29. How is the manner of offering different in both?
On the Cross Christ offered Himself in a bloody manner; but in the Mass He offers Himself in an unbloody manner, whilst He renews the Sacrifice accomplished on the Cross, without suffering or dying any more.
30. If Christ dies no more, how, then, can the Sacrifice which He consummated on the Cross be renewed in the Mass?
It is renewed, because in the Mass Christ offers Himself really and truly under the emblems of the bloody death which He suffered on the Cross — that is, under the separated appearances of bread and wine.
By virtue of the words which the Priest pronounces, the Body of Christ becomes present under the appearance of bread, and His Blood under the appearance of wine; and both these appearances being visibly separated from each other, the separation of the Blood from the Body, consequently the bloody death on the Cross is represented in an unbloody, mystical manner. This unbloody renewal is, however, not made in order that we may be redeemed anew, for the Sacrifice of the Cross was sufficient for the redemption of the whole world; but that we may have a standing memorial, and a lively, though unbloody, representation of the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross, by which God is perfectly honored, and the abundant fruits of the Redemption are applied to our souls.
31. How do we prove that, from the time of the Apostles, the Mass has always been celebrated?
We prove this, 1. By the words of St. Paul, which clearly show that as early as in the times of the Apostles the Christians had an altar of their own; 1 for where an altar is, there must also be a Sacrifice; and 2. By the undeniable testimonies of the holy Fathers, the decrees of the Councils, the most ancient prayers of the Mass, and by many other memorials of the Eastern and Western Churches.
1'We [Christians] have an altar, whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle,' i.e., the Jews (Hebr. xiii. 10; comp. 1 Cor. x. 18-21).
