A. The Lord”s supper declares to us that our sins have been completely forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he himself finished on the cross once for all.1 It also declares to us that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ,2 who with his very body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father3 where he wants us to worship him.4 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 in 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.

Biblical References:

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 *Question and answer 80 were altogether absent from the first edition of the Catechism, and were present in a shortened form in the second edition. The translation here given is of the text of the third edition.

Trinity Reformed Church