The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-08-18
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roneWS so many tunes lot us the SdCIf
flee of Calvary. Consider what it has
cost the most generous Heart@ OF
Christi to prepare for us this morning
offering. The rite itself is obscure;
the whispered words of the priest, full
of tremendous import though they are,
fall only as a murmur on the ear; thel
church may be but poor place, and
none too comfortable or clean, but the
deed done there every morning passes
all words in precious grandeur, in
heavenly efficacy, because it is Gods
offering of His life and blood to God!
What Ii Cost Our Lord.
Each several Mass has cost Our
Lord His life to pay for it.. Every
several one is worth in itself as much
as the sacrifice of His life and blood
is worth Whatever the offering of
His whole being on Calvary is worth
in the eyes of His Heavenly Father so
much and no less is worth every offer
ing of the Mass.
Consider how Christ Himself must
consider the hearing of single Mass.
Whether it be said in the most gorge
Gus of churches, with sublime music
for it's accompaniment and all the
pomp of art and ritual to give it out
ward splendour, or in the heart OF
some wild wood, or in the dingy slum
of foul city, stripped of every out
ward beauty, it is to Him as precious
as His own blood, as sacred as His
death, as efficaciouS as His Passion.
1t is the very true and literal repeti-
ton, not merely in loving remem-
brance, not only in holy symbol, but
in literal truth and utter efficacy, of
the self-same offering He made on the.
Cross. This offering He truly makes
again, but in an unbloody manner, at
every single repetition Of the most
holy, the most precious and sweet and
heavenly, Sacrifice of the Mass.
How the most tender heart of
Christ must yearn to see throngs of
His Catholic people gathered around
the altar at every single repetition of
this most dear and etficacious sacri-
flee. Having paid no less than His
painful throes CT an awful passion and
death to give the Mass it's exceeding
efficacy, how must~He not desire to
see us prize and take to the full the
boundless and admirable treasure it
contains for us? What sight is it for
Him to look from the altar, when He
has with infinite love and yearning
consummated this masterpiece of His
boundless love, and see there hand
full of His people-a corporal's guard,
where there should be q whole army
t-sfe loving. wersAippers, eager Ito par
take in what His love has prepared for
them.
Both Prizes. and Victim.
| For-and this we should never for
get-it is Christ Himself Who offers
every single Mass that is said or shall
be said until the contamination Of the
world. Our Faith so teaches us-that
He is with equal truth both priest and
victim. The minister who stands at
the altar and utters the words of obla-
ton speaks not in his own person, but
Christ, THAT is My Body; and by
the omnipotence of God the bread is
| forthwith changed to Christ's Body.
This is My Blood" and as at the
Last Supper, so here also the wine
is changed into the true and real
blood of Christ. All, if it is worth
the while of our Divine Saviour so
often and SO unwearyingly to consum-
mate this marvellous sacrifice, is it
not worth our while to make even a
considerable, effort to assist at Holy
Mass often and every day?
| Since Christ Himself is always the
| Priest and the Victim, the efficacy of
the Mass never diminishes nor in
creases. The Mass that was said this
| very morning some few squares from
your door-it may be within a five
minute walk from where you sat for
getful-is so great in it's supernatural
| efficacy as that first Mass which Our
Lord offered to His Heavenly Father
! in the shadow of the Supper Room
on the eve of His Passion. If you
had bestirred yourself to rise up and
go to Mass this morning, it would
have been as though you had stood
among the twelve and heard Him say
| for the first time what He said this
morning with the same meaning and
the same efficacy: ''This is My Body;
| this is My Blood"
How Easily We Sin.
| The Mass is the most efficacious
atonement to our sins. We have sore
need to repay the justice of God and
to avert His rightful anger. How
often we have, offended, and what
slight atonement we make for the evil
we have done! Therefore, unless We
| find mercy in Gods sight, how dread
| full may our punishment be! How
easily we sin, how hardly we make
atonement! But in the, Holy Sacri-
| fee there is continual opportunity to
appease the anger of God. 1t is the
unbloodyk repetition of that selfsame
sacrifice that His Divine Son offered
on the cross for the salvation of sin
i ners. In this tremendous offering be-
hold once more the Lamb of God Who
taketh away the sins of the world