How does the Lord’s Supper differ from the Roman Catholic Mass?
Text: CRC/RCA 2011 · Read it at the source
The Lord’s Supper declares to us that all our sins are completely forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which he himself accomplished on the cross once for all. It also declares to us that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ, who with his true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father where he wants us to worship him. But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests. It also teaches that Christ is bodily present under the form of bread and wine where Christ is therefore to be worshiped. Thus the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ and a condemnable idolatry.**
Editor's note *Q&A 80 was altogether absent from the first edition of the catechism but was present in a shorter form in the second edition. The translation here given is of the expanded text of the third edition. **In response to a mandate from Synod 1998, the Christian Reformed Church’s Interchurch Relations Committee conducted a study of Q&A 80 and the Roman Catholic Mass. Based on this study, Synod 2004 declared that “Q&A 80 can no longer be held in its current form as part of our confession.” Synod 2006 directed that Q&A 80 remain in the CRC’s text of the Heidelberg Catechism but that the last three paragraphs be placed in brackets to indicate that they do not accurately reflect the official teaching and practice of today’s Roman Catholic Church and are no longer confessionally binding on members of the CRC.
Scripture proofs
- 1
- John 19:30; Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 25-26; 10:10-18
- 2
- 1 Cor. 6:17; 10:16-17
- 3
- Acts 7:55-56; Heb. 1:3; 8:1
- 4
- Matt. 6:20-21; John 4:21-24; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:1-3