On this Easter day 2022 we will do a short piece about Christs sacrifice, its relation to the mass and life. Christ tells us he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). It seems that Christ is saying in his life is the example (way) of the truth about the significance of life. Life for a Catholic is a life of healing and sacrifice for others. That is why the Catholic Sunday equivalent of the practice of keeping holy the sabbath, called the mass, is known as the Holy Sacrifice of the mass among Catholics from the time of Jesus Christ until shortly after the end of Vatican II. This council worked with at least 6 protestant ministers to make the mass “more acceptable” to protestants conceivably to influence a repair of the divide between Catholics and the rest of the Christian world.
Vatican II tried to reinterpret the mass as a celebration, a commemoration of the last supper instead of an unbloodied sacrifice married in reality (in essence exactly the same sacrifice as Calvary) to the infinite (in that it was made by Jesus Christ who is the infinite God) sacrifice of calvary. In the communion of the mass, he gives us his actual body, blood, soul and divinity to eat under the appearances of bread and wine. He can do this because he is almighty God and to be Catholic and “saved” we must believe this and let him work through us to change the world as his hands and presence on earth. A sacrifice must be consumed and symbolically we lose use of it and is thought to “return to God.” With Christ He is not only consumed by us in the Eucharist and we consumed by his love to help our fellow man but in the ascension He in reality actually does return to the father.
The changes in the mass and doctrines from Vatican II, has only succeeded in less belief in key doctrines of the catholic church, most notably the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There has also been a reduction of the number of both converts and number of people applying to become nuns, brothers and priests (this application or calling to become nuns, brothers and priests are called vocations by Catholics) in parishes’ that follow the new mass “constructed” by Vatican II committee. Those that participate in the mass as it evolved organically for the first few centuries had existed almost unchanged from the 4th century as a sacrifice for all the Christian world (all of which were catholic or universal until then) until the protestant revolution in the 15 hundreds – more than a millennium, on the other hand, has had and increase in their vocations. Avoiding the practice of contraception, which is in essence against natural law and thereby the first commandment, has arguably resulted in more stable marriages and more children for sure.
In my opinion the new mass celebration is a move away from the truth. In the catechism we are taught that man was created to know, love and serve God in this life and to enjoy eternal happiness with him in the next. Life is sacrifice to achieve the goal of knowing loving and serving God mostly through sacrifice to bring non-Catholics to the realization and knowledge of who God is as well as what he desires from us and through loving care, support all in danger of harm and poverty (Matthew 25: 36. James 2:14-26, Deuteronomy 15:7-11). The truth is that life is sacrifice not celebration.
The truth converts. Christ is the Truth. In the first few centuries of the Church the pitch was that you had to be loyal to Christ and his Church, precepts, doctrine etc. – the Truth, and you might be persecuted, even tortured and martyred but you would attain eternal happiness after death. Death was a high probability outcome, yet people flocked to Catholicism and eventually to just the Christian philosophy when people started to believe under Martin Luther that exactly Catholic isn’t necessary (even though Holy Scripture (The Bible) says Jesus doesn’t change and by implication his church doesn’t change – Hebrews 13:8). The Truth of Easter is that Christ did rise from the dead, credible witnesses saw it and spread the word. Christ rising from the dead, on Easter day, was proof, to many, that he was God and the Truth He spoke (knowing what he said was true in that He was God) lead to happiness in this world as well as eternal happiness in the next. His message was one of a God who loves us, of truth and of happiness for eternity. Truth in general cannot change. 2 plus 2 base 10 will always equal 4. Truth is truth.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 