TRADITION: Mass is the repeated un-bloody sacrifice of the body and blood of
Jesus
TRUTH: Jesus suffered, bled and died as God's sacrifice once for all on
the Cross
The Catholic tradition of mass began around A.D. 1100 nearly 700 years after the beginning of Catholicism. Mass is defined as the un-bloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Jesus which is contained in the wafer and wine given by the priest. The word mass means to send away implying forgiveness of sin. This changing of the elements from wafer and wine to the actual body and blood of Jesus is known as transubstantiation and constitutes that 'they crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame'. (Hebrews 6:6)
This religious tradition is derived from an inaccurate interpretation of Jesus' Words found in John 6:51-58 when He spoke to the Jews gathered around Him: "I am the living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world...Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day; For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that Bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever."
Jesus, here, is using His physical body and blood to teach the Spiritual necessity of consuming and digesting Him/His Word into the heart and soul by faith that Spiritual power might be given to those who are willing to follow His simple but powerful lesson. He is requiring full and complete surrender to Him and His Word! Later in this same chapter Jesus emphasizes the significant Spiritual power of His Word underlining the truth given prior when He says: 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, they are Life.' (John 6:63) Jesus Who is the Living Word must be fully digested through memory and meditation if the believer wants Spiritual success (Joshua 1:8) and to be filled with His Spirit! (Colossians 3:16,17; Ephesians 5:18,19)
Concerning God's requirement for forgiveness of sin, the Scripture clearly teaches: "By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering often times the same sacrifices which can never take away sins; But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:10-12). One Supreme Sacrifice offered by the Son of God for the sins of the whole world for all time, not the traditional and sacrilegious offering of seemingly endless multiple masses 'which can never take away sins'!
Ephesians 1:7 echoes this foundational truth: 'In Whom we have redemption through His Blood, even the forgiveness of sins; according to the riches of His grace." Colossians 1:14 also teaches the same truth: 'In Whom we have redemption through His Blood, even the forgiveness of sin' as do these other verses in the Word of God (John 1:29; 3:16; Romans 6:23; Colossians 2:13; I John 2:12; 5:12). We can therefore accurately say that God's Truth triumphs over the most ancient traditions of man regardless of how tenaciously held or widespread their practice!