If the Mass propitiates repeatedly, how is it superior to OT sacrifices?
Robert Sungenis answers that the Mass is not a new sacrifice but the sacramental re-presentation of the one completed sacrifice of Calvary. He argues Old Testament offerings had only temporary efficacy because the reality had not yet been accomplished, while the Mass makes the same once-for-all Christ present sacramentally and so applies that one sacrifice with superior efficacy.
If Mass is offered again and again to avert God’s wrath, how is it superior to undefiled lambs in the OT, since both aim at propitiation?
Answer
The Mass is not a new sacrifice but the sacramental re-presentation of the one, completed sacrifice of Calvary. OT offerings prefigured and had only temporary efficacy because the reality had not yet been accomplished. In the New Covenant, the same once-for-all Christ is made present sacramentally; therefore the Mass truly applies the one sacrifice with superior efficacy.