The Eucharistic Sacrifice

Who offers the Eucharistic sacrifice? Christ or the Church, the priest or the people? If all of these how do their roles differ and how are they related?

The Church Offers:

The whole family of God, the Church, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice, especially the faithful who are present. This is clearly indicated in the very words of the liturgy. Christ instituted the Eucharist precisely in order that the Church, His beloved spouse, might have a visible sacrifice to offer to God, as the nature of the human creature requires.

But who in the Church offers? Obviously the priest does. But in what capacity? Simply as leader of the congregation? Or does the priest have a special role as representative of Christ or as representative of the Church? If both, how are these roles related? How about the people? How is their offering related to that of the priest? Is their mode of offering the same or different from that of the priest?

The Priest Offers:

The priest offers in the person of Christ, in the name of the Church, and in his own name. The Protestants see the presiding minister of the Lord’s Supper acting simply as the leader of the congregation, certainly with a special responsibility and authority, but without any unique sacramental empowerment through the sacrament of Holy Orders.

But according to Catholic teaching, the priest, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, is so configured to Christ the High Priest that in the celebration of the Eucharist he acts in the very person of Christ. Only the priest, in virtue of the special character of priestly ordination, can speak the words of consecration in the very person of Christ. In doing so, he acts not merely as Christ’s representative, but in His person, as His sacramental representation. It is for this reason that the priest alone is able to confect the Eucharist. If there is no priest, there can be no Mass.

Pius XII, in his encyclical: Mystici Corporis writes: “The sacred ministers represent not only our Savior, but also the whole mystical Body and each one of its members. In that sacrifice the faithful are associated in the common prayer and supplication and, through the hands of the priest, whose voice alone renders the Immaculate Lamb present on the altar, they themselves offer to the eternal Father this most pleasing victim of praise and propitiation for the needs of the whole Church.”

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching