the bread is in the place by manner
of dimension and by means of its proper dimension, so proportionately after the
consecration the Body of Christ, without having undergone any change in itself,
is in the place by manner of substance and by means of the borrowed and assumed
dimensions of bread. (Ibid., 163-64)
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