The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-09-26

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ton of the Sacramento of Penance and the BLESSED
Eucharist, the recitation of certain prayers, act
of modification, the giving of aims and the per
Torrance of certain works of mercy. There l.
nothing in all this to show that an indulgence is
| the pardon of sin or the permission to commit
! sin.
Is it ever, under any circumstances, allowable
| for the priest the church to fix a charge fol
! absolving penitent or to receive money for in
diligence? Emphatically no. To do so would BIT
to incur the guilt of smony that is the selling Of
something consecrated or sacred.
THE REAL PRESENCE
Jesus Christ our Lord, as man and mediator
held a three-fold office: He was prophet prizes
and king. The Son of God when He assumed oul
humanity was ordained consecrated and appointed
priest in a twofold sense He was a priest ac
cording to the order of Aaron, or the Levtical or
der, and according to the order of Melchisedech
As priest according to the order of Aaron He of
fered Himself a bleeding victim, a sacrifice OF
blood on the Cross. As priest according to the
order of Melchisedech He offered Himself in the
eucharistic sacrifice the night before His crupci-
fXion. Melchisedech is called priest by Moses
because he offered sacrifice of bread and wine
Gen. xiv, 1910. The night before He suffered
Jesus Christ took bread and said: "This is Ny
body which is broken for you" q. Cor, XII, "a,
and taking wine He said
"Ihis is the chalice of the New Testament in
Ny blood, which is poured out for you'' Iuke xii
2O). The Catholic church holds and has always
held that Christ meant what He said His words
were not merely declarative, they were effective
they proclaimed sacrifice and a sacrament. There
can be no religion without sacrifice for sacrifice
is the essential and distinctive act and mark of
divine worship. All other religious acts such as
prayers, hymns, petitions, thanksgiving, ETC.. may
be offered to man. but sacrifice can be offered only
to the Creator for it is an act by which we acl-
nowedge Gods supreme dominion over us and our
entire dependence on Him. The religion of Christ
IS a perfect religion, and therefore must have a
perfect sacrifice 1t is the religion that is to last
to thee nd of time, and, therefore, must have !
perpetual sacrifice Our Lord ordained His Apos
ties priests when after consecratng the bread and
wine, He offered on earth His first mass, and said
to them: "Do we this in commemoration of Me-"
In virtue of this command, these first Chris
tan priests and their valdly ordained successors
for all time offer up to God the bloodless sacrifice
Those who have rejected the sacrifice of the mass
have rejected and lost the Christian priesthood
priest is a sacrifcial and a sacramental man,
man duly consecrated and appointed to offer sacri-
fees and administer sacraments $50 let a man ae-
count of u.s." declares st. Paul, "as ambassadors
of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God"
q. Cor, w., y. As sacrfcial man. the priest |
ascends the altar of God to offer the highest act
of worship to the Supreme Master of us all. AS
a sacramental man, he comes down from the altar
of God to bestow divine graces and gifts to the
people in dispensing the sacraments. A sacrament
is visible outward sign instituted by Christ to
communicate grace to the soul Grace is super
natural gift destined by God to enable us to resist
temptation and merit heaven
The Holy Eucharist is, however, so transcerdent
a mystery that view of it, dwelt on ex-
cusively, is sufficient to exhaust its funess of
grace and blessing. 1t is the highest, the most
solemn, the fullest and most perfect act of Chris
tan worship. 1t is the nobest offering of praise,
the grandest and most joyous act of thanksgiving.
the competest and most effcacious form of prayer,
the surest means of obtaining the grace and favor
of our Heavenly Father, the most acceptable act T
of homage that offer to Him, the one act of
worship specially and expressly enioined on all gen
erations of Christians by our Lord Himself
On no subject unhappily, has more misunder
standing the fruit partly of ignorance and preju-
dice, partly of defective belief, been current than
on the Eucharstic sacrifice, popularity called the
mass. If we have read Alright, the signs of the
times during the last forty years, if the tide of
conversions now rising to the Catholic mainland
mark concurrence with the call from on high,
and if a more respectful and diferentia language
owardthe Holy Eucharist, which in boy
hood stigmatised as "basphemous fable and dan
gerous deceit" be assurance of better things,
then let hope and believe that God is mercfully
in this most sacred subject as in others, leading
back honest souls to fuller appreciation of Cath
Ollie truth and fuller knowledge of the tremen-
dous value of a human soul.