This class continues to examine the use of the term, “mass.”  We must distinguish between our preservation of the Mass (rightly understood) and our rejection of the Roman Mass.

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XXIV, states, “At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things….”

Nevertheless, The Smalcald Articles, II. 5, says, “But since the Mass is nothing else and can be nothing else (as the Canon and all books declare), than a work of men (even of wicked scoundrels), by which one attempts to reconcile himself and others to God, and to obtain and merit the remission of sins and grace (for thus the Mass is observed when it is observed at the very best; otherwise what purpose would it serve?), for this very reason it must and should [certainly] be condemned and rejected. For this directly conflicts with the chief article, which says that it is not a wicked or a godly hireling of the Mass with his own work, but the Lamb of God and the Son of God, that taketh away our sins.”

Handout: SACRIFICE-IN-THE-MASS-in-Book-of-Concord.pdf
Handout 2: Divine-Service-Order-and-Roman-Mass.pdf
Overhead: canon-of-the-Mass.pdf
Overhead 2: Todays-Missal.pdf

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