Martin Luther
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MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
“The significance or purpose of this sacrament is the fellowship of all saints, whence it derives its<br />
common name synaxis or communio, that is, fellowship; and communicare means to take part in<br />
this fellowship, or as we say, to go to the sacrament, because Christ and all saints are one spiritual<br />
body, just as the inhabitants of a city are one community and body, each citizen being a member of<br />
the other and a member of the entire city. This fellowship is of such a nature that all the spiritual<br />
possessions of Christ and His saints are imparted and communicated to him who receives this<br />
sacrament.”<br />
(<strong>Martin</strong> <strong>Luther</strong>,1519 Treatise Concerning the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ (Princeton:<br />
Princeton University Press))<br />
“Therefore, it comes about that no one attains grace because he is absolved or baptized or<br />
receives Communion or is anointed, but because he believes that he attains grace by being<br />
absolved, baptized, receiving Communion, and being anointed in this way. It is not the sacrament<br />
but faith in the sacrament that justifies. Likewise the well-known statement of St. Augustine: “it<br />
justifies not because it is performed, but because it is believed.”<br />
<strong>Martin</strong> <strong>Luther</strong>, Lectures on Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1968), 172. This<br />
work, published in 1520-1521, demonstrates a progression in <strong>Luther</strong>’s theology from that of his 1519 work on the<br />
Blessed Sacrament..]”<br />
1849 Encylical of Pius IX and the concept of Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth.<br />
The Rejection of Mass as a Sacrifice<br />
This is because this has been done once and for all at the cross of Calvary. Eucharist involves a<br />
sacrifice of praise and self-offering that unites the believer with the sacrifice of Christ. The<br />
Sacrifice of Christ itself was a one-time event that is not “repeated” in the Eucharistic celebration.<br />
According to theRoman Catholic New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, vol 2, question 357, "The mass is the<br />
sacrifice of the new law in which Christ, through the Ministry of the priest, offers himself to God in an unbloody manner<br />
under the appearances of bread and wine. The mass is the sacrifice of Christ offered in a sacramental manner . . . the<br />
reality is the same but the appearances differ."<br />
Question 358 asks "What is a sacrifice?" The answer given is "A sacrifice is the offering of a victim by a priest to God<br />
alone, and the destruction of it in some way to knowledge that he is the creator of all things." From the Baltimore<br />
catechism we can conclude that the mass is the offering of Christ by a priest.<br />
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