Chapter IX. The Soul of the Sacrifice of the Mass

To complete the doctrine already set forth on union with God and the purifications that dispose us for such union, we discuss next what constitutes the very soul, as it were, of the Sacrifice of the Mass and in what manner we should unite ourselves to the sacrifice through personal oblation. Recent controversies about the essence of the sacrifice of the altar have brought into bolder and bolder relief certain fundamental points that are enlightening.¹

Sacrifice in general is the oblation of a sensible thing made by a priest to God through some destruction or immolation²

In fact, in the true but unbloody sacrifice of the holy Mass, a sacramental or mystical immolation suffices. Besides, even in bloody sacrifice, a real immolation is required not because of its reality but because of its exterior signification of our interior oblation, adoration, and contrition. Exterior immolation is required as a reality, ut res, only for the eating of animals; even in bloody sacrifices it is required ut signum externum, as the external sign of interior sentiments, without which it would lack sense and meaning. Cf. St. Thomas, Ila Ilae, q.85, a. 2, ad 2um: "The offering of a sacrifice is measured not by the value of the animal killed, but by its signification, for it is done in honor of the sovereign Ruler of the whole universe. Wherefore, as Augustine says (De civ. Dei, loc. cit.), the demons rejoice, not in the strench of corpses, but in receiving divine honors." Billuart himself, who requires real destruction as part of his definition for sacrifice in general, is after- consecrating it to God and consuming it in His honor in recognition of His sovereign dominion over all things and of our perfect submission to Him.³ Throughout the ages different peoples have offered to God incense, the fruits of the earth, bread and wine, and the best of their animals. The word "holocaust" applies to the most perfect sacrifice of all, in which the whole victim is consumed in God's honor as a sensible expression of perfect adoration, of thanksgiving for benefits received, of supplication for graces to be obtained, and of complete and whole-souled contrition for sins commited, whether openly or in secret, acknowledging their gravity and imploring God's pardon.

We see, then, that the soul of the Holy Sacrifice consists in the priest's interior oblation, in which all unite with him. Without it we have only the external part of the act, and external immolation alone loses all significance, for it comprises only the body of the sacrifice, and when the body lacks a soul it is nothing but a corpse, as Cain's offering serves to show us. The outward immolation of an animal as the reality, ut res, of the sacrifice is required even in bloody sacrifice only as an outward sign of an inner oblation of adoration and contrition. Without these interior dispositions the external offering has no meaning and no value, a fact of prime importance. In seeking to discover the essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass we think too little about this and should find it helpful to recall that it stands at absolutely the opposite pole ward satisfied, when treating of the Mass, with a mystical immolation. "Mystical" is not the opposite of "spiritually real" (for the mystical body is even more real than our physical body), but it is the opposite of "corporeally real," in the present instance, to bloody immolation, that is, the physical separation of the Savior's body and blood.

from Cain's sacrifice. Sometimes we involve ourselves in insoluble difficulties because we forget the most elementary truths.

Furthermore, a simple interior offering cannot suffice for a sacrifice properly so called, for sacrifice includes not only an interior but also an exterior and even a public act of religion. It must dien have a body, as it were, a material part expressing die offering just as language provides a material mode of expression for acts of thought and will.

The sacrifices offered in the Old Testament were only a figure of die great sacrifice to be offered by our Lord in the future. The figure had value in proportion as the interior offering was inspired by faith and love of God. Sometimes the interior offering was made with absolutely heroic faith and love. When Abraham made ready to immolate his son Isaac, the child of promise, and the boy himself, a figure of Christ, allowed himself to be bound for the sacrifice, both were inspired by die same faith, obedience, and piety.

The everlasting oblation of our Lord, the eternal Priest

From all eternity the Word of God willed to become incarnate, to offer Himself as a victim for our salvation: "Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis." As it is written in the Epistle to die Hebrews: "For it is impossible diat with die blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away. Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me: holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then said I : Behold I come . . . diat I should do Thy will, O God." 4

What other reparation indeed could suffice ? By mortal sin men willfully turn away from God and practically deny Him His infinite dignity as dieir sovereign good and last end, deliberately preferring some miserable finite good, some object of die concupiscence of the flesh, of the eyes, or of pride. The gravity of an offense is measured by die dignity of the person offended and, since God's dignity is boundless, an offense against Him exceeds all measure. An act of love, of acknowledgment of God's sovereign goodness, and of hatred for sin with an infinite value is necessary to make reparation for an offense of infinite magnitude. Now no human or angelic creature, even with an absolutely exceptional degree of grace and of charity like Mary's, could make such an act of love and recognition of God's sovereign dominion; any created will, any created charity, and the acts proceeding from them likewise, are always limited.

That the world might offer to God an act of love of infinite value, it was necessary that the Word become incarnate and take a body and soul like ours. Certainly the act of love that sprang up and still arises from His human will, vivified by the fullness of created charity, draws an infinite value from His divine personality. The Word made flesh, through His human will offers up an act of reparative charity which pleases God more than all the crimes of the whole world together can displease Him. 8

6 Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q. 1, a. 2, ad 2um. "The satisfaction of a mere man cannot be sufficient for sin; ... a sin commitcd against God has a kind of infinity from the infinity of the divine majesty, because the greater the person we olTcnd, the more grievous the offense. Hence for condign satisfaction it was necessary that the act of the one satisfying should have an infinite efficiency, as being of God and man."

St. Thomas also says, Ila, q. 48, a. 2: "He properly atones for an offense who offers something which the offended one loves equally, or even more than he detested the offense. But by suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race. First of all, because of the exceeding charity from which He suffered; secondly, on

Christ's continual offering during His life on earth

St. Paul tells us that from the first moment of our Lord's entrance into the world He began His offering of Himself, and it continued without interruption until it was completed by the consummatum est. In the crib of Bethlehem, at the presentation in the temple when He enlightened the aged Simeon, later when He astonished the doctors by His wisdom, unceasingly during His hidden life at Nazareth, and all throughout His public life, His heart kept making its one offering. This act constituted the soul of His apostolate and served as die leitmotiv of His preaching: "I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?" 0 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself." 7 "Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?" 8 account of the dignity of His life which He laid down in atonement, fof it was the life of one who was God and man; thirdly, on account of the extent of the Passion, and the greatness of the grief endured." The value of Christ's sufferings sprang from the charity with which the Word made flesh offered them.

The doctrine so clearly formulated by St. Thomas and later becoming common was then confirmed by the encyclical of His Holiness, Pope Pius XI, Miserenlissimus Redcmplor: "At nulla create vis hominum sceleribus cxpiandis crat salts, nisi humanam naturam Dei Villus reparandam assumpsisset." The Council of Cologne in i860 stated, and its statement was thereafter approved by the Holy Sec, that only the God-man could make satisfaction in strict justice. Some theologians, with Scotus and Durandus of Saint-Pourcain, have admitted that a simple creature, adorned with eminent grace, could have, strictly speaking, offered adequate satisfaction for man's sin. As Father Hugon says in his article, "La doctrine spiritucllc dc la dernicre encycliquc," La vie spirituelle, July-August, 1928, hereafter we have a papal document ratifying the traditional teaching preserved by St. Thomas and there is no longer any room for discussion.

As long as it remained interior only, Christ's act could not suffice to constitute a sacrifice properly so called but it became so at the Last Supper, when He immolated Himself sacramentally under the appearance of bread and wine, thus giving reality to what had been prefigured by the oblation of Melchisedech, a priest of the true God. 9 The sacrifice of the Last Supper was the same in substance as the sacrifice of the cross soon to be accomplished : "Take ye and eat. This is My body. . . . Drink ye all of this. For this is My blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.'.' 10

Our Lord's inner oblation obviously continued and even attained its apogee during the passion and crucifixion, accompanying the most perfect outward sacrifice, the passive immolation of the one really worthy victim by the one great High Priest, our Lord. Certainly, Christ did not procure His own death ; deicide, the greatest of crimes, in no way belongs to the sacrifice of the cross; but our Lord could have miraculously protected His body from suffering, as later He protected some of the martyrs; but He gave Himself up fully to pain, seeking no palliative in the beatific vision still preserved at the peak of His intellect, offering Himself as He had foretold, "I lay down My life. ... No man taketh it away from Me: but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of My Fadier." 11

Even abstracting from the Last Supper, the passion and the cross had, as St. Thomas shows, 12 everything required for

39 o THE LOVE OF GOD the greatest sacrifice, containing eminently and formally die ritual character of all the sacrifices prefiguring it. It lacked nothing: the passive immolation of the only victim of infinite worth and the active oblation of infinite value. When Jesus prayed at Nazareth and preached on the mountain, then as always He was making an interior oblation of Himself to the Father; on the cross His offering became exteriorized, for His bruised body was immolated, His blood poured out, and His oblation expressed in those last words that were the consecration of the sacrifice of the cross: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." 13 "It is consummated." 14 When Christ had spoken, then was the most perfect holocaust conceivable immolated.

Christ's unending intercession for us

". . . always living to make intercession for us."

Heb. 7:25 "Idem nunc offerens ministerio sacer datum!'

Council of Trent

Christ's bloody immolation is over and done, but His interior offering continues forever. It is no longer meritorious, for Christ no longer makes His way toward eternity, but it remains forever a prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and supplication, and continues to apply to succeeding generations the merits of Calvary. Jesus Christ is, as St. Paul

says, "always living to make intercession for us." 15 It is of faith that Christ always possesses the beatific vision, seeing more fully than all the angels and saints the divine essence and, in the divine essence, all that touches the kingdom of God. He never ceases loving His Father and souls in Him, never fails to support us by His love, never stops adoring and giving thanks. In Him, with Him, and by Him the elect shall forever sing the hymn of praise, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus.

Christ's prayer of supplication shall cease, of course, at the end of die world, but until then Christ prays for us, that His merits and His reparation may be applied to us. 10 The infinite treasure of His infinitely rich prayer is expressed chiefly in the Sacrifice of the Mass, by which our Lord as the principal priest offers and is offered, priest and victim being one and the same, as once upon the cross and now through His ministers, only the manner of oblation differing, being bloody on Calvary and unbloody on the altar. 17

On the altar we have only a sacramental immolation reminding us of the bloody immolation of die cross and applying its fruits to us. 18 Although it is but sacramental, it suffices to constitute a true sacrifice, unbloody indeed but more real than any of the Old Testament sacrifices. Under the Old Law in fact the bloody immolation of bulls and goats was required merely as an outward sign, non ut res sed ut signum, 19 of adoration and of contrition of heart. Although simply sacramental, our Lord's immolation at Holy Mass through the separate consecration of the bread and wine is as an out-

39 2 THE LOVE OF GOD ward sign of adoration and reparation and incomparably more expressive than the bloody immolation of all the victims of the Old Law. Jesus becomes present on the altar as if in the state of death, as if His body and blood were separated. This sacramental immolation, by applying Christ's merits to us, signifies that He is always ready to bear the greatest sufferings and to die for each of us, if need be, that we may be saved.

As two different modes of external oblation, the cross and the Mass serve to illuminate each other in a wonderful way. What stood out plainly and clearly to all witnesses at the cross was the bloody immolation of an innocent victim ; what remained so hidden and mysterious that all the apostles except John failed to grasp it, in spite of their preparation by the Old Testament prophecies, Christ's own words, and the Last Supper, was the oblation of the eternal priest, who became by His annihilation in this hour of darkness the victor over sin and Satan.

On the contrary, in the Mass we see plainly the evident enactment of an outward oblation and easily grasp the intention of offering a sacrifice; what remains mysterious for us is the immolation called mystical, the sign of Christ's continual oblation by which He offers up to God Himself and all souls united to Him, particularly those who suffer supernaturally, something of what He endured.

What stands out sharply on the cross lies hidden in the Mass, and what shows up boldly in die Mass remains mysteriously hidden on the cross: these two different modes of offering serve to lay bare the heart of one and the same sacrifice.

Identity of substance in Christ's sacrifice on the cross and in the Mass

The Mass perpetuates in substance die sacrifice of the cross and also commemorates it by a new mode of oblation applying its fruits to us. It is not merely another sacrifice like Calvary's, having a specific similarity to it, as this year's roses have to last year's; it is individually the same sacrifice quoad substantiam, that is, as to its substance. 20 Although die bloody manner of oblation ceased with the Savior's dcadi and the unbloody outward oblation begins anew widi each Mass, the same vicdm is always offered and the same high priest always makes the offering by the same interior act of oblation which will last forever, "idem nunc offerens ministerio sacerdotutn." When die priest at the altar pronounces the words of consecration in our Lord's name, Jesus here and now wills that they be pronounced and He Himself communicates to them as His instruments their transubstandve power, desiring to be offered up in this manner in order that the merits of His passion and death may be applied to all generations of men upon the earth and to the souls in purgatory.

If it should happen that the consecrating minister becomes distracted at the very moment of consecration, Jesus is not distracted. Even if the minister should be a bad priest, provided that he still wills to perform the act instituted by our Lord according to the mind of die Church, the Mass that he

20 This distinction is current among theologians. Cf. for example, Billuart, Cursus lheoL, "De sacrificio missae," i, answer to the 1st objection: "That in the Church there is one sacrifice as to its substance, I concede; as to its manner, I deny. The sacrifice of the Mass is the same in substance as the sacrifice of the cross, ... it differs in manner, the sacrifice of the cross was bloody, the sacrifice of the altar is unbloody."

offers always has an infinite value and can profit thousands of souls as easily as one, just as the sun shines with ready bounty on all who walk in its light.

The question will arise: How can the same sacrifice be substantially perpetuated without the bloody immolation also being continued or at least renewed ? The bloody immolation is a passing external act and has no need to be reenacted for a profound reason well within the grasp of all. We can consider first the active immolation which it contains, the putting to death, and then secondly the passive immolation, the real and violent separation of the Savior's body and blood, a separation resulting from the active immolation and incapable of being produced without it.

Now the active immolation of die Word of God made flesh in the sense of His being put to death stands out as the greatest crime that the eardi has ever known and certainly should not be renewed. St. Thomas declares diat it was not a sacrifice but an evil deed, "non fuit sacrificium . . . sed maleficium." 21 It formed no part of the sacrifice of the cross but was on the contrary a wicked act, a sacrilege, deicide, certainly not to be renewed on the altar either really or virtually. This act could be attributed to Christ's minister and to Christ Himself only on condidon that our Lord would either really or virtually encompass His own death, something which plainly did not take place on the cross.

As to the bloody passive immolation, that is, the real and violent separation of the Savior's body and blood, it came about only through the active immolation or killing and takes place no more since the resurrection. Moreover, not every

»nia, q.48, a. 3, ad 3"m- real sacrifice, but only bloody sacrifice, requires the victim's actual destruction.

This truth answers the Protestant objection that every true sacrifice demands as one of its essentials the real destruction of the victim offered ; that in the Mass no such real destruction takes place, Christ being now impassible; that the Mass cannot dierefore be a true sacrifice and to claim that it is would be to declare the sacrifice of the cross as lacking in sufficiency. To die difficulty proposed, the Council of Trent replies, as we have already noted, that the Mass is not a bloody sacrifice but a true sacrifice, perpetuadng in an unbloody manner the substance of the sacrifice of the cross in order that we may commemorate it and receive its fruits. The body of Christ offered on the altar is die same body that really suffered on the cross for love of us.

It may be insisted that active and passive bloody immolation certainly cannot be continued or renewed but that without diem neither can the sacrifice of the cross be substantially perpetuated on our altars. To this we answer that what can be asserted of Christ's humanity can be held in regard to His sacrifice as well. Christ's humanity remains substantially the same, although it has become impassible and immortal instead of being passible and mortal as it was during His earthly life. Not only the Savior's soul subsists, but His body also has become immortal. Comparably, not only the soul of Christ's sacrifice, the interior oblation, endures but the offering of die victim continues to be made, although in an unbloody manner. Not merely die soul of the sacrifice but the substance of the sacrifice is perpetuated. Nothing demands that the Savior's humanity be passible rather than

39 6 THE LOVE OF GOD impassible or the very contrary, although it must be one or the other. In like manner, Christ's sacrifice can exist in substance without being restricted to one or other of the two exterior modes of oblation and of immolation, for every true sacrifice properly so called comprises an act of religion, interior as well as exterior and public, and necessitating some kind of immolation, at least sacramental, of the victim offered. No immolation existed in the presentation of Jesus in the temple; 22 nor does it exist outside the Mass in a host reserved in the ciborium; 23 nor will it exist when the last Mass has been said. After the end of the world no sacrifice properly so called will be found, St. Thomas says, 24 but the eternal adoration and dianksgiving of Christ and the elect will endure.

Beyond the laws of space and time

To discuss this truth in relation to space and time should serve to enlighten us and lead us more deeply into the possession of this mystery. 20 St. Thomas, in quoting as St. Ambrose's a text from St. John Chrysostom, shows how this could be the same sacrifice in substance: everywhere the same body is offered, not being multiplied but remaining one; everywhere too, the same sacrifice is rendered. 28 The same body of Christ that hung on the cross, now fives in heaven

22 The presentation of Jesus in the Temple and His oblation by Himself and by Mary was not an externally manifested oblation like the offertory of the Mass. There had not yet been any real or any sacramental oblation.

28 In the consecrated hosts preserved upon our altars, Jesus nevertheless always continues His interior offering of Himself; but this docs not suffice to constitute a sacrifice properly so called: the soul of the sacrifice is there but it lacks its external expression.

26 Cf. St. Thomas in IV Sent., d.12, Expositio textus; IV Sent., d.8, q.2, a.i. 26 Ilia, q.83, a. 1, ad ium.

St Marys Hospital Sisters.

as its natural dwelling place and remains on earth in every consecrated host. It is not localized in one place, non sicut in loco;'' but exists wherever it is substantially, and just as substantially as the bread which it replaced through transubstantiation. Now a substance exists entirely in the whole and entirely in each part of the whole, the whole substance of bread being in each part of the host before consecration and the whole substance of Christ's body being in each part of the host after consecration. Christ's body, by reason of its real, substantial, and sacramental presence, transcends the laws of space, as does every substance.

The body of Christ also transcends the laws of time, for it is the same body that lay in Bethlehem's crib, that hung on Calvary's cross, that was tabernacled in the infant Church and receives our adoration today, as young as it was two thousand years ago. The changes of time cannot touch it; it remains the same hostia perpetua, offered today and tomorrow and until the end of the world. And as our Lord's body is found in each consecrated host on every altar in the world non sicut in loco, not subject to the laws of space, so is it also non sicut in tempore, not subject to the laws of time.

If the body of Jesus once crucified for us presently surmounts the laws of time in the sense here given, what shall we say of His sacred soul, of His interior act of oblation, measured like the beatific vision, like love, adoration, and thanksgiving, neither by the continuous time of our sun, nor by die discrete time of the angels marked off only by their thoughts, but by immovable eternity, by die moment that never passes, the nunc statu et non fluens? Our Lord's inte-

rior oblation needs no renewal but continues without interruption, just as God conserves beings in existence not by any renewed operation but simply by a continuation of the act of creation.

Recent controversies have attracted more and more attention to the interior oblation formally present in the soul of our Savior, the principal priest of the Mass. Some authors give it too little notice; others consider it rather too exclusively. By itself, without the external sign of sacramental immolation, it does not suffice to constitute a sacrifice properly so called ; - 8 but it forms its soul, and we cannot emphasize too strongly the Council of Trent's words, "idem nunc offerens sacerdotum ministerio." 29

We find in these considerations an explanation of how the substance of Christ's sacrifice on the cross perpetuated on our altars surmounts time, although the external mode of oblation takes place in time, and the bloody manner of Calvary's oblation belongs to the past and the unbloody manner of the Mass is re-enacted afresh each time the Holy Sacrifice is of-

28 The presence of Jesus in the consecrated hosts reserved in the tabernacle and His unbroken offering of Himself do not however constitute a sacrifice properly so called. Sacrifice is offered when Mass is celebrated.

29 This doctrine, expressed in the very terms of the Council of Trent, is found in the texts of the Fathers recently gathered together by Lcpin, L'ldee du sacrifice de la messe; it was commonly held by theologians of the Middle Ages and is found especially in St. Thomas' writings, Ilia, q.83, a.i; q.78, a.3, 4; q.8o, a.12, ad 3um; q.81, a.4, ad 2um; q.82, a. 1, ad lum et a. 5, 6, 7, 8.

Among the great commentators of St. Thomas, Cajetan and John of St. Thomas speak no differently. Cf. Cajetan, 3 Opusc. De erroribus contigentibiis in Eucharistiae Sacramento, cap. 9, and John of St. Thomas, De Eucharistia. It would be an error to try to find in die Mass a real destruction of Christ's body, an active immolation either real or virtual; the active immolation constituted a crime and formed no part of the sacrifice of the cross and plainly should not be renewed in the sacrifice of the Mass. Cf. St. Thomas, Ilia, q.48, a.3, ad 3um. Among Thomists, neither the very first, nor Cajetan, nor John of St. Thomas, nor Cano, nor Soto have spoken of an active virtual immolauon. Billuart and Gonet were in the wrong to follow Lessius on this point.

fered. In this sense each Mass is distinct from every other. 30 The prophecy of Malachias has found its verification: "For from the rising of the sun even to the going down ... in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation: for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." 31 Wherever the sun rises over the world Masses begin, their number so great that four elevations take place every second all day long; and so it shall be until the world comes to an end: the same sacrifice in substance shall ever be offered and the soul of that sacrifice shall always remain the same ever-living interior oblation of Christ's heart. Generation after generation can thus come to quench their thirst at the infinite and timeless source of all grace. Every Christian should, by living faith and the gifts of understanding and wisdom, grasp this mystery more and more fully, taste it with growing delight, and live it with increasing fidelity. 32

At Mass our Lord not only offers Himself but His mystical body as well, all souls in the state of grace and united to Him by charity, especially those who follow after Him by bearing their sufferings supernaturally. 33 St. Albert the Great 34 and St. Thomas 30 say that, when Christ offers Himself to His Father, He offers too all those whose nature He shares, all

30 Thus, as we have said, the humanity of our Savior remains die same in substance although His body was passible and is now impassible. "Mai. It'll.

82 Council of Trent, Scss. XXII, chap. 2.

83 According to tradition, die mystical body, thus offered with the sacred victim, is symbolized by the drop of water placed in the wine before it is offered to God.

34 De sacramento Eucharistiae, dist. V, cap. 3 (XXI, 90). Here a beautiful passage about Christ's offering of us to His Father is brought to a close with the telling summary: "Oblali a Dei Filio, et recepti a Deo Pane."

30 Ilia, q.74, a.8, ad 2um: "If not water were added, the signification would be utterly excluded: but when the water is changed into wine, it is signified that the people is incorporated with Christ."

who are purified by His blood and made one body with Him.

The common preface of the Mass contains the same truth: "It is truly meet and just, right and availing for salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give tiianks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty and everlasting God, dirough Christ our Lord. Through whom the angels praise Thy majesty, the dominions worship it. . . . With whom we pray Thee join our voices also, while we say with lowly praise: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus." This prayer, the adoration of angels and of men, Jesus offers to the Father, especially at the moment of Eucharistic consecration, the essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass, in which we share through Communion. When the last Mass has been said, the sacrifice of petition and reparation will be no more, but die worship of adoration and thanksgiving will condnue in heaven for all eternity as the consummation of Christ's sacrifice. 36

How to unite ourselves to the Sacrifice of the Mass

To learn how we should unite ourselves to the Sacrifice of the Mass, let us first recall how the Virgin Mary, the universal mediatrix, the vas insigne devotionis, united herself to the sacrifice of her Son.

Mary's oblation

To Christ's unending oblation of Himself, Mary is united more closely than anyone else. During her whole earthly life, from the moment when she realized that she was to give birth to die Savior until He was born at Bethlehem, at His presentation when Simeon's warning words were spoken, during the flight into Egypt, in the silence of die home at

Nazareth, and later when seeing the difficulties of Jesus' ministry increase and the fury of the Pharisees grow, and finally and fully at the foot of the cross, she was ever offering her Son while He offered Himself for us and she offered herself together with Him, thus meriting for us in die broad sense, de congruo, what He merited for us strictly speaking, de condigno.

Mary had no need to expiate for herself; she was the Immaculate Conception, preserved from the original stain, redeemed in the most perfect way possible by her Son's future merits. She never committed the slightest sin; but for our sakes she was associated in the terrible sufferings and humiliations and great redemptive work of Jesus. No one else in the world, no saint, no martyr, no apostle, no stigmadc has ever been so closely linked to it as she. Indeed she has merited the titles of co-redemptrix and universal mediatrix through, with, in, and by our Lord. What wonderful insight into the Sacrifice of the Mass we can glean from the titles which the Church has proclaimed as Mary's! To her was not given the priestly character but she received the fullness of the spirit of die priesthood, the spirit of Christ die Redeemer.

Let us think about Mary's understanding of the Sacrifice of the Mass as St. John celebrated it before her. Better than anyone else she comprehended that the sacrifice of the altar perpetuated the sacrifice of the cross, commemorating its bloody immolation by a mystical immolation, full of meaning for her who could forget nodiing of Calvary's drama. Better than anyone else Mary understood that our ever-living Lord is the principal priest of die Sacrifice of the Mass and that in die Mass He continues to offer Himself, interceding for us and applying to us the fruits of His merits. Mary saw

4 o2 THE LOVE OF GOD in the continuation of the interior oblation of our Savior, always living in heaven and made present on our altar, the point of conjunction between heaven's adoration and dianksgiving and the worship of the Church militant.

Mary united the immolation of her heart to the mystical immolation of the Mass, generously accepting all the trials experienced when the infant Church was tasting the first anguish of three centuries of persecudon. The Virgin never ceased offering herself as she had done at the foot of the cross, the remembrance of those hours being vividly and deeply engraved in her heart; she offered herself for the extension of her Son's kingdom, for the apostolate of the Twelve, for souls tempted and sorely tried, for the strength of martyrs and their triumph over the spirit of evil.

Because Mary shared until death in our Lord's redemptive mission, she also shared in His glory on the day of the assumption, remaining always "through Him, with Him, and in Him" the universal mediatrix, interceding for us and distributing to us the graces for every moment of our lives, answering our supplication, "pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen." The grace of the present moment, the grace for now, is for us all throughout our lives, the most special grace of all; every minute for centuries thousands of Christians have been receiving it dirough Mary. She acts as mediatrix not only of all different kinds of graces necessary for aposdes, martyrs, doctors, confessors, and virgins, but also for all particular graces accorded to us moment by moment. She is the universal mediatrix because as the Mother of God she is the one most closely united to our Savior's oblation, the act of reparative love that has saved the world.

Our personal offering

How should we unite ourselves personally to the offering of Christ the Redeemer ? We must make reparation for our own sins, and we should accomplish something for the salvation of our neighbors as they make their way toward eternity in our company. To achieve this we ought to keep before our eyes daily the four ends of the sacrifice of die Mass: adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and reparation. And since at the most solemn moment of die day, the Eucharistic consecration, Christ Jesus performs for our sakes die ceaseless offering of Himself and with Him His whole mystical body, we ought to lend ourselves to His action and join in it by lifting up to God all the contradictions and sorrows of the present and the future in order that Mary Reparatrix, to whom God has promised the victory over the serpent, may present this oblation to her Son. He Himself will unite it to His own and offer it to the Father. Let us, then, speak to Mary with the beautiful prayer of Blessed Nicholas de Flue: "Take me from myself and give me to Thyself."

The host being consecrated, the priest lifts it up for those assisting at Mass to see, not only that they may adore, but also, as St. Albert the Great says, that they may "extend dieir hands and show their intention of now offering themselves to the Father through Him who has already offered Himself for us on the cross." 37 This seems to be the sense of the words of the canon preceding the Pater noster: "Per ipsum,

87 Blessed Albert the Great, De Sacramento Eucharistiae, dist. V, cap. 3; dist. VI, tr. II, cap. 4, no. 4. These texts and many others are quoted in Lepin's fine book, L'ldee du sacrifice de la messe, p. 181.

4 o 4 THE LOVE OF GOD et cum ipso, et in ipso est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria!' By our Lord, with Him, and in Him, we ought to perform all our actions for God's glory, proffering Him all our joys and sorrows by uniting ourselves to die joyful and sorrowful mysteries of Christ's earthly life, the harbingers of the glorious mysteries to come. The beautiful prayer of die Rosary speaks this great message to us.

The Church teaches us that each Eucharistic Communion should increase our charity and make our hearts more and more like the Eucharistic heart of Jesus, priest and victim. Every time we receive, our Communion should be substantially more fervent than the one before, giving us a greater and greater share in our Lord's intentions and desires in instituting the Eucharist and in accomplishing the sacrifice of the cross on Calvary. No doubt St. Paul had all this in mind when he wrote to die Romans: "I beseech you therefore, brediren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." 38

St. Peter also spoke of the same great truth: "If so you have tasted that die Lord is sweet. Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honorable by God: be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 89 The Fathers of the Church often recalled this teaching, telling us how we should assist at Mass, reminding us to unite ourselves to the principal priest, the sacred victim, by putting into prac-

tice our Savior's words: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." 40

The priest particularly, as Christ's minister, should share not only in His priesthood, but also in some measure at least in His victimhood. For his apostolate he should have recourse to the same means that Jesus used, daily uniting his sufferings to those which the Master endured for us, and bringing down on those whom he would evangelize the overflowing superabundance of Christ's redemption: "copiosa apud eum redemptio."

In Matins for the feast of All Saints the liturgy first recalls the merits of the apostles and martyrs and then speaks of the life of oblation and immolation proper to priests, doctors, and confessors of the faith, who offer themselves and their trials togedier with the sacred victim. It honors too the no less meritorious life of virgins, faithful in holy vigils, rejoicing in tribulations, bearing injuries and calumnies with humility, glad to endure all in order to become more conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Paul gives us the secret of his fruitful preaching: "I, Paul ... fill up those things that are wanting of the suffering of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is die church." 41 Our Lord's passion lacks nothing in itself; it possesses infinite value, but we ourselves want for its reflection and application. To bring this about St. Paul uses the same means that our Lord used through, with, and in Him. In a sense, then, Christ's suffering as well as His prayer is carried on in His apostles and through them produces fruit

4 o6 THE LOVE OF GOD for eternal life. Jesus thus dignifies the members of His mystical body widi the gift of causality, just as God gives efficiency to secondary causes in the universe. Several beautiful chapters in The Imitation deal with this subject and should be read and reread. 42

What priests should do to obtain grace for the souls whom they evangelize and to give battle to the spirit of evil, all faithful souls should also undertake in a measure proportionate to their grace and state of life, and all that dicy attempt should be carried out in union with the priest at the Holy Sacrifice and during the day by recalling diat Masses are continually being offered throughout the world, wherever the sun rises. Devotion to the Eucharistic consecration comprises something essential in Christian life; without it we can have no real interior life. The double consecration, the essence of the Holy Sacrifice, marks the most solemn moment of every day of our lives. From its summit and source a fire of light and of energy should flow down over our lives and conform them to itself.

St. Thomas tells us:

Man's good is threefold. There is first his soul's good which is offered to God in a certain inward sacrifice by devotion, prayer, and other like interior acts : and this is the principal sacrifice. The second is his body's good, which is, so to speak, offered to God in martyrdom, and abstinence or continency. The third is the good which consists of external things; and of these we offer a sacrifice to God, directly when we offer our possessions to God immediately, and indirectly when we share them with our neighbor for God's sake. The three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience also make

this triple oblation by sacrificing to God external goods, the pleasure of the senses, and our will. 43

Every Christian, even without the vows, can make an offering of self having a meritorious value based on charity and proportionate to the intensity of his love for God and for souls. Our offering of self has, too, as a prayer of petition an intercessory value based on Christ's promise: "Ask, and you shall receive." 44 It will obtain whatever it asks within the framework of die divine intentions, that is to say, whenever it humbly and trustfully petitions for things necessary for salvation, the extension of God's kingdom, pardon for our offenses, and victory over die spirit of evil. When, in union widi "the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world," we offer ourselves to God, our oblation also possesses a reparative value, serving to blot out our sins and to obtain the remission of the punishment due to them.

When we make such an offering it contains something incommunicable, something incapable of belonging to anyone except ourselves; this is merit properly so called, de condigno. To ask for graces personally necessary or useful for ourselves, to make satisfaction for our own sins, are both actions that are ours in such a way that they cannot be given over to another. Because of the mystery of the communion of saints, however, such an offering contains something communicable, too, something that we can pass on to our neighbors on earth and in purgatory; this is merit in the broad sense, de cotigruo. 45 Praying for others, satisfying for die falls of sin-

45 la Ilac, q. 1 14, a. 6. Merit de condigno is a right in justice to a reward, whereas

4 o8 THE LOVE OF GOD ners and the punishment due to them offer examples of actions that can be handed over to die profit of others. The different members of the mystical body can in this way mutually help and heal one another, discharging one another's debts and obtaining pardon for the guilty.

To offer ourselves to God in the way suggested here entails no vow to become a victim; nor does it imply the abandonment of everything communicable in our good works to Mary in order that she may use it for our neighbor's good, as Blessed Grignon de Montfort counsels, 46 although it holds out an invitation to this abandonment. It does not oblige under pain of sin, can be made monthly, yearly, or for a longer period of time, and is fittingly renewed daily.

Whenever some major and deeply entrenched evil, such as French Masonry and its effect, must be fought, whenever evil manifests itself as truly satanic, dien to appease God's justice spiritual action no less profound must come forward under the immediate direction of her whom God set up as the terror of demons, Mary. The Carthusians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Poor Clares, who lead a contemplative life, have a hidden apostolic role against the furious efforts of die spirit of evil and die great devils, 47 opposing them with a life of incessant prayer and immolation. Every apostle, even every fervent soul within the Church militant, should take some part in the contemplative life and its struggle, making a renewed offering of self daily at Holy Mass with merit de congruo a founded only on charity and not on justice. A Christian mother merits graces congruously for her children, because of the charity uniting her to God.

te Cf. True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin: the Secret of Mary. « Cf. Le role apostolique de la vie contemplative, by Cyprien Bautrain, religious of Chartrcux, tr. A. M. Buchanan (N.Y.: Bcnziger, 1911).

increasing devotion to the consecration, die act of the Savior's eternal priesthood, and continuing the same offering throughout the course of the day in difficulties and trials and in die more and more perfect accomplishment of the duties of our state of life. When we accept supernaturally the daily trials sent to us by Providence, we should also ask God not for crosses but for the love of die crosses which He Himself has laid upon us, that we may be purified and become instruments for the salvation of our neighbor.

If we would but give our full consent to such an acceptance and oblation, what consequences it would have! When we realize what evil a free and formal pact with the devil can achieve, can we doubt what great things could be accomplished in the order of good ? Of course, to destroy is easier than to build, but with the help of grace, the extension of God's kingdom, although it may often be difficult, never becomes impossible, and the Holy Ghost is infinitely stronger than Satan. Those who would thus offer themselves should be consecrated to the Holy Ghost that they may come more and more under His guidance and be ever open to His inspirations and always docile to His influence.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost we understand diat our own offering may not be worth a great deal, that in itself it amounts to a drop of water in the ocean, but then we are led to offer to God as our greatest gift the precious blood of His Son in a spirit of adoration, of thanksgiving, of petition, and of reparation, recalling Christ's words, "If you ask the Father anytiiing in My name, He will give it to you." 48 In the light of this message we understand diat if our Lord could suffer anything in glory, He would suffer

4 io THE LOVE OF GOD because of the obstacles that we place in the way of the graces that He desires to accord us. To surmount these obstacles we know that we must pray very especially in the name of Christ, that His prayer may really be carried on by us. When we have done diis, we shall have tapped a treasure, the fullness of charity in our Savior's heart will pour out upon the Church, upon the Father of the faithful, upon bishops, pastors, and religious orders, that all the workers in our Lord's vineyard may labor efficaciously together and in perfect accord against the scheming spirit of evil, that Christian faith may shine forth, hope stand firm, and charity rise victorious over class hatred, uniting all men of our generation and of the generations to come as our Savior prayed that we might be united: "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name whom Thou has given Me; that they may be one, as We also are. . . . And not for diem only do I pray, but for them also who dixough their word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; diat die world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 49

The Christian who understands the meaning and implication of the oblation of self, makes it, and then renews it every day, will experience in some regards more difficulties than before because he enters the arena of a contest that has importance for all eternity; but he will receive ever-new graces to enlarge his heart and lead him to share in the manifestation of the only Son of God as the world's true Savior.

Footnotes

1. Cf. Lcpin, L'ldee du sacrifice dc la Messe d'apris les thtologtens depuis I'orgine jusqu'it nos jours (Paris: Bcauchesne, 1926). ↩

2. With the early theologians we say not a real destruction but some destruction, either real or analogous as a sign of real destruction. Immolation is used not univocally (in the same sense) but analogously (in two senses having a proportionate likeness to one another) of the bloody immolation of the cross and the unbloody immolation of the Mass. ↩

3. 86 THE LOVE OF GOD ↩