Eucharistic Snake Oil

In an earlier time, before there were “truth in advertising” laws, snake oil salesmen could get away with this sort of thing:

Clark & Stanley’s snake oil liniment. Cures frost bites, chills, bruises, sore throat, bites of animals, insects and reptiles. It is good for everything a liniment should be good for. It gives immediate relief and it is only 50 cents. A wonderful pain destroying compound. The strongest and best liniment known for the cure of all pain and lameness. Used external only for rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains and swellings.

Nowadays, this same practice of advertising is adhered to by Roman apologists who want “the faithful” to think that somehow “the Eucharist” offers the cure for what ails them.

[Numbers refer to paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church]

• The last supper was a real sacrifice in which Christ’s blood was poured out for our sins in the cup. (*610, 621, 1339)

• In the Mass the bread & wine become the literal body & blood of Christ. (*1373-1377)

• Christs body & blood exist wholly & entirely in every fragment of consecrated bread & wine in every Roman Catholic Church around the world. (*1392, 1405, 1419)

• The consecrated bread & wine are heavenly food which can help one to attain to eternal life. (*1392, 1405, 1419)

• The consecrated bread & wine are to be worshipped as divine. (*1378-1381)

• Christ has ordained certain men to the ministerial office of the priesthood to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross by the performance of the mass. (*1142, 1547, 1577)

• The sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice of the cross. Only the manner in which it is offered is changed (*1085, 1365-1367)

• The sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated in the sacrifice of the Mass. (*1323, 1382)

• The Mass makes Christ present in His death & victimhood. (*1353, 1362, 1364, 1367, 1409)

• At each Mass the priest presents again to the Father the sacrifice of Christ. (*1354, 1357.)

• The Mass is an unbloody sacrifice which atones for the sins of both the living and the dead. (*1367, 1371, 1414)

• Each sacrifice of the Mass appeases God’s wrath on sin. (*1371, 1414)

• The faithful receive the benefits of the cross in fullest measure through the sacrifice of the Mass. (*1366, 1407)

• The sacrificial work of redemption is continued through the performance of the sacrificial Mass. (*1364, 1405, 1846)

• The Church is to continue the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world. (*1323, 1382, 1405, 1407)

( As noted previously, the story about how all of these things came to be believed is a long and convoluted one, and one must take such stories with a grain of salt. In other words, “test everything, hold fast what is good”.)