The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-20

Mass, for the benefit of non Catholics.
Catholics, too, may profit much from
the explanation. All of us indeed
know in a general way the meaning
of the Mass; and it has become dear
to us by a thousand ties, natural as
well as supernatural. But how many
of us would be able to satisfy the
interest of our non-CathOlic friend,
who might ask us for explanations
after having attended Solemn High
Mass on some great feast of the
Church? All of us are given such
opportunities occasionally at least;
and then on our knowledge of the
Mass and our ability to explain it,
may depend the salvation of one or
even many human souls. 1t is just
this situation that the writer in the
Christian Year had in mind when he
penned the following article:
Perhaps this is the first time that
you have ever been inside Catholic
Church whilst Mass was being said,
and you are wondering what it is all
about. From your place you can see
the altar with lighted candles upon it,
priests in colored vestments, and boys
and men in black and white robes,
moving about. There are flowers also,
and incense and music, but you can
not understand what is being sung;
the priest speaks so low that you can
hardly hear what he says, or if you
do hear, it is in language you do not
understand. You are half inclined to
be shocked; at any rate, it seems so
strange and puzzling that you have
almost decided to go away again.
Stop a moment first, and let me see if
l cannot offer word of explanation
that will make things easier to you.
First of all, I want you to under
stand that what you are assisting at is
not form of prayers that you have
to follow word by word as the clergy
man says them, and that you could
say as we'll by yourself at home as in
the church, it is not merely prayer,
it is an action-it is sacrifice. Now,
yOu h1OW WuctI 10 U1SduI ny d SdCI1-
fee. You have read in Holy Scripture
of the sacrifices that we're continual
ly being offered by the patriarchs and
priests for the sins of the people, and
you know that a sacrifice means the
offering up of victim to God in &C
acknowledgement of His being the Sow
ereign Lord of all things. But the
sacrifices of sheep and goats under
the Old Law were only the types of,
and the preparation for, the one great
Sacrifice which the Son of God made
when He offered Himself to His Fa-
Their by dying upon the Cross for our
sins.
Now try and think what your feel
ings would be, were you carried back
nineteen hundred years to the time
when Jesus Christ lived on earth, were
you transported across land and sea
to that city where He suffered, and
could you follow with the crowd along
the steep and painful road to Calvary,
stand beneath His Cross, and see Him
die. Think how your heart would fill
with awe at the solemn fearfulness of
the scene, with compassion for Him
who was suffering so terribly, and
with sorrow for your sins which were
the cause of all this suffering. Think
what you would have done under those
circumstances, and then try and real
iZe that what went on upon Calvary
is going on now at this moment be-
fore your eyes. This is not Calvary,
but simple church in the United
States; yet Jesus Christ is here in
person on the altar, just as really as
He hung upon the Cross on Calvary );
and He is doing now exactly what He
did then-He is offering the sacrifice
of Himself to His Father for you. 1t
is true you cannot see Him, you can
not hear Him, but He is here for all
that. The only difference between the
Sacrifice on Calvary and the sacrifice
that is now going on before our eyes
is this: on Calvary Jesus Christ Of
fered His Sacred Body wounded and
bleeding on the Cross, whilst here
that Body is hidden under the form
of bread and wine, and is offered in a
mystical manner by the hands of the
priest. You will answer, perhaps,
that you do not understand all this,
and that therefore you cannot believe
it. Well, am not going to enter into
a long explanation of the doctrine of
Transubstantiation; this is not the
place for such treatise, and you can
find these things explained in other
places if you care to look for them.
l am merely telling you what is the
firm and unalterable belief of every
Catholic whom you see kneeling round
you at this moment, and what is the
teaching of the Church, founded upon
the very words of our Lord Himself.
! Suppose, therefore, that you make
up your mind, at all events for the
next half hour or so, to believe that
this doctrine may be true; if only for
this reason, that there are so many
millions of people who believe in it,
and who would joyfully give up their
lives in defense of it's truth, and then
see if the Mass, looked at in this light
does not seem a different thing alto
gether from what at first you fancied
What does it matter to you that you
cannot follow the words that the priest
is saying? You know now what he is
doing. You can, of course, if yor