The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-04-24
Text Of Father McMahOn'S Sermon

Greater love than this no man hath than he lay down his life for his friends All the years of Jesus Christ had been years of sacrifice to God for the sins of the world. On the Cross of Calvary, He offered a final and supreme sacrifice by voluntary and su- preme sacrifice by a voluntary 1m- notation, of Himself and thereby obtained the reconciliation of man. kind, becoming for all that obeyed, the cause of eternal salvation.
 Moreover, for that he con- tinueth forever, he hath an ever- !, lasting priesthood, whereby he is able also to save forever, them that come to him living to make inter- cession for them.' And yet, infin- The Eternal Priest and Divine that his self-immolation should be renewed perpetually upon earth. and that upon earth there should His own in very truth an extension of His own eternal priesthood. When, on the night of His last sup pCI tlAu LCW IlOuAo DSlol HID death on the cross, He pronounced Body and over the wine the words, sacrificial. By them He changed His body and the substance of the the one from the other; His body frov Ite. ivror, al ln tad Himself in Q mystical manner. When thereupon after having given to the apostles, His body to charged them to do as He had which in the unbloody and mysti- cal manner of the Cenacle, should forever renew and offer in His name and by His power the bloody sacrifice Of Calvary. For had He that unless they should eat of His should not have life in them; but ing of His blood, and thus abiding in Him, they should be lifted up to HRim on the last day and should have everlasting life?
 "Since the days of the apostles. who first exercised the office of the Christian priesthood, every where and always until the present, from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof as foretold by the prophet of old. clean obla- ton is offered to God. They by whom the offering is made = apostles and their successors enjoy ing the fullness of the priesthood, and simple priests-are all repre- sentatives of the people for whom them make the offering of the Div inc Victim. But they are at the same time tre representatives of God; for it is in the name of Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest as His ministers and as living instru- ments of His Divine power that they offer the innocent Lamb of God lying immolated on the altars at which they stand.
 Tt belongs to their office to of- fer not only sacrifice for the people,, but prayer also. When the faithful are assembled for divine worship, the priest represents them before God, calling upon them to pray with him, he offers God their homage of prayer. their praises and thanksgivings, their petitions for their own needs and for the needs of the world. their applications that God may spare His people. More than this: at all times in public and in private as well. the priest in the highest sense is the mouthpiece of the Universal Church. Day after day, he begs God to open his lips to clench his heart. to illuminate his mind and to enkindle his affec- tions so that worthily. with att tention and devotion, he may dis charge the grave daily obligation that the. church had laid upon him of offering her holy and venerable prayers in union with the intention of Jesus Christ.
 Representative of the people in offering sacrifice and prayer to God his divine blessings. he is the representative of God in their bestowal upon the people. He IS Gods coadjutor,' the Minister Of Christ and the dispenser of the mysteries of God.
 "The mysteries of God! Infinite truth and divine grace! The vis- ible creation of which the world in which we move is but an sim significant part Is full of mysteries. They are gradually being pene- trated by so-called priests Of science, who bring to light and teach truths that have been hidden in the bosom of nature from tho beginning.
 ''But these truths are of the na-