Double Consecration and Sacrificial Signification in the Mass

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideThe Mass makes Christ's one sacrifice present and consecrates both species according to his institution; the rite is disciplined by the Church and sacrificial signification receives theological analysis.
Contents

Double Consecration and Sacrificial Signification in the Mass concern the distinct consecration of bread as Christ’s Body and wine as his Blood, by which the Eucharistic rite sacramentally represents the separation of Body and Blood in Christ’s one sacrifice while making the risen Lord wholly present.

The sacramental sign of sacrifice

At the Last Supper Christ took bread and declared it his Body given for his disciples, then took the chalice and declared it his Blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The Church obeys this institution by consecrating both species. Their distinct sacramental signs represent the sacrificial separation of Body and Blood on Calvary. This signification is not a dramatic illustration added to a meal; it belongs to the form in which Christ instituted the Eucharistic memorial of his sacrifice.

The Mass does not kill Christ again. His sacrifice was offered once for all in history, and the risen Christ dies no more. In the Eucharist the same priest and victim are sacramentally present under a different manner of offering. Double consecration represents the sacrificial death without reproducing it physically, and the Eucharistic Prayer offers the memorial before the Father. Re-presentation means efficacious making-present, not a theatrical reenactment or a second sacrifice alongside Calvary.[1]

Sacrament and sacrifice

The Eucharist is both sacrament and sacrifice. As sacrament it contains Christ under the species for Communion, adoration, and enduring presence. As sacrifice it makes present Christ's self-offering and joins the Church's offering to his. The two aspects cannot be separated into a consecrated object with no offering or an interior communal offering with no substantial presence. The double consecration helps disclose their unity by making the sacrificed and risen Lord present through sacrificial signs.[2]

Concomitance and the living Christ

Distinct consecrations do not result in a dead body under bread and separated blood under wine. By Eucharistic Concomitance the whole living Christ is present under either species. The Body is present under bread by the force of the words and the Blood accompanies it because Christ is indivisible; the corresponding relation holds under wine. Sacrificial signification and whole presence therefore answer different questions and must not be made to cancel one another.[3]

This distinction explains why Communion under one species gives the whole Christ while the Church still consecrates both species for the celebration of Mass. Complete reception by an individual communicant is not the same question as the integrity of the sacrificial sign enacted by the priest in the Eucharistic celebration. A pastoral provision for Communion under one kind cannot be projected backward into permission to omit the chalice from the consecratory action itself.

Integrity and sacramental validity

The Church's law and sacramental theology treat consecration of both bread and wine as required for the integrity of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Difficult hypothetical questions about a minister who consecrates only one species must distinguish the Real Presence under a species validly consecrated from the gravely defective and forbidden act that fails to complete the instituted sign. No pastoral convenience, shortage, allergy, or private theory authorizes a celebrant to redesign the double consecration.

The Church’s offering and participation

Christ is the principal offerer, acting through the ordained priest who speaks the Eucharistic Prayer in the person of Christ the Head and in the name of the Church. The baptized unite themselves, their work, suffering, praise, and intercession to his perfect self-offering. Their participation does not supply a sacrifice absent until the assembly contributes it, nor does priestly action make their offering irrelevant. The one sacramental sacrifice gathers Head and members in the order Christ established.

Catechesis on double consecration protects against opposite reductions. A merely commemorative account cannot explain the objective sacrificial presence confessed by the Church; a crude repetition theory contradicts the once-for-all character of Calvary. The instituted signs proclaim death, concomitance presents the risen Lord whole, and Communion gives the fruit of the sacrifice. Together they show why the Mass is simultaneously memorial, presence, offering, banquet, and pledge of glory.

References

  1. 1.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1356–1381 — The Eucharist as thanksgiving, memorial, sacramental re-presentation of Christ's one sacrifice, sacrifice of the Church, real presence, and pledge of glory
  2. 2.Ecclesia de Eucharistia — Saint John Paul II on the Eucharist as sacrifice in the strict sense, the sacramental making-present of Calvary, the ministerial priesthood, real presence, Communion, and ecclesial unity
  3. 3.Council of Trent, Session XIII — Definitive Catholic teaching on the real and substantial presence, transubstantiation, the whole Christ under either species by concomitance, reservation, reception, and Eucharistic worship