The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-04-24

"The present gathering in this sanctuary is an occasion for much rejoicing. Members of the priestly order have come from many places to gather about one upon whom was bestowed a few months ago the fullness of the Christian priesthood, and who has now trav- cled from his distant See, and taken his place in their midst for the purpose of offering, for the first time in his native city, the holy sacrifice of the mass with Episcopal solemnity.
 "In the parish of which this church is the spiritual center and it's medium of supernatural light, he has come to his own; for al- though he was born in the mother parish of this city and lived in it until at the mysterious call of Jesus Christ, he left home and kindred to enter upon the sacred ministry of the Savious, it is to this parish that he is now related by his closest family ties.
 ''His coming has happily been made the occasion for the home coming and the assembling here of five and twenty or more priests who also, through members of /their families now living in it, re- gard this some parish as theirs. Of these. at the invitation of the Div inc Master, some went forth years ago from the mother parish or from one or another of the many parishes which in the course of time have risen up and become fair and prosperous daughters at her side.
 "Others, and they are the greater number, were of this parish and under it's holy influences when they heard and needed the divine call to go and prepare themselves for the sublime office of the priest hood; or were of 1t when having been found worthy after many years of study and trials, they were finally admitted to the noble ranks of the Catholic clergy.
 "The occasion is therefore one for much rejoicing on the part of all: Bishop, priests and people who have thus been brought together. It is moreover, an occasion for the lifting up of minds to the great High Priest and the stirring up of hearts with a sense of gratitude for the countless blessings that have come from the institution of his priesthood among men.
 ''The office proper to a priest IS to be a mediator between God and the people-to be the representa- tive of God in the bestowal of divine things upon men, and the representative of men in their ren- dering of homage to God, and in their offering to Him of prayer and sacrifice for sins. This con- ception of the priestly office is primitive, historic and universal. From the beginning of human so- ciety through it's family, tribal, and more extended forms, there have always and everywhere been min- isters of mediation through whom the people have looked for bless ings from on high, and through whom they directed their worship to the Divinity, real or fancied. But only when as a public duty there has been an offering of sac- rifice for human offences against the Divinity has the minister of mediation been justly recognized as a priest.
 God and men, the man Christ
 
 God in the beginning and who was God, by an act of infinite condes- tension took to Himself our hu- man nature. Divinity and human ity were thereby united in the one person of Jesus Christ, who thus became the mediator, not between God and one portion of the people, but between God and all mankind. Dwelling amongst men He shed through His humanity, the light of divine truth upon the entire human family, and from His sacred heart communicated to universal society, the fire of divine love. By His sub- lime example, He gave inspiration to all men who seek the imperish- able things that are above. He gave all men divine precepts of morality and counsels of human perfection by which they have been guided in rising from the moral and religious state so low and so hopeless, to which they had fallen.
 ''while blessing of Heaven were thus coming upon the world through the Divine Mediator. He was offering prayer and sacrifice to God for the sins Of men. At all times and in all places, by tho sea and on the mountain side, In teeming valley. and in barren des- sert. in the deep shadow of the garden of His agony and on the cross stained with His precious blood. He was sinful humanity's intereessor with his Heavenly Father for pity and pardon.