The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-03-29

DAYS and weeks and months III III
gtructing, and whom he had determined
to carry the light of his gOspeI 10 the
nations? Does he recall them? NO. pul
he turned to his chosen twelve apostles
and says: will you also go away
That is. if you, my chosen twelve. I'M
derstand my words to mean that | am
going to give you my flesh and Diood
i really, truly, and substantially, to De
eaten and drunk, as did my dlsclpleS'
and IL, like them, you do not believe IT,
you too may go away. And Peter an
swered: Lord. to whom shall we go /!
Thou hast the words of eternal lie.
Thus the matter stood till the eve OIL
! his passion at the last supper; and at
this most opportune time he undertook
to fulfill his promise to the Jews and
his disciples in the temple at Caphar-
naum. The bread that l Will give is my
flesh for the life of the world" Refer
ring to the bread and wine which lay
before him he said: This is my body
This is my blood" These words We're
effective and operative-they operated
the effect which they signifed. BY the
word of his power, he changed the sub
stance of the bread and wine into the
substance of his body and blood. And
then he added: DO this for commem-
Grafton OF me- He commanded the
Apostles to do what he had done; and
if he commanded them to do it, he must
have given them the power OF doing it.
Therefore, the apostles, through these
! words received from Christ the power
to change bread and wine into his body
and blood. But is that all? No; for
st. Paul says: LAS often as you shall
eat this bread and drink this Chalice,
you shall show forth the death of the
Lord until he cometh." This power,
therefore. must abide all the Lord shall
| come, /. e., to the end of the world: and
since the apostles were not to live to
the end of time, the power must abide
with some persons other than the apos-
| ties. And with whom should ii abide
if not with their lawful successors in
the ministry-with those who can trace
their origin and authority in the minis
! try in unbroken succession from the
| apostles? And history teaches who they
are. With whom should it abide if not
/ with the ministers of that church which
/ has maintained and upheld it's reality
and always and everywhere taught and
practiced it? Why should it remain and
abide with those who have denied. ig
nored and ridiculed it?
This. brethren, is, in brief. the doc
trine and history of the blessed euchar
list, whose institution we commemorate
today; this is the princely spire placed
upon the noble structure of christian
ity: this is the magnet around which
centers the Catholic heart. which ce
ments our hearts together, and our
souls 20 our God; this is the means
through which we worship and adore
the God whom we love. in deed and in
truth. and in a manner which alone is
worthy of him. The more noble and
worthy of God the religion is. the more
and worthy, too, should be its means of
worship: and what religion. what wor-
ship can be more worthy of God than
that established by his own divine son?
Jesus Christ came to perfect worship
and to crown religion, and this sacred |
institution is the crown he has placed
on its brow; this is the unfading robe
of beauty with which he has clothed it.
He has clothed his priests with tran
scendent power. He has filed his tenn
pies with presence and glory far |
more thrilling and far more wonderful |
than that presence and glory which |
filled the temple of Jerusalem. Thanks |
to him for his unutterable gift, he es
tablished a sacrifice which is the very |
reproduction and memorial of the cross,
and though which this adorable pres /
ence is maintained and will be main
tanned to the endof time. Taking bread
and wine into his holy hands. he conse- /
Grated them and changed them into his
own body and blood. And he gave his
apostles power to do the same: DO
this for commemoration of me. Thus
did he. Gods high priest eternal fulfill
the priesthood according to the order OF
Melchidedech. Thus did he establish
that sacred rite in which he himself
forever more would be both priest and
victim. There could be no other priest
than he, the one Amounted above all
others, the only mediator between God
and man. Nor could there be vic
tim other than he, the holocaust of Cal
vary. But by ordaining his apostles
priests, he made them participants in
his priesthood, and by consecrating he
perpetuated the sacrifice which he was
about to complete on the morrow by
giving uD his life. Henceforth from
every temple in the church of God there
would be offered the pure, holy, spot
less victim to hallow the earth and to
praise the loving condescension of the
most high God
AS there is no sterner fact in the his
tory of the world than the Incarnation
Of the Son of God, so there is no stern
er fact in the history of the Incarna-
lon-there is no more important doc
-rlne. which the Incarnate Word pro-
poses to our belief, than his real pres :
ence in the holy Eucharist, through /
he ministry of the mass-that abid- j
ng presence more wonderful and
than his presence in Judaea
md Galilee. A prophet had once stood
lpon an eastern hill and beheld the
Iod of his fathers worshiped and {
stor1fied among the Gentiles. The Wis I
on has become a reality. When the {
ooed priest bows down and the bell {
lngs and the incense rises, the faith
vi may see in spirit and in faith what
he prophet beheld in vision. the holy {
acrif1ce, the clean oblation, Gods
'lory among the Gentiles BY it's sa-
red mystery ancient types of worship {
lave been fulfilled, and Christs own e
have. reached out to every |
ge the ripened fruit of his saving l
Inc: He that eateth my flesh and :
my blood abideth in me and
in him. He is in very truth the
emmanuel, the God with us; and his
hurch is Bethlehem, the City of
'read This is that tree of knowledge ,
ct in the garden of the church. of l
'hich if any man eat he shall not
aste death forever This is that sa-
red presence before which the af- C
lcted soul finds hope and consolation. O
MS is that worship in spirit and III a
ruth which the Eternal Father SO de- v
lred, and which the Son came 11pon n
arth to establish This is that Lamb C
f God which was slain before the il
oundation of the world. Here is the
liar which st. Paul contrasts so
trongly with that which preceded it,
nd on account of which he exacts
UGH purity of conscience. Z
To the unbeliever all explanation of 4
he holy sacrifice, and through it the Z
eal presence, seems unsatisfactory.
ONE say the mass, as sacrifice.
from the cross, which was I
lrely sufficient. No doubt the cross
as sufficient. and more than suf- Z
cient. for worlds guiltier than even \