4 Church Fathers Abused by RC Apologists for the Roman Mass

 

#1 - St. Cyprian

"If Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, is himself the high priest of God the Father; and if he offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father; and if he commanded that this be done in commemoration of himself, then certainly the priest, who imitates that which Christ did, truly functions in place of Christ." (Letter 63 to Caecilius)

I grant that this quote taken by itself, might appear to be proof for the claims of the papists. However, I point out that he interpreted Malachi 1:11 in a way that is contrary to the dogmatic definition given by the Council of Trent (namely that Malachi speaks of the propitiatory sacrifice of the Roman Mass). He speaks in his treatise Contra Judaeos of Malachi speaking of spiritual sacrifices: 

“In Isaiah: For what purpose to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the Lord: I am full; I will not have the burnt sacrifices of rams, and fat of lambs, and blood of bulls and goats. For who has required these things from your hands?  Isaiah 1:11-12 Also in the forty-ninth Psalm: I will not eat the flesh of bulls, nor drink the blood of goats. Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me on the day of trouble, and I will deliver you: and you shall glorify me. In the same Psalm, moreover: The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: therein is the way in which I will show him the salvation of God. In the fourth Psalm too: Sacrifice the sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord. Likewise in Malachi: I have no pleasure concerning you, says the Lord, and I will not have an accepted offering from your hands. Because from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name is glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place odours of incense are offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice, because great is my name among the nations, says the Lord.”

#2 - St. Basil of Caesarea

"It is good and beneficial to communicate every day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ. . . . once the priest has completed the offering . . ." (Letter 93)

We Reformed allow that the Eucharist in a sense may be called a "sacrifice", if by that is intended a spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving, praise, and remembrance to God, thus we have no real issue with what Basil says here. Jerome Zanchius, a man who helped develop Reformed theology after the death of John Calvin, says the following:

“But if any one, shall teach that this sacrifice, of which we have been speaking is , by the whole Church, or even by the priest himself as they call him ) in the name of the whole Church , offered to God in the congregation as propitiatory, in this sense, viz . that each one, being satisfied with that single sacrifice of Christ which was once for all offered to the Father for our sins, acquiesces entirely in it, and so prays the Father, that He would accept this one only sacrifice, of which a public commemoration is celebrated in the Lord's Supper, both by words and ritual actions, in the place of all the oblations, satisfactions, works, and in short, of all those things which man could devise as necessary for the expiation of our sins and for our eternal salvation—with such an one we will by no means contend . For as regards the thing itself, who can disapprove of these things ; since in the oblation of such a sacrifice the sum of Christian piety consists . But far otherwise is it wont to be taught under the Papacy.” (Jerome Zanchius, Commentarius in Epistolam sancti Pauli ad Ephesios)

#3 - St. John Chrysostom

There are three passages commonly cited by the Papists from Chrysostom's writings which we need to examine here:

“When you see the Lord immolated and lying upon the altar, and the priest bent over that sacrifice praying, and all the people empurpled by that precious blood, can you think that you are still among men and on earth? Or are you not lifted up to heaven?” (On the Priesthood, Book III, section 4).

“Reverence, therefore, reverence this table, of which we are all communicants! Christ, slain for us, the sacrificial victim who is placed thereon!” (Homilies on Romans 8:8) 

“What then? Do we not offer daily? Yes, we offer, but making remembrance of his death; and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because this sacrifice is offered once, like that in the Holy of Holies. This sacrifice is a type of that, and this remembrance a type of that. We offer always the same, not one sheep now and another tomorrow, but the same thing always. Thus there is one sacrifice. By this reasoning, since the sacrifice is offered everywhere, are there, then, a multiplicity of Christs? By no means! Christ is one everywhere. He is complete here, complete there, one body. And just as he is one body and not many though offered everywhere, so too is there one sacrifice” (Homilies on Hebrews, 17).

I reply, by noting the context of the overall passage in the section of his homilies on Hebrews, which answer each of these texts cited against us from St. Chrysostom's writings:

"He is our High Priest, who offered the sacrifice that cleanses us. That we offer now also, which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done in remembrance of what was then done. For (says He) do this in remembrance of Me. Luke 22:19 It is not another sacrifice, as the High Priest, but we offer always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a Sacrifice." (John Chrysostom, Homily 17 on Hebrews)

#4 - St. Gregory Nazianzen

"Cease not to pray and plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when in an unbloody cutting you cut the Body and Blood of the Lord, using your voice for a sword” (Letter to Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium)

I do not really see how this passage could be used for the mass, but I could see how one might infer the doctrine of transubstantiation from this text, and therefore I will reply to that objection. Elsewhere, Gregory Nazianzen teaches against transubstantiation when he says "Since then I knew these things, and that no one is worthy of the mightiness of God, and the sacrifice, and priesthood, who has not first presented himself to God, a living, holy sacrifice, and set forth the reasonable, well-pleasing service, Romans 12:1 and sacrificed to God the sacrifice of praise and the contrite spirit, which is the only sacrifice required of us by the Giver of all; how could I dare to offer to Him the external sacrifice, the antitype of the great mysteries," (Oration 2.95)