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II.7. The Eucharistic Sacrifice

Summary. — The Eucharist, source of Divine life. — J. The Eucharist considered as sacrifice ; transcendency of Christ’s priesthood. — YJ. Nature of the sacrifice ; how the ancient sacrifices were only figures; the immolation of Calvary, the only reality ; the infinite vaiue of this oblation. — III. It is reproduced and renewed by the sacrifice of the Mass. — IV. Inexhaustible fruits of the sacrifice of the altar : homage of perfect adoration ; sacrifice of full propitiation: the only thanksgiving worthy of God; sacrifice of powerful impetration. — V. Intimate participation of the oblation of the altar through the identification of ourselves with Christ High Priest and Victim.

\ N all the preceding pages, I have tried to show you how God wills to give us a share in His life, how the grace of Christ, making us children of God, is the principle of Divine life in us. Baptism has given us this grace: it is the supernatural life at its dawn, it is the divine river at its source. There are obstacles opposed to the attainment of the fulness of this life, to the widening of this river ; I have said how these obstacles must be overcome. In the two last conferences, I have pointed out what are the general laws which govern the maintenance of this life in our souls and the measure of its growth: namely, to remain united to Christ by sanctifying grace, and to refer each of our actions to the glory of His Father with a pure intention and an intense movement of charity. This law extends to all our activity, it embraces all our works of whatsoever nature they may be.

When a soul has understood the greatness of this life, when it has grasped that its principle is union with Christ by faith and love, it aspires to the perfection of this union; it seeks the fulness of this life which is to be its own according to the eternal designs. Perhaps we ask ourselves if such intimate union is not only a dream. No, sublime as it is, it is not a dream; it can and ought to become a reality.

Christ, the life of the soul. 17

What seems impossible to men is easy to God: Apud homines hoc impossibile est, apud Deum autem omnia sunt possibilia*. ;

It is true that all the efforts of human nature, left to itself, apart from Christ, cannot advance us a step in the attainment of this union, nor in the birth and development of the life which is the fruit of this union. It is God alone Who gives the seed and the increase. We tend the plant, we water it: that is necessary, it is indispensable, says St. Paul *; but the fruits of life are only produced because God makes the sap of His grace to spring up within us.

God gives us incomparable means of maintaining this sap in us. For if He is the infinite and sovereignly efficacious Goodness Who wills to make us partakers of His nature and beatitude, our God is also eternal Wisdom Who proportions the means to the end with a strength only equalled by the sweetness with which it acts: Atiingit a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et dispomt omnia suaviter *.

Now if after having seen how God gives us in baptism the germ of this life and the first fruits of this union, after having seen to what general law their growth is subject, we wish to know the special means God gives us, we shall see they are principally to be found in prayer and the reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

God has made an engagement with the soul that approaches Him: ”If you ask the Father anything in My name’, Jesus says, ’” He will give it you”. Therefore He adds, ” Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full”. This joy is the joy of Christ, Ut habeant gaudium meum impletum in semetipsis *, the joy of His grace, the joy of His life which, like a divine river, flows from Him into us to make us glad: Fluminis impetus laetificat civitatem Dei®.

The Eucharist is another and a more powerful means. God communicates His gifts in answer to prayer, under certain conditions. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, it is God, it is Christ who gives Himself to us. The Eucharist is, properly speaking, the sacrament of union which nourishes and maintains the Divine life in us. To it Christ’s words especially apply when He says that He has come to. give abundance of life to souls: Ego veni ut vitam habeant et abundantius habeant*. In receiving Christ in Communion, we unite ourselves to very Life.1

But before giving Himself as food for the soul, Christ is first immolated. He only renders Himself present under the sacramental species in the sacrifice of the Mass. That is why I must first speak to you of the oblation of the altar, waiting till the next conference to speak of Eucharistic Communion.

Let us then say what the Sacrifice of the Mass. is, and what power of transformation into Jesus it contains for our souls.

This is an ineffable subject. Even the priest, who makes the Eucharistic Sacrifice the centre and sun of his life, is powerless to put into words the marvels that the love of Christ Jesus has there gathered up. All that man, a mere creature, can say of this mystery come forth from the Heart of a God, remains so far beneath the reality that, when we have said all that we know of it, it is as if we had said nothing. There is no subject the priest loves more and at the same time dreads more to speak of, so high and holy is this mystery.

Let us ask faith to enlighten us. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is pre-eminently a mystery of faith, Mysterium fidet; in order to understand something of it we must go to Christ, repeating to Him words like those of St. Peter when Jesus announced this mystery to the Jews, and when even several of His disciples left Him, being scandalised: To whom shall we go, O Divine Master? Thou alone hast the words that lead to eternal life: Ad quem ibimus? Verba vitae aeternae habes*. And above all let us believe, as St. John says, inlove. Et nos credidimus caritati?. Our Lord willed to institute this Sacrament at the moment when, by His Passion, He was about to give us the greatest testimony of His love for us, and He has willed that it should be perpetuated among us ” in commemoration of Him”. It is like His last thought for us and the testament of His Sacred Heart: Hoc facite in meam commemorationem *.2

As you know, the Council of Trent has defined that the Mass is “a true sacrifice”, which ” recalls and renews Christ’s immolation on Calvary. The Mass is offered as a true sacrifice, properly so called?”. In ” this Divine Sacrifice which is accomplished at the Mass is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner the same Christ Who upon the altar of the cross was offered in a bloody manner. There is only one victim ; and the same Christ Who was offered upon the Cross offers Himself now by the ministry of priests ; the difference only exists in the manner of the offering ?”: Sola offerendi ratione diversa. Jf then we would understand the greatness of the sacrifice offered on the altar, we must consider for an instant what it is that makes the value of the immolation of the Cross. This value is derived from the dignity of the priest and of the victim. Let us then say a word on the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ.

Every true sacrifice supposes a priesthood, that is to say the institution of a minister charged to offer it in the name of all. Under the Jewish law, the priest was chosen by God from the tribe of Aaron and consecrated to the service of the Temple by a special anointing. But Christ’s priesthood is transcendent; the anointing which consecrates Him is altogether unique: it is that grace of union which, at the moment of the Incarnation, united to the Person of the Word the humanity He has chosen. The Incarnate Word is "the Christ ” which signifies ” the Anointed”, not anointed with an outward unction such as that which served to consecrate the kings, prophets and priests of the Old Testament, but with the Divinity out-poured on His Humanity like a delightful oil : Unxit te Deus, Deus tuus, oleo laetitiae prae consortibus tuis*®. It is by the grace that makes Him the Man-God, Son of God, and at the very moment of this union, that Jesus is ” anointed”, consecrated and constituted priest and pontiff, that is to say, mediator between God and men; and it is His Father Who thus ordains Him supreme high-priest. Hear what St. Paul says: ’” Christ did not glorify Himself that He might be made a high priest: but He that said unto Him (on the day of the Incarnation) : Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee”, — He3

Who called and established Him ” priest of the most High God a nh

It is then because He is God’s own Son that Christ is able to offer the only sacrifice worthy of God. And we hear the Eternal Father ratify this condition and this dignity of high-priest by an oath: ” The Lord hath sworn and He will not repent : Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech?”. Why is Christ the eternal High Priest ? Because the union of the Divinity and Humanity in the Incarnation, the union which anoints Him pontiff, is indissoluble. Christ... says St. Paul, ” for that He continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood * ”.

And his priesthood is ” according to the order” that is to say, according to the resemblance of that of Melchisedech. St. Paul recalls this mysterious personage of the Old Testament who pre-figures, by his name and his offering of bread and wine, the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. Melchisedech means ” King of justice ”, and Holy Scripture tells us he was ” King of Salem*”, which means ” King of peace”. Jesus is king; He affirmed His royalty at the moment of His Passion: Tw dicis®; He is king of peace: Princeps pacis®; He comes to restore peace here below between God and man; and it is in His sacrifice that justice, at last satisfied, and peace, at last recovered, give one another the kiss of reconciliation: Justitia et pax osculatae sunt.

Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, is the eternal High Priest the sovereign mediator between men and His Father: He is the Christ, the high priest pre-eminently: Unxit te Deus... prae consortibus tuis. That is why His sacrifice, like His priesthood, bears a character of unique perfection and infinite value.

II

Christ Jesus began the work of His priesthood from the time of His Incarnation. ”Every high priest... is ordained... that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices*”. That is why it was necessary that Christ, the supreme High Priest, should also have something to offer. And what will He offer ° oe ELDER Vans) sChs (Vil; - bs a 2aebs., Clk, 4.) — 3. Hebr. vu, 24. —4

What will be the matter of His sacrifice? Let us see what was offered before His coming.

Sacrifice belongs to the very essence of religion; it is as ancient as religion itself.

Since creatures exist it is equitable and just that they should acknowledge the Divine sovereignty ; that is one of the elements of the virtue of religion which is itself a form of the virtue of justice. God is the Being Who subsists of Himself; He contains in Himself all the reason of His existence; He is the necessary Being, independent of all other beings — while the essence of the creature is to depend on God. In order for the creature to exist, for it to be drawn out of nothing and its existence to be preserved, for it to be able to put forth its activity, God’s concourse is necessary. To be then in the truth of its nature, the creature must confess and acknowledge this dependence; and this confession, this acknowledgment, is adoration. To adore is to acknowledge the sovereignty of God by our self-abasement: Venite adoremus et procidamus ante Deum quoniam ipse fecit nos et non ipsi nos*. We can truly say that, in presence of God, our self-abasement ought to go as far as annihilation; that would be the supreme homage, although it could not testify with sufficient truth our condition of mere creatures, and the infinite transcendency of the Divine Being. But as God has given us existence, we have not the right to destroy it by the immolation of ourselves, by the sacrifice of our life. Hence man substitutes creatures in his stead, principally those that serve for the sustenance of his life, such as bread, wine, fruit, animals*. By the offering, the immolation or destruction of these things, man acknowledges the infinite majesty of the Supreme Being: that is sacrifice. After sin was committed, an expiatory character came to be added to the other notions of sacrifice.

The first men offered fruits and immolated the best of their flocks so as thus to testify that God is the supreme Master of all things.

Later on, God Himself fixed the forms of sacrifice in the5

Mosaic law. There were first of all the holocausts, sacrifices of adoration: the victim was entirely consumed. Then there were the peace-offerings of thanksgiving or petition: a part of the victim was burned, another part reserved for the priests and a third attributed to those for whom the sacrifice was offered. Lastly, the most important of all, there were the expiatory sacrifices for sin.

All these sacrifices, says St. Paul, were only figures : Omnia in figura contingebant illist ; ” weak and needy elements: ” Egena elementa?; they were only acceptable to God because they represented the sacrifice to come, the only one which could be worthy of Him : the sacrifice of the Man-God upon the Cross *.

The most expressive of these figures and symbols was the sacrifice of expiation offered once a year by the high priest, in the name of all the people of Israel, and in which the victim was substituted for the people . What do we see ? A victim presented to God by the high priest, who, clad in priestly vestments, places his hands upon it while the multitude remain prostrate in the attitude of adoration. What did this symbolical rite signify? That the victim was substituted for the faithful; it represented them before God, laden, as it were, with all the sins of the people. Then the victim is immolated by the high priest, and this deathblow, this immolation, morally strikes the multitude who acknowledge and deplore their crimes before God, sovereign Master of life and death. Next the victim is laid upon the pile and burnt, and the sacrifice ascends to the throne of God, m odorem suavitatis, symbol of that offering of themselves, which the people owed to Him Who is not only our first principle but also our last end. The high priest having sprinkled the horns of the altar with the blood of the victim, enters into the holy of holies to sprinkle it likewise before the ark of the covenant. In consequence of this sacrifice, God renewed the compact of friendship made with His people.

All this was, as I have said, only a symbol. Where then is the reality? In the bloody immolation of Christ on Calvary. Christ”, says St. Paul, ” hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness”. Christus tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis*. It is Christ Whom God has shown to men as the Victim of propitiation: Quem proposuit Deus propitiationem per fidem, in sanguine ipsius .6

But note well that it was upon the cross that Christ Jesus achieved His sacrifice. He inaugurated it at His incarnation in accepting to offer Himself for the human race. You know that the least suffering of Christ, considered in itself, would have sufficed to save humanity. Christ being God, His least actions possessed, on account of the dignity of the Divine Person, an infinite value. But the Eternal Father willed, in His incomprehensible wisdom, that Christ should redeem us by a bloody death upon the Cross*. Now, St. Paul expressly tells us that Christ, upon His entrance into the world, accepted this decree of the adorable will of His Father. At the moment of the Incarnation, He embraced with a single glance all He was to suffer from the crib to the cross for the salvation of mankind; and from thenceforward He consecrated Himself to the entire accomplishment of the eternal decree: at that moment, Jesus made the voluntary offering of His own body to be immolated. Let us listen to St. Paul: ” When He cometh into the world He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not: but a body Thou hast fitted Me... Sacrifices and oblations and holocausts for sin Thou wouldest not... Then said I: Behold I come to do Thy will, O God‘”. And having thus begun the work of His priesthood, by the perfect acceptation of the entire will of His Father and the oblation of Himself, Christ consummated His sacrifice upon the cross, by a bloody death, He inaugurated His Passion by renewing the total gift He had made of Himself at the moment of the Incarnation. ” Father...” He says when the chalice of - sorrow is presented to Him, ’ not as I will but as Thou wilt”: and His last word before expiring will be that He has fulfilled all : Consummatum est ®.

You will see that in this sacrifice Christ achieved the most sublime act and rendered the most perfect homage to God His Father. The Man-God, the beloved Son, is Himself the High Priest. It is true that it is in His human nature He offered His sacrifice, since only a man can die; it is true also. that this oblation was limited to its historic duration ; but’ the High Priest who offered it is a Divine Person, and this dignity gives infinite value to the immolation. The Victim is holy, pure, immaculate, for it is Christ Himself; it is He, the Lamb without stain, Who takes away the sins of the world with His own blood, shed to the last drop as. in the holocausts. Christ was immolated in our place; He substituted Himself for us. Bearing all our iniquities, He became the victim for our sins: Posuit in eo Deus iniquitatem omnium nostrum*.. Lastly, Christ accepted and offered this sacrifice with a liberty full of love. He laid down His own life because He willed to do so, and He willed it because He loved the Father: Ut cognoscat mundus quia diligo Patrem, sic facio *.7

Therefore this immolation of a God, an immolation voluntary and full of love, has worked out the salvation of the human race. The death of Jesus redeems us, reconciles us with God, re-establishes the alliance whence all good flows for us, opens again the gates of heaven and restores to us the inheritance of eternal life. This sacrifice henceforth suffices for all: that is why when Christ dies, the veil of the temple is rent in twain to show that the ancient sacrifices are for ever abolished and replaced by the only sacrifice worthy of God. From this time forward salvation and righteousness are only to be had in the participation of the sacrifice of the cross of which the fruits are inexhaustible. ” By one oblation”, says St. Paul, Christ ” hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified +”. iil,

Do not be surprised if I have spoken at length of the sacrifice of Calvary: — this immolation is reproduced on the altar; the sacrifice of the Mass is the same as that of the _ Cross. There cannot, in fact, be any other sacrifice than that of Calvary. This oblation is one, says St. Paul; it fully suffices, but Our Lord has willed that it should be continued here below so that the fruits of it may be applied to every soul.8

How has Christ accomplished this will of His since that He has ascended into Heaven? It is true He eternally remains the supreme High Priest; but, by the sacrament of Holy Order, He chooses certain men whom He makes partakers of His priesthood. When the bishop, on the day of ordination, extends his hands to consecrate the priests, angels’ voices repeat over each of them: ” Thou art a priest for ever; the priestly character thou bearest shall never be taken away, but it is from the hand of Christ thou receivest it, it is His Spirit that fills thee in order to make thee Christ’s minister”. Christ is about to renew His sacrifice through the intermediary of men.

Let us see what takes place at the altarr After some preparatory prayers and the reading of the Epistle and Gospel, the priest offers the bread and wine; it is the ” offering” or the ”offertory’”. These elements will soon be changed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord. The priest next invites the faithful and the heavenly spirits to surround the altar that is about to become a new Calvary, and to accompany the holy action with praise and homage. After this, he enters silently into more intimate communication with God. The moment of the consecration comes; he extends his hands over the offering as the high priest did formerly over the victim to be immolated. He recalls all the gestures and words of Christ at the Last Supper when Our Lord instituted the sacrifice: Qui pridie quam pateretur; then identifying himself with Christ, he pronounces the words of the Canon: ” This is my Body”, ” This is My Blood”... By these words, the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. By His express will and His fornal institution, Christ renders Himself present, really and substantially, with His divinity and humanity, under the species which remain and hide Him from our sight.

But, as you know, the efficacy of this formula is still more extensive: by these words the sacrifice is accomplished. In virtue of the words: ” This is My Body”, Christ, through the intermediary of the priest, places His Flesh under the species of bread; by the words: ” This is My Blood”, He places His Blood under the species of the wine. He thus mystically separates His Flesh and Blood which upon the cross were physically separated, a separation that brought death. Since His resurrection, Christ Jesus can die no more: Mors ili ultra non dominabitur*; it is a mystical separation of His body and blood that is made at the altar. ” The same Christ Who was immolated upon the cross is immolated upon the altar, although in a different manner”: and this immolation, accompanied by the offering, constitutes a true sacrifice: In hoc divino sacrificio quod in missa peragitur, idem ille Christus continetur et immolatur, qui in ara crucis seipsum cruentum obtulit 2.

The communion terminates the sacrifice; it is the last important act of the Mass. The rite of the manducation of the victim completes the expression of the idea of substitution and above all of alliance which is found in all sacrifice. In uniting himself so intimately with the victim substituted for him, man, as it were, immolates himself the more; in eating the Host, become a holy and sacred thing, he in some way appropriates to himself the divine virtue resulting from this consecration.

In the Mass, the victim is Christ Himself, the Man-God: that is why communion is pre-eminently the act of union with the Divinity; it is the best and most intimate partaking of the fruits of alliance and divine life gained for us by the immolation of Christ.

So, then, the Mass is not only a simple representation of the sacrifice of the cross; it has not only the value of a simple remembrance; but it is a true sacrifice, the very same as that of Calvary which it reproduces and continues and of which it applies the fruits.

IV

The friats of the Mass are inexhaustible because they are the same fruits as of the sacrifice of the Cross.

It is the same Christ Jesus Who offers Himself to the Father for us. Doubtless, since His resurrection, He can no longer merit, but He offers the infinite merits acquired by His Passion. The merits and satisfactions of Jesus always keep their value, just as Christ keeps for ever, with His character of high priest and universal mediator, the divine reality of His priesthood. Now, after the sacraments, there are no means through which Christ’s merits are more especially and fully applied to us than through the Holy Mass. The Holy Council of Trent says: Oblationis cruentae fructus per hanc incruentam UBERRIME percipiuntur *. That is why every priest offers each Mass not only for himself but ” for all present, as also for all faithful Christians, both living and dead?”. So extensive and immense are the fruits of this sacrifice, so sublime is the glory it gives to9

God !

When therefore we feel the desire of acknowledging the infinite greatness of God and of offering Him, in spite of our poverty as creatures, a homage pleasing to His Majesty, a homage which will surely be accepted at His hands, let us offer the Holy Sacrifice, or else assist at it, and present the Din Victim to God. The eternal Father will receive from this Victim, as on Calvary, homage of infinite value perfectly woxthy of His ineffable perfections.

It is indeed through Jesus Christ, the Man-God, His beloved Son immolated upon the altar, that all glory and honour are rendered to the Father: Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti... omnis honor et gloria*. In all religion there is no action that gives so much peace to the soul convinced of its nothingness, yet longing to render to God a homage not unworthy of His divine greatness. All the united homage of creation and the world of the elect do not give the eternal Father such glory as He receives from the offering of His Son. It needs faith to understand the value of the Mass — that faith which is like a participation of the knowledge God has of Himself and of divine things. In the light of faith, we can regard the altar as the Heavenly Father does. What does He see upon the altar? He sees ”’the Son of His love”, Filius dilectionis suae *, the Son in Whom He is well pleased, present in all truth and reality, Vere et realiter, and renewing the sacrifice of the cross. God measures all things by the glory He re- ceives from them; and in this sacrifice, as on Calvary, infinite glory is rendered to Him by His Well-Beloved Son. God cannot find more perfect homage than that. It contains and surpasses all.10

The Holy Sacrifice is also a source of confidence and pardon.

When we are overwhelmed by the remembrance of our sins and seek wherewith to repair our offences and satisfy divine justice more fully, so that the penalty of sin may be remitted, we cannot find a more efficacious and reassuring means than the Mass. Hear what the Council of Trent says: ” By this oblation of the Mass, God, being appeased, grants grace and the gift of penance; He forgives even enormous crimes and sins: ” Hujus quippe oblatione placatus Dominus gratiam et donum paenitentiae concedens, crimina et peccata etiam ingentia dimittit?. Is it that the Mass forgives sins directly? No, that is reserved for the sacrament of penance and perfect contrition; but the Mass contains abundant and powerful graces which enlighten the sinner and cause him to make acts of sorrow for sin that will lead him to penance, and, through penance, restore to him the friendship of God 2. If this is true of the sinner not yet absolved by the hand of the priest, it is still more true of souls that are justified but seek to make as full satisfaction as possible for their faults and so to fulfil their desire of reparation. Why is this ? Because the Mass is not only a sacrifice of praise, or a simple remembrance of that of the cross; it is a true sacrifice of propitiation, instituted by Christ, “in order to apply to us each day’ the redeeming virtue of the immolation of the cross”: Ut illus cruenti sacrificu crucis salutaris virtus in vemissionem eorum, quae a nobis quotidie comnuttuntur, peccatorum, applicaretur*. That is why we see the priest, who already possesses God’s friendship, offer this sacrifice for his ” innumerable sins, offences and negligences”. The Divine Victim appeases God and renders Him propitious to us. When therefore the remembrance of our sins troubles us, let us offer this sacrifice: it is Christ Who is offered for us, the “Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world”, and renews ”as often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption”: Quoties hujus hostiae commemoratio celebratur, opus nostrae redemptionis exercetur?. What confidence we ought to have in this sacrifice of expiation! Whatever be our offences and ingratitude, one Mass gives more glory to God than all our wrongs, so to speak, take from Him.11

O Eternal Father, look upon this altar, look upon Thy Son Who loved me and gave Himself for me on Calvary; Who now offers His infinite satisfactions for me: Respice in faciem Christi tui”, and forget those faults I have committed against Thy goodness. I offer Thee this oblation in which Thou art well pleased, in reparation for all the wrongs done to Thy Divine Majesty!

God cannot but hear such a prayer, for it relies on the merits of the Beloved Son Who, by His Passion, expiated all.

At other times, it is the remembrance of God’s mercies that takes possession of us: — the benefit of the Christian faith which has opened for us the way of salvation and made us partakers of all Christ’s mysteries, whilst awaiting the inheritance of eternal beatitude, the manifold graces placed along our life’s path since baptism. When the soul glances back, it is almost overwhelmed at the sight of the numberless gifts God has poured out upon it with open hands: Then, lost in wonder at being the object of divine complacency, it cries out: ” Lord, what can I, poor creature that I am, render to Thee for so many benefits? What can 1 render that is not unworthy of Thee? Although Thou hast no need of my goods, Bonorum meorum non eges*, it is however just that I should acknowledge Thy infinite goodness towards me; I feel the need of doing so in the depths of my being; how can I satisfy it in a manner worthy both of Thy goodness and Thy benefits, O my God”? Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi®? That is the cry of the priest after the communion of the Host.12

And what reply does the Church place upon his lips? Calicem salutaris accipiam, "I will take the chalice of salvation”... The Mass is the supreme act of thanksgiving, the most perfect and pleasing we can ever render to God. The Gospel tells us that before instituting this sacrifice, Our Lord ” returned thanks” to His Father: euyaotatioas. St. Paul employs the same expression, and the Church has retained the term of Eucharistic sacrifice, that is to say, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, in preference to any other, to designate the oblation of the altar, although it is not exclusive of the other characters of the Mass. See how at every Mass, after the offertory and before proceeding to the consecration, the priest, following the example of Jesus, sings a hymn of thanksgiving: ” It is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should always and in all places, give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God. Through Christ our Lord”...: Per Chrisium Dominum nostrum?. Then he immolates the sacred Host: it is the Host that returns thanks for us and worthily acknowledges, — for Jesus is God, — all the benefits that have come down to us from on high, from the bosom of ” the Father of lights”: Omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum*. It is through Christ Jesus they have come, and it is through Him too that all the soul’s gratitude ascends to the throne of God.

Lastly, the Mass is a sacrifice of impeiration.

Our needs are immense, we are constantly in want of light, strength and consolation and we find them in the Mass. There indeed is He Who said: ”I am the Way, I am the Truth, I give Life. Come unto Me all that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. And him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out”: Et ewm qui venit ad me, non ejiciam foras*. It is the same Jesus Who ” went about doing good ”: Pertranstit benefaciendo*; Who forgave the Samaritan woman and Magdalen, and the thief upon the cross; Who delivered the possessed, healed the sick, restored sight to the blind and movement to the paralytic; the same Jesus Who let St. John rest his head on His Sacred Heart... But He is there, upon the altar, in a. special quality: as the13

Sacred Victim offering Himself at this moment to His Father and offering Himself for us; He is there immolated, and yet living and praying for us: Semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis*, He offers His infinite satisfactions to obtain the graces of life necessary for us, He supports our supplications by His merits; we cannot be more assured than at this favourable moment of obtaining the graces we need.

Speaking of ” the great High Priest that hath passed into the heavens” and is full of compassion for those He vouchsafes to call brethren, St. Paul says the altar where Christ offers and immolates Himself, is ” the throne of grace” which we must approach with confidence in order ” to obtain mercy and find grace” in opportune time’.

-Remember these words: Cum fiducia: ” with confidence”. That is the condition for being heard. We must offer the Holy Sacrifice or assist at it with faith and confidence. This sacrifice does not act in us, like the sacraments, ex opere operato. Its fruits are inexhaustible, but they are in great part measured by our inward dispositions. In every Mass there are infinite possibilities for us of perfection and holiness; but the measure of the graces we receive is the measure of our faith and of our love. You will have noticed that when, before the consecration, the priest enumerates those he wishes to recommend to God, he ends by speaking of all those present, but in indicating the dispositions of their hearts: Et omnium circumstantium quorum tibi fides cognita est et nota devotio. ” Be mindful, O Lord... of all here present, whose faith and devotion are known unto Thee”... These words point out that the graces flowing from the Mass are given to us according to the measure of the ardour of our faith and the sincerity of our devotion. Faith, as I have told you, is the nota devotio. What is that ? It is the prompt and complete donation of our entire selves to God, to His will and service. God, Who alone reads the depths of our hearts, sees if our desire, our will to be faithful to Him, to belong altogether to Him, is sincere. If it is so, we are then, of those, Quorum fides cognita est et nota devotio, for whom the priest especially prays, of those who draw largely from the treasure of the infinite merits of Christ offered for them.14

Everything comes to us from our Father in heaven, through Christ Jesus in Whom God has placed all the treasures of holiness that men can desire; this Jesus is there upon the altar with His treasures, not only present, but offering Himself for us to the glory of His Father, rendering Him, at this moment, the most perfect homage He can desire, renewing the sacrifice of the cross, so as to continue it and apply its supreme efficacy to us. If we have a profound conviction of these truths there is no grace we cannot ask ° and obtain. For, at this instant, it is as if we were with the Blessed Virgin, St. John and Magdalen, at the foot of the Cross, at the very fountain-head of all salvation and all redemption. Oh! if we knew the gift of God! Si scires donum Dei!... If we knew from what a treasury we might draw for ourselves and the whole Church !...

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We must go still further if we wish to enter deeply into the intentions which Jesus Christ had in instituting the Holy Sacrifice and that the Church, His Bride, expresses in the ceremonies and words of the oblation. Through this divine sacrifice, we can present perfect homage to God, ask Him to entirely forget our faults, render Him worthy thanksgiving and obtain the light and strength necessary for us. But all these attitudes and all these acts of the soul, excellent as they are, may be simply the acts and attitudes of a spectator who assists with piety, but, as it were, outside the holy action.

There is a more intimate participation which we must seek to attain. What is this participation? It is the identifying of ourselves, as fully as possible, with Jesus Christ in His double office of priest and victim, so that we may be transformed into Him. Is this possible?

It was at the moment of the Incarnation that Jesus was anointed Priest, and it is as man that He was able to offer Himself to God as victim. Now, — this is a truth I have shown you at length and want you never to forget — in the Incarnation, the Word associated all humanity to His mysteries and to His Person, by a mystical union.. All humanity constitutes a mystical body of which Christ is the Head and we the members. The members cannot, in principle, separate themselves from the head nor remain strang-

Christ, the life. ofthe soul. 18 ers to its action. The supreme action of Jesus, the one that sums up and crowns His life, is His sacrifice. In the same way that He took upon Himself our human nature, excepting sin, so He wills to make us partakers of the principal mystery of His life. Certainly we were not present in the body on Calvary when He was immolated for us, after having substituted Himself for us. But He has willed, says the Council of Trent, that His sacrifice should be perpetuated, with its inexhaustible virtue, by the Church and her ministers: Seipswm ab Ecclesia, per sacerdotes, sub sigms sensibilibus immolandum*.

It is true that priests alone who participate, through the Sacrament of Holy Order, in the priesthood of Christ, have the right of officially offering the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. However, all the faithful can, in a real manner, although by a lesser title, offer the sacred Host. By our baptism we share in some manner in Christ’s priesthood, because we share in the divine being of Christ, in His qualities and His states. He is King; we are kings with Him. He is Priest, we are also priests. Hear what St. Peter says to the baptised: ” You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people”, Vos autem genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus acquisitionis?, The faithful can therefore offer the sacred Host in union with the priest.

The prayers with which the Church accompanies this Divine Sacrifice make it clearly understood that this oblation also belongs to those who assist at it. What does the priest say, after the offertory, when he turns a second time towards the people before singing the Preface ? Orate fratres ut meumt AC VESTRUM sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotentem. " Brethren, pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty ”. Again, in the prayer preceding the consecration, the priest beseeches God to be mindful of the faithful who are present, those, he says, for whom we offer, or who offer up to Thee this sacrifice of praise for themselves and those belonging to them” : Memento Domine famulorum tuorum... pro quibus tibi offerimus vel qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis,

  1. Sess. Xx, cap. 1. — 2. I Petr. 11, 9; cf. Apoc. 1, 6. "Who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and empire for ever and ever. ” pro se suisque omnibus. And then, extending his hands over the oblation, he asks God to accept it as the oblation of His whole spiritual family assembled around the altar : Hanc igitur oblationem servitutis nostrae sed et cunctae familiae tuae, quaesumus, Domine, ut placatus accipias. As you see, it is the faithful united to the priest and, through him, to Jesus Christ, who offer this sacrifice. Christ is the supreme and principal pontiff; the priest is His minister chosen by Him; lastly the faithful, in their rank, participate in the sacred priesthood and in all the acts of Christ. ” Let us be attentive: let us follow the priest who acts in our name who speaks for us: let us call to mind the ancient custom of each one offering bread and wine to provide the matter of this heavenly sacrifice. The ceremony has changed; its spirit remains; we all offer with the priest; we consent to all that he does, to all that he says... Let us offer... with him. Let us offer Jesus Christ; let us offer ourselves with all His Catholic Church wide spread throughout the earth?”.

Our resemblance with Christ Jesus does not end here. He is the High Priest, but likewise the Victim, and the desire of His Sacred Heart is that we too should share in this state of victim. It is above all by this that our souls will be transformed and become holy.

Let us consider for a moment the matter of the sacrifice, the bread and wine that are to be changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Fathers of the Church have insisted on the symbolism of these two elements. The bread is made of grains of wheat ground and kneaded together so as to form only one substance; the wine is made of grapes gathered and pressed together so that one beverage may flow from them. That is the image of the union of the faithful with Christ and of all the faithful with one another.

In the Greek rite, the union of the faithful with Christ ‘in His sacrifice is expressed with all the vividness of oriental conceptions. At the beginning of the Mass, the priest, with a little golden lance, divides the bread in several fragments and assigns to each of them, in a special prayer, the part of representing the personages or categories of personages in whose honour or for whom the sacrifice is about to be offered. The first fragment represents Christ; another the15

Virgin co-redemptress, others represent the apostles, martyrs, virgins, the saint of the day, all the train of the Church triumphant. Next come the fragments reserved for the Church suffering and the Church militant: the Sovereign Pontiff, the bishops and the faithful who are present. This function ended, the priest places all the fragments on the paten and offers them to God, for all will presently be transformed into the Body of Jesus Christ. This ceremony shows how close our union with Christ in this sacrifice ought to be.

The Latin liturgy is more sober, but not less explicit. It possesses one of the most ancient ceremonies that the priest cannot omit without grave sin and that clearly shows we must be inseparable from Christ in His immolation. At the moment of the offertory, the priest pours a little water into the chalice already containing the wine. What does this ceremony signify ? It is explained by the prayer that accompanies it: ” O God, Who in creating human nature didst wonderfully dignify it, and (by the Incarnation) hast still more wonderfully renewed it, grant that by the mystery of this Water and Wine, we may be made partakers of His Divinity, Who vouchsafes to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the same Spirit, world without end.” Then the priest offers the chalice that it may be accepted by God in odorem suavitatis. So, then, the mystery symbolised by this mingling of the water with the wine is first of all the union, in Christ, of the Divinity with the humanity; from this mystery proceeds another also indicated by this prayer — our union with Christ in this sacrifice. The wine represents Christ, the water represents the people, as was said by St. John in the Apocalypse and was confirmed by the Council of Trent : Aquae populi sunt ?.

We must be united to Christ in His immolation and offer ourselves with Him; then He takes us with Him, He immolates us with Him, He bears us before His Father, in odorem suavitatis. It is ourselves we must offer with Jesus Christ. If the faithful share, through baptism, in the priesthood of Christ, it is, says St. Peter, that they may ” offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus16

Christ’: Sacerdotium sanctum, offerre spirituales hostias acceptabitles Deo per Jesum Christum+. This is so true that in more than one prayer following the offering about to be made to God, the Church while awaiting the moment of the consecration, lays stress on this union of our sacrifice with that of her Bridegroom. ” Vouchsafe, O Lord, she says to sanctify these gifts, and receiving the oblation of this spiritual victim, make us an eternal sacrifice to Thyself: Propitius, Domine, quaesumus, haec dona sanctifica, et hostiae spiritualis oblatione suscepta, NOSMETIPSOS tibi perfice munus aeternum ?.

But in order for us to be thus accepted by God, the offering of ourselves must be united to the offering Christ made of Himself upon the cross and renews upon the altar. Our Lord substituted Himself for us in His immolation, He took the place of us all, and that is why when He died we, in principle, died with Him: Si wnus pro omnibus mortuus est, ergo omnes moriut sunt*® For this mystical death to take place effectually in each one of us, we must unite ourselves to His sacrifice on the altar. And how are we to unite ourselves to Christ Jesus in this character of victim? By yielding ourselves, like Him, to the entire accomplishment of the divine good pleasure.

It is for God to fully dispose of the victim offered to Him; we must be in this essential attitude of giving all to God, of making our acts of self-renunciation and mortification, of accepting the sufferings and trials of each day for love of Him, so that we may be able to say, like Jesus Christ at the moment of His Passion: Ut cognoscat mundus quia diligo Patrem, sic facio. ‘That is to offer ourselves with Jesus. Let us offer the Divine Son to His eternal Father and offer ourselves with this ” holy Host ” in the same dispositions that animated the Sacred Heart of Christ upon the cross: intense love of His Father and of our brethren, ardent desire for the salvation of souls, and full abandonment to all that is willed from on high, above all, if it contains what is painful and vexatious for our nature. When we do this, we offer God the most acceptable homage He can receive from us.

We herein have also the most certain means of being transformed into Jesus, especially if we unite ourselves to17

Him in Communion, which is the most fruitful partaking of the sacrifice of the altar; for, if we are united to Christ, He immolates us with Him, renders us pleasing to His Father and makes us, by His grace, more and more like to Himself.

This truth is signified by that mysterious prayer the priest recites after the consecration: ’” We humbly beseech Thee, almighty God, command these things to be carried by the hands of Thy holy Angel to Thy altar on high, in the sight of Thy Divine Majesty, that as many of us as, by participation at this altar, shall receive the most sacred Body and Blood of Thy Son may be filled with all heavenly benediction and grace”.

It is then a most excellent manner of assisting at the Holy Sacrifice to follow with the eyes, the mind, and the heart, what is passing at the altar, and to associate ourselves with the prayers the Church places at this sacred moment on the lips of her ministers. When, with deep reverence, lively faith, ardent love, and true contrition for our sins 1, we thus unite ourselves to Christ, Priest and Victim, in His sacrifice, Christ, Who dwells in us, takes all our intentions into His Heart and offers perfect adoration and full satisfaction for us to His Father, He renders Him worthy thanksgiving, and His prayer is all-powerful. All these acts of the eternal High Priest, by which He renews upon the altar His immolation of Calvary, become ours.

At the same time that we give to God, through Christ, all honour and all glory: Omnis honor et gloria, abundant graces of light and life are poured down upon us and on all the Church: Fructus uberrime percipiuntur?. Each Mass truly contains all the fruits of the sacrifice of the Cross. But, if we wish to avail ourselves of them, we must enter into the dispositions and sentiments of the Heart of Jesus when He went to offer Himself on Calvary: Hoc enim sentite... quod et in Christo Jesu*. Then the Eternal High Priest takes us with Him into the holy of holies, unto the throne of the Divine Majesty, to the very source of all grace, of all life |

‘and all beatitude. If you knew the Gift of God !...

  1. Docet sancta synodus... per istud sacrificium fieri ut si cum vero corde et recta fide, cum metu et reverentia, contriti ac poenitentes, ad Deum accedamus, misericordiam comsequamur et gratiam inveniamus in auxilio opportuno. Concil. Trid. Sess. xxm, cap. 2. — 2. Concil. Trid. Sess. xxu, cap. 2. — 3. Philipp. m, 5.

Footnotes

  1. 1..Matth. xix, 26. — 2. I Cor. m1, 6. — 3. Sap. vu, 1. — 4. Joan. XVI, 23-24. — 5. Ps. XLV, 5. ↩

    1. Joan. x, 10. — 2. Ibid. v1, 69. — 3. I Joan. 1v, 16. — 4. I Cor. XI; (24)
    ↩
    1. Séss.' XXII, Cam. I... Sess. xxi cap. 2, ——13. Ps.) XEiv, 5.
    ↩
    1. Gen. xiv, 18; Hebr. vu, 1. — 5. Joan. xvi, 37. — 6. Isa. 1x, 6. — 7. Ps. LXXXIv, 11. — 8. Hebr. v, 1.
    ↩
    1. Ps. xcrv, 6, and Ps. xcix, 3. — 2. Domine Deus noster, qui in his potius creaturis quas ad fragilitatis nostrae subsidium condidisti, tuo quoque nomini munera jfussisti dicanda constitui, tribue quaesumus ut et vitae nobis praesentis auxilium et aeternitatis efficiant sacramentum. Secret of the mass for the Thursday after Passion Sunday.
    ↩
    1. I Cor. x, 11. — 2. Gal. Iv, 9. — 3. Deus legalium differentiam hostiarum unius sacrificii perfectione sanxisti, Secret for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. — 4. Levit. xvi, 9 and 16. — 5. God Himself, in the book of Leviticus, had declared He was the author of this substitution. Levit. xv, 11.
    ↩
    1. Ephes. v, 2, — 2. Rom. m1, 25. — 3. See above p. 50. — 4. Hebr. xX, 5 and 8-9, — 5. Joan. xIx, 30.
    ↩
    1. Isa. rim, 6. — 2. Joan. x, 18. — 3. Ibid. xiv, 31. — 4. Hebr.x,14.
    ↩
    1. Rom. vi, 9. — 2. Concil. Trid. Sess. xx, cap. 2.
    ↩

  10. _ I. Sess. Xx, cap. 2. — 2. Suscipe sancte Pater omnipotens... hanc tmmaculatam hostiam... pro omnibus circumstantibus, sed et pro omnibus fidelibus christianis vivis atque defunctis ; ut mihi et illis proficiat ad salutem in vitam aeternam. — 3. Ordinary of the Mass. — 4. Col. 1,13. ↩

    1. Sess. XXII, cap. 2. — 2. If we may thus speak, the Eucharist as sacrament procures (or if you will, has for its primary end) grace in vecto (directly, formally), and the glory of God in obliquo (indirectly) ; the holy sacrifice procures in recto the glory of God, and in obliquo the grace of penance and contrition through the sentiments of compunction it stirs up in the soul. — 3. Concil. Trid. Sess. xxIl, cap. 1.
    ↩
    1. Secret for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. — 2. Ps. Lxxxmt, 10. = 3. Cf. Rom. 'v,18)19,\—\4., Ps, xv, 2,.-—="5. Ibid. cx, 12.
    ↩
    1. Preface of the Mass. — 2. Jac. 1, 17. — 3. Joan. vi, 37. — 4. Act. X, 39.
    ↩

  14. 1, Hebr. vu, 25. — 2. Ibid. 1v, 16. ↩

    1. Bossuet, Meditations on the Gospel, LXIIII. day.
    ↩
    1. Apoc. xvu, 15. Hac mixtione, ipsius populi fidelis cum capite Christo unio repraesentatur. Sess. XXu, c. 7.
    ↩
    1. I Petz. u, 5. — 2. Mass for Whit Monday. This prayer (Secret) is to be found likewise in the Mass for Trinity Sunday. — 3. II Cor. v,14.
    ↩

Chapter 15 of 21