Page "Sacrifice" Paragraph 32

< span id =" suffering "></ span > The concept of self-sacrifice and martyrs are central to Christianity.

Often found in Roman Catholicism is the idea of joining one's own sufferings to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Thus one can offer up involuntary suffering, such as illness, or purposefully embrace suffering in acts of penance.

Some Protestants criticize this as a denial of the all-sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, but it finds support in St. Paul: " Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church " ( Col 1: 24 ).

Pope John Paul II explained in his Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris ( 11 February 1984 ):" In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed ... Every man has his own share in the Redemption.

Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished ... In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption.

Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ ... The sufferings of Christ created the good of the world's redemption.

This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite.

No man can add anything to it.

But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering " ( Salvifici Doloris 19 ; 24 ). Some Protestants reject the idea of the Eucharist as a sacrifice, inclining to see it as merely a holy meal ( even if they believe in a form of the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as Lutherans do ).

The more recent the origin of a particular tradition, the less emphasis is placed on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist.

The Catholic / Orthodox response is that the sacrifice of the Mass in the New Covenant is that one sacrifice for sins on the cross which transcends time offered in an unbloody manner, as discussed above, and that Christ is the real priest at every Mass working through mere human beings to whom he has granted the grace of a share in his priesthood.

As priest carries connotations of " one who offers sacrifice ", Protestants usually do not use it for their clergy.

Evangelical Protestantism emphasizes the importance of a decision to accept Christ's sacrifice on the Cross consciously and personally as atonement for one's individual sins if one is to be saved — this is known as " accepting Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior ".