Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-06-04
RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL.
A Very Interesting Day at the Cathedral
The Services.

The Services.
Both the morning and evening services
at the Cathedral yesterday were unusually
interesting and impressive. The solemn
high mass at 1870 a. m. was sung by the
venerable Father Psrka, of Mt De Chan
tai, assisted by Mgr. Sullivan as deacon
and Father McElligott as sub-deacon. The
sermon was preached by Mgr. Sullivan,
and was an apt exposition of the beautiful
festival of Corpus Christi, now celebrated
by the Catholic Church in honor of the
great mystery Of the Holy Eucharist.
The eonsecrated host, placed upon q
throne above the tabernacle, remained
publicly exposed all day, crowds of p'ous
worshippers filling the church and pouring
fourth their fervent but silent devotions.
Yespers were sung at 7:3O p. m, at the
close OF which Bishop Kahn preached on
the reasons which had induced the Church
to institute this solemn festival over six
hundred years ago. One of these reasons
was to make reparation to the Divine
Saviour for the insults to which He is ex-
posed in this sweet sacrament of His love
He compared the treatment He receives
in this sacrament from unbelievers, to the
treatment He received at the hands Of His
enemies in the days of His mortal life.
Then He came unto His own, and His own
received Him not; they would not recog-
size the Son of God in the helpless child
in Mary's arms; they secuted at the fact
recorded by Mathew Il, 1877 because at
the direct variance with natures we'll
known laws He proclaimed His Divinity,
and men refused to accept the proofs He
gave, but impiously demanded proofs OF
their own devisiDg. ''Let Christ the King
of Israel descend now from the cross, that
ICE may see and belieue" Mark XIV 30
How like unto those impious tsunts,
remarked the Bishop, are the arguments
oft used against Cbrist's real presence in
the Eucharist? Though Christ says:
''This is my body" there are men who re-
fuse to accept His word, whilst protesting
to believe in His divinity. Analyzs their
reasons and at bottom You fad them pre-
cisely similar to those given by the scoffsrs
beneath the cross. LET us see," they
say, land then we will believe" With
them the ultimate criterion of faith is the
testimony of their senses. If chemical
analysis cannot detect Christ's flesh in the
Eucharist, they will not believe it present.
II the surgeons scalpel fails to discover a
human soul, this on the same process OF
reasoning, should be enough 10 prove that
man has no soul. On the same uDchris-
tian principle, the Unitarian is perfectly
justified in refusing to adore as God tho In
FAINT of Bethlehem, or the Man dying on
Calvary between two notorious malefactor5.
Christians who base their faith on the testi-
mony of their senses and refuse to believe
Christ's Body present in the Holy
Eucharist, because they cannot see it.
would do we'll TO remember the gentle, yet
severe reproach address ed by their Divine
Master TO the unbelieving Apostle: Thorn
as, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed, blessed are they that have not
seen, and vet have believed" How in
sulting to Christ's verscity is the language
of soc Illed Christians, who put more stress
on the evidence of their senses than on the
word of Christ and the teaching of His
church, against which the gates Of hell
will never prevail! How shameful in
Christians to pronounce the instincts of it
rational animals surer test Of Christian
faith than the unerripg word of Jesus
Christ How diRgraceful in any Christian
to reason thus; "ths dog or the ass DOS
not recognize the presence of Christ in the |
Eucharist; why therefore should I?'' How
it must delight the heart of the bias
pheming infdel to hear Christians asSail-
ing the Eucharistic mytery with the very |
guments which he employs against the
Incarnation? If valid in ons case
they are equally valid in the other.
Sneeripgly the infdel says: "Christ,
come down from tbs cross and
will believe in thee" The assailant of
the Catholic doctrine says: Lift the Gu
charistic wells that may zee the body OF
Christ, and / will believe" But neither |
has right to any other signs than those
which attest the authority o. Jesus Christ |
and the commission of His church to teach !
all truth TO the end of the world. The
Bishop also pointed out the great out
rage offered TO Christ by un-
worthy communicates, and earnestly |
eztOrted his hearesr, during these days of |
special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, |
to make some compensation to the good
Jesus for all those insults.
Then the Sacred Host was borne in SOL
emn procession around the church, pre-
ceded by the various Sodaliti's chanting
appropriate bymns, the services conclud-
ing with the Renediction ofthe Blessed Ss-
crameat.