June 16 — On the blessed Eucharist as it is a Sacrifice of Adoration and Praise

Consider, first, the indispensable obligation incumbent upon man, as a rational creature, made by God, and for God, to present his homage of adoration, praise, and glory, to his Maker. For this reason, the children of God, from the beginning, offered up sacrifices to the Deity; for this reason, they instituted holo caustSy or whole burnt-offerings, in which the whole victim was consumed by fire, evaporating on God’s altar, in testimony of his being the sovereign Lord of all; for this reason, the Psalms were composed by divine inspiration, and appointed to be sung, together with musical instruments, to the praise and glory of God, and to accompany the sacrifices offered in the temple of God, Such was the zeal of these ancient servants of God for paying him the best homage they were able of adoration and praise; and such ought to be, at all times, the sincere disposition of all that believe in God, as to be willing to adore and praise, worship and serve, this their first Beginning and last End with all their power, and to consecrate their whole being to his glory. See, my soul, if this be thy disposition.

Consider, secondly, how little is all that man can offer, of his own fund, even though his whole being were to evaporate to the glory of God, when compared with the infinite majesty of God, and the homage and adoration which he deserves. If the whole creation could be made one holocaust, or burnt-offering, for the glory of God, alas! it would be all no more in the eyes of so great a King, than as if a grain of chaff were to be burnt in honour of some earthly monarch; because there is no proportion between thAt which is finite, and that which is infinite; and therefore the whole creation, compared to God, is less than one grain bf chaff, compared with an earthly monarch, or even with the whole creation. How mean, then, is all that man can offer of his own, or of any other creature’s! and how unworthy and insufficient to be made a sacrifice of adoration and praise to the divine Majesty 1 See then, my soul, how greatly we are obliged to the Son of God, who, by the institution of the blessed Eucharist, has furnished us with a sacrifice of adoration, homage, praise and glory, worthy of God, as being of an infinite value, by reason of the infinite dignity, both of the Priest and Victim.

Consider, thirdly, how our Lord, expiring and dying upon the cross, in obedience to his Father’s will, offered himself in sacri- ' fice in such manner, that his death was not only in the nature of a sin-offeringy or a sacrifice of propitiation for the sins of the world, but also in the nature of a burntoffering (in which the whole victim is given to God without reserve,) or a sacrifice of adoration, homage, praise and glory. As then, in the blessed Eucharist, Christ himself, in person, celebrates his own death, and offers up the same sacrifice, in substance, with that which he offered expiring upon the cross; so we have here the same adoration, homage, praise and glory, offered by Christ, as God’s High-Priest, and our High-Priest, to his eternal Father; and this sacrifice of adoration, homage, praise and glory, he has made over to us; so that we are enabled, by joining with him in these sacred mysteries, to offer up daily to our God a homage and adoration of infinite value.

Conclude with admiration of the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of God, manifested to us in the institution of this divine sacrifice, by means of which a Victim of infinite value is daily offered, and will be daily offered to the end of the world, upon a million of altars, by a Priest of infinite dignity, to give infinke honor and glory to his divine Majesty, and to be, at the same time, an inexhaustible Source of all good to us. O, let us daily and hourly join our adoration and praise with that which is, in every place, offered by our High-Priest, in these divine mysteries, and it will not fail of being acceptable through him.