The “Sacrifice of the Mass” by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 14, 1915

The “Sacrifice of the Mass”

By C. M. S.

“Rome Never Changes”—No. 9

The “Sacrifice of the Mass”

(Continued)

It was pointed out in the preceding article on this topic that the mass is regarded in the Roman Church as a true sacrifice, a propitiatory sacrifice for both the living and the dead; that, through transubstantiation, the thin, round wafer becomes the very flesh and blood, soul and divinity, of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the wafer and Jesus himself are one and the same, the victim on the cross and the “victim” (so-called) on the altar of the Catholic Church also one and the same; that the sacrifice of the mass is a bloodless sacrifice, and is necessary in order to make complete the sacrifice offered on Calvary.

It was shown that if the sacrifice of the mass were a true and propitiatory sacrifice, and if Christ were in the wafer, then he has been offered many thousands of times since the institution of the mass, thus contradicting the Scripture declaration

that Christ was offered once, and only once, for the sins of men.

While it is declared that this “sacrifice” is efficacious for both the living and the dead, in practice it pertains chiefly to the dead; and it is through the love of the living for the dead that the sacrifice of the mass becomes a mine of wealth for the Roman system. Fabulous sums are turned into the coffers of the church every year by the living relatives of the dead in payment for the saying of masses. But those who know what the Word of God says in reference to the state of the dead, know that all the masses said since the system was inaugurated cannot change the condition or the prospect of one single soul that has passed beyond the portal of the tomb. The closing of the eyes in death closes the record of the life, and by that record man is judged worthy or unworthy of everlasting life. Says the preacher:—

“If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” Eccl. 11:3.

By that we understand that man’s case is ready for judgment when Death has laid its cold hand upon him. There is nothing that can be done then to change the record of his life. The rich man who has robbed the poor man, cannot, with that ill-gotten wealth, bribe the keeper of purgatory, and purchase a swift release from the place of punishment and a swift entrance into the mansions of the blest. Were that procedure possible, God would be doing for money (as if he needed money) what he would not do for justice. It is a common thing for the wicked and the selfish of this world to bribe officials and secure for money what they cannot secure, and are not entitled to have, by the plain rules of justice. But God is not to be bribed. He is not a corrupt official. He does not release some men and women from the pains of purgatory because they had, or their relatives have, plenty of money to pay for masses, and then hold other men in the fearful torments of that place of anguish and distress and unutterable pain because some one has not the money to pay for masses, or, having it, has used it for other things. Such a conception of God, of the attributes of his character, and of the principles of his government, is diametrically opposed to what the Bible teaches us of God and his character and his government.

As if anticipating that such injustice and inequality of judgment might some day be charged against the Almighty, the patriarch Job asks:—

“Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?” Job 8:3.

He does not give an answer. Surely such a question answers itself, as does that other question, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” In another connection Job does make this emphatic declaration:—

“Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.” Job 34:12.

The psalmist declares of him that he “shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.” Ps. 9:8. It is again declared of him that “justice and judgment are the habitation” of his throne. Ps. 89:14. The revelator declares that at the day of final accounts God will “give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. If there were such a place as purgatory, conducted as the Roman Church teaches that it is conducted, not one of these texts could be true. For, according to that teaching, men are not rewarded according to what their works have been, but according as they have been able to pay money to the priest for masses; and men are not judged according to the rules of justice and impartial judgment, but their ability to get through purgatory expeditiously depends upon the fortune they have left, and what their relatives spend it for. If it is spent for masses, the deceased goes through purgatory with comparative ease and in a comparatively short time; but if the relatives of the dead put his money to other uses, the deceased may remain in that place of torment for years or ages. What a charge is this against the justice and love of God! Why should masses be said to get souls out of purgatory, when those souls are in purgatory to be purified and made fit to enter heaven? Doesn’t God know when their purification is complete? If souls are hurried through purgatory by the saying of masses, would there not be danger of their entering heaven before they were purified and fit to enter there? If purgatory is a place of cleansing, how can the payment of money expedite that cleansing process? Or are souls released from purgatory merely on demand of the priest? In that case, purgatory is not a place of cleansing, but of detention merely, and the price of exit is as many masses as the relatives can afford to pay for.

The doctrine of purgatory and the mass is thus seen to be self-contradictory and self-destructive. If purgatory is a place of necessary purification, the mass for the dead is out of place, and defeats the object of purgatory, by releasing souls on the payment of money when their purification is still incomplete. If souls, after their purification is complete, are kept in the torments of that place because masses have not been paid for, the system contradicts itself again; for it is money and not purification that determines when the doors of that place shall be opened for each individual soul.

There are numerous texts of Scripture which disprove the claims of the Catholic Church concerning the work which the mass is supposed to do for the dead. A few must suffice. If the dead are unconscious, there can be no suffering; and if there is no suffering between death and the day of final judgment, the pains of purgatory are a myth and have nothing upon which to operate; and masses for the dead cannot release the dead from pains they are not suffering. Speaking of man’s condition in death, the patriarch Job says:—

“But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? . . . So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. . . . If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. . . . Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14:10-21.

Job declares they shall not rise till the heavens be no more; but this does not imply that they shall never rise from the grave at all; for he says, “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.” There is coming a time, at the last day, when “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.” 2 Peter 3:10-12. That is the time of the coming of the Lord and of the resurrection, to which time Job’s prophecy pointed forward. There was no purgatory in Job’s day, so far as he knew.

“The preacher, the son of David,” speaking by inspiration, bears this testimony against purgatory, and consequently against the mass as a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead:—

“The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun. . . . Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:5-10.

The psalmist also bears testimony against purgatory, and therefore necessarily against masses for the dead. In speaking of the death of man, he says:—

“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4.

“The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Ps. 115:17.

“In death there is no remembrance of thee.” Ps. 6:5.

Not even David, the servant of the Lord, the sweet singer of Israel, had regained consciousness at the time when Peter gave his great Pentecost sermon; for Peter, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, says, “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:34. That is the testimony of him whom Rome claims as the first pope, and it ought to settle the question with Catholics especially as to whether men go to heaven before the day of final judgment, or whether they can be helped out of purgatory and into heaven by masses said in their behalf; and the testimony from Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes, and other scriptures ought to settle the question for all Christians as to whether there is a state of consciousness, in either misery or bliss, between death and the resurrection.

The dead are sleeping, awaiting the call of God. They will come forth in the resurrection, “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt,” to go down in the “second death” to everlasting oblivion. That is the plain teaching of the Scripture; and that being true, the “sacrifice of the mass” is entirely outside the program of the Almighty. Money paid for masses is money wasted. God cannot be bribed to alter judgment in the cases of the dead because of money paid to any one on earth by the living, or bequeathed to any one on his own behalf for that purpose.

The claim that the mass is necessary to make effective the sacrifice on Calvary and the relation of the mass to Christ himself will be considered in another article. C. M. S.