M-sity of California
uthern Regional
RT.
REV. M. 1
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass;
Dogmatically, Liturgically and Ascetically Explained.
BT
Rev. Dr. Nicholas Gihr.
TRANSLATED FROM THE SIXTH GERMAN EDITION.
Freiburg im Breisgau. 1902.
B. HERDER, Publisher to the Holy Apostolic See
Vienna (Austria), Munich (Bavaria),
Strassburg(Alsace-Lorraine) , St. Louis, Mo.: B. Herder, 17 South Broadway.
NIHIL OBSTAT.
S. LUDOVICI, DIE 17. FEBR. 1902.
F. G. HOLWECK,
Censor theologicus.
IMPRIMATUR. St. Louis, Mo., Febr. lyth, 1902.
JOHN J. KAIN,
Archbishop of St. Louis.
— BECKTOLD—
PRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO. ST. LOUIS. MO.
COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY Jos. GUMMERSBACH.
rHE publisher of this work is indebted to the late Archbishop Wm. H. Gross, the late Very Rev. Mark Gross, to Sister Mary
Thecla of the Visitation Convent at Baltimore, Md.
and Mr. Jacob Gross of St. Louis, Mo., for valuable
assistance.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
As the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the centre of Catholic wor- ship and life, a more profound knowledge of the Mass is considered essential and most desirable for all the faithful, but especially for the priest. Although literature on this subject is rather abundant, the present volume, which has been drawn from every available source at the Author's command, may not be deemed superfluous.
Its object is, in the main, both practical and ascetical : to appeal not only to the understanding, but also to inflame the heart and to move the will. The selection and the treatment of the matter have necessarily been directed to this object. As it is not our intention to present a purely scientific and exhaustive treatise on the Eucha- ristic Sacrifice, but to build, upon the foundation of scientific studies and inferences, a work useful and practical for the clergy, certain questions of scientific and historic nature may receive scarcely more than a brief and passing mention. "In Itiac conscriptione," — says Denis the Carthusian — * lnon juii intentio movere vel tangere nisi ea quae affectum excitare et devotioni possunt proficere, exponendo verba missae devotius quo valebam." "In this writing it was not my intention in expounding the words of the Mass as devoutly as I could, to raise any question or touch on anything but what might move the heart and excite to devotion." Therefore all polemical, critical quotations and statements open to contradiction have, as much as possible, been avoided. In disputed points we have always seriously and carefully weighed the reasons pro and con ; but in the book itself we have merely stated what appeared to us the most solidly grounded.
As edification and devotion must at all times rest on theological truth and emanate from it, it became necessary to present the Dogma and Rite of the Eucharistic Sacrifice clearly, thoroughly and cor- rectly, according to the spirit and intention of the Church ; thus only do the ascetical considerations and applications find a solid foundation to rest on. * lEst enim, ' ' says Suarez, t 'sine veritate pietas imbedlla^ et sinepietate veritas sterilis et jejuna." "For without truth, piety is feeble ; and without piety, truth is sterile and void." In the ex- planation of the Rite we have strictly adhered to the words and actions of the liturgical formulae, endeavoring at the same time, in accordance with approved ecclesiastical tradition, to avoid as far as possible all subjectivism and artificiality.
6 Preface to the Sixth Edition.
A correct and clear understanding as well as frequent consider- ation of the profound and mystical Rite of the Mass, will, in all probability, be the best means to enable the priest to refrain from a thoughtless, habitual mannerism, and lead him to celebrate the adorable mysteries of the Altar with becoming attention, devotion, and reverence. The priest who studies this book will, moreover, find manifold reasoning and argument wherewith to direct the faith- ful according to their capacity in the proper understanding of the Divine Sacrifice and in their fervent recourse to the Eucharistic fountain of grace. The authorities of the Church have often im- pressed upon pastors, that this is a chief duty of directors of souls, for the conscientious discharge of which they shall have to render an account before God. Although this volume is principally in- tended for the use of the clergy, it has been so arranged that the more highly cultured of the laity may also peruse it with profit.
May God grant His blessing and success to this work — es- pecially in our days, when the Church and her faithful children are necessarily more or less constrained to lead a life of sacrifice. May it awaken and foster in many hearts love for the Eucharistic Sacri- fice, as well as a cheerful and courageous spirit to undergo willingly the trials and contradictions that self-immolation demands !
ST. PETER'S, FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION, 1877.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
It is now nearly twenty years since this work first appeared in order to proclaim the "unsearchable riches" (Eph. 3, 8.) of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The divine blessing has been so abundant on it as to warrant us to publish a sixth and larger edition. In pre- paring it for the press we have made some slight changes, curtail- ments and additions, thereby rendering it more perfect both in matter and form. We intend soon to publish a work on the "Doctrine of the Sacraments," which will give a more complete explanation and confirmation of the essence of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The friendly reader is hereby requested to make a memento for
THE AUTHOR. ST. PETER'S, FEAST OF ST. THOMAS, 1897.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE . .V 5
BIBLIOGRAPHY 7
CONTENTS 13
BOOK I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. SACRIFICE IN GENERAL.
1. On the Virtue of Religion . . . . . . 17
2. Sacrifice in its proper sense ..... 26
3. Sacrifice in a figurative sense . . . . . 31
4. The Meaning and Efficacy of the Sacrifices of the Old
Law 35
CHAPTER THE SECOND. THE BLOODY SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS.
5. Jesus Christ — the Representative Head of the Human Race .......... 39
6. The High-Priesthood of Jesus Christ .... 42
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice . . * . . . . . . 47
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross 59
9. Explanation and Application of the Redemption Ac- complished on the Cross ...... 67
10. Jesus Christ, "A priest forever according to the Order
of Melchisedech" ....... 73
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14 Contents.
CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE UNBLOODY SACRIFICE OF THE ALTAR.
ARTICLE THE FIRST.
The Truth and Reality of the Encharistic Sacrifice.
11. The New Covenant of Grace requires a Perpetual Sacri- fice — the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ . 79
12. The Prophecies of the Old Law Prove the Truth and Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice .... 84
13. The Truth and the Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice
— Proved from the New Testament .... 92
14. The Proof from Tradition that the Eucharist is a True
and Real Sacrifice ....... 100
ARTICLE THE SECOND.
The Essence and Efficacy of the Encharistic Sacrifice.
15. The Essential Characteristics of the Eucharistic Sacri- fice . . . . . . . . .115
16. The Relation of the Sacrifice of the Mass to the Sacrifice
of the Cross ........ 125
17. The Value of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, as also the Rea- son and the Manner of its Efficacy . . . .134
18. The Holy Mass — a Sacrifice of Praise and Adoration . 148
19. The Holy Mass — a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving . . 153
20. The Holy Mass — a Sacrifice of Propitiation . . 156
21. The Holy Mass — a Sacrifice of Petition . . . 169
22. The Participants of the Fruits of the Mass . . .175
ARTICLE THE THIRD.
What Place the Eucharist ic Sacrifice holds in the Organization of the Chnrch.
23. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Centre of Catholic Worship .' . . •. . . '' '. "'. . 192
24. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the School and the Source whence Catholic Life Receives Its Spirit of Sacrifice ......... 207
Contents. 15
BOOK II. Liturgical and Ascetical Part.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. PREPARATION FOR THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
25. Preliminary Remarks ....... 229
26. The Christian Altar ....... 236
27. The Dressing and the Decoration of the Altar . . 248
28. The Chalice and Its Appurtenances .... 257
29. The Sacerdotal Vestments ...... 267
30. The Liturgical Colors ....... 297
31. The Use and the Meaning of Light at the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass ........ 313
32. The Language Used in the Celebration of the Holy Mass 319
CHAPTER THE SECOND. THE RITE OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE flASS.
33. Preliminary Remarks ....... 328
FIRST SECTION. The Preparatory Divine Service.
34. The Introductory Prayers ...... 346
35. The Incensing of the Altar ...... 370
36. The Introit 377
37. The Kyrie ......... 389
38. The Gloria 393
39. The Collect 407
40. The Readings from the Bible in General. The Epistle . 434
41. The Intermediary Chant (Graduale, Alleluja, Tractus, Sequentia) 443
42. The Gospel 469
43. The Creed . . ' '.'' ; 483
SECOND SECTION. The Sacrificial Celebration Proper.
FIRST ARTICLE.
The Offertory.
44. Preliminary Remarks ....... 494
45. The Offertory Chant 496
46. The Sacrificial Elements 504
16 Contents.
47. The Offering of the Host 514
48. The Offering of the Chalice 520
49. The Self-Offering of the Priest and Faithful . . . 527
50. The Oblation Invocation ...... 530
51. The Incensing of the Sacrificial Gifts at Solemn High Mass . . . 534
52. The Washing of the Hands ...... 540
53. The Prayer Suscipe Sancta Trinitas .... 544
54. The Orate Fratres and the Secreta .... 547
SECOND ARTICLE.
The Consecration.
55. The Preface 552
56. Preliminary Remarks concerning the Canon . . 578
57. The First Prayer of the Canon before the Consecration . 586
58. The Second Prayer of the Canon before the Consecration 621
59. The Third Prayer of the Canon before the Consecration. 627
60. The Consecration . . . . . . .631
61. The First Prayer of the Canon after the Consecration . 646
62. The Second Prayer of the Canon after the Consecration. 667
63. The Third Prayer of the Canon after the Consecration . 675
64. The Conclusion of the Canon ..... 688
THIRD ARTICLE.
The Communion.
65. Preliminary Remarks ....... 694
66. The Pater Noster and Its Appendix .... 695
67. The Liturgical Act of the Fraction of the Host and the Mingling of the Consecrated Elements .... 703
68. The Agnus Dei, the Prayer for Peace and the Kiss of Peace 7^
69. The Last Preparatory Prayers for Communion . . 725
70. The Communion of the Celebrant .... 734
71. The Thanksgiving . . . . . . . 740
72. The Conclusion .....-».. 758
ALPHABETICAL INDEX * . • . . . . . 773
BOOK I.
Dogmatical and Ascetical Part
CHAPTER THE FIRST.
Sacrifice in General.
i. On the Virtue of Religion.
Sacrifice is an act and, in fact, the supreme act of religion, for by the offering of sacrifice the Divine Majesty is honored in the worthiest and most perfect manner. The virtue of religion is, so to speak, the very root whence sacrifice springs and develops as a most beautiful blossom and most precious fruit. Therefore we at once perceive that the way for a better understanding of sacrifice can be opened only by previously considering the Christian or supernatural virtue of religion in its principal characteristics. l
i. Religion (religio)2 is a special moral virtue, which enables
1 We do not intend to treat here of religion as a natural virtue (virtus acqui- sita), which can be acquired, at least in an imperfect degree, by frequent acts, but of religion as a supernatural virtue (virtus per se infusa) infused by means of grace into the soul. Religion, as such, is, in the first place, an abiding, persevering dis- ' position inclining us to render unto God the worship due Him. Ease and readiness in the performance of supernatural acts of religion is the fruit of faithful exercise and is obtainable by our own exertions assisted by divine grace. Charity and all the infused moral virtues are inseparably united with sanctifying grace, whilst the two theological virtues of faith and hope (habitus fidei etspei) can still exist even- after sanctifying grace has been lost.
Cf. Mazzella, S. J., De virtutibus infusis, disput. I. art. 3 — 12.
2 The Word religio comes principally from religare (to bind — namely to God). Diximus nomen religionis a vinculo pietatis esse deductum, quod hominem sibi Deus religaverit et pietate constrinxerit, quia servire nos ei ut domino et obsequi ut patri necesse est (Lactant. Divin. institut. 1. 4. c. 28). — The thought under- lying this explanation is assuredly true ; yet the derivation from religere (from relegere) would grammatically be more correct. In Gellius (4, 9, 1) is found the participle, used adjectively, religens = God-fearing. The term religio (from reli- gere = to take carefully into consideration, to ponder over, to weigh conscien- tiously and reflect upon with due care — especially that which is divine and holy) — would, according to its original signification, be intimately connected with.
(17)
18 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
and inclines the will to give to God the supernatural honor and adoration due to Him as the Creator and Supreme Ruler, as well as the last end of all things, and particularly of man. The Holy Ghost plants this virtue in the garden of the soul ; it is our duty, with the help of grace, so to nourish this noble and precious gift of heaven that it may bear abundant fruit for the honor and glory of God and our own blessing and ultimate salvation.
The virtue of religion makes us courageous and willing to offer to the Divine Majesty due veneration. * By means of this virtue we honor the Lord our God inasmuch as we acknowledge and proclaim His greatness, majesty and dominion over us, and at the same time confess our own littleness, lowliness and dependence upon Him. Religion, consequently, includes in itself two requisites : first, lively acknowledgment of His infinite perfection and dignity ; and then, an humble subjection to His unlimited power and dominion. This cheerful submission, this humbling of self under the power of God (I Peter, 5 — 6) is required and commanded by the fundamental relations that exist between us as creatures and God as our Creator. And this relation is one of the most absolute and entire dependence upon God, for He is our first beginning and last end, our Redeemer and Sanctifier. We belong entirely to God and it behooves us to consecrate our being wholly to God ; uin God we live and move and are" a (Acts 17, 28).
"All my bones shall cry out: I/>rd, who is like to Thee?" (Ps. 34, 10.) God is a fathomless and shoreless sea of the most perfect being and life : His perfections are inexhaustible and in- comparable, surpassing and excelling all things, incomprehensible and unspeakable. God possesses infinite grandeur and dignity. Therefore all rational creatures, being immeasurably below Him,
cultus (careful nursing and waiting upon, honor, veneration — from colere, cherish- ing and caring for, esteeming and regarding as holy). Religiosus, ait Cicero, a relegendo appellatur, qui retractat et tamquam relegit ea quae ad cultum divinum pertineant (S. Isidor. Etymolog. 1. 10. n. 234). — Of this explanation Suarez remarks: Est probabilis deductio, sive vocum similitudinem sive munus ipsum religionis spectemus. (Cfr. De Religione tr. I. 1. I. c. 1). Cfr. Gutberlet, l>hrbuch der Apologetik. I. 6—7.
1 Nomine virtutis religionis hie non intellegitur habitus aliquis acquisitus et naturalis, sed habitus supernaturalis, per se et quoad substantiam infusus, quo dis. ponimur ad cultum sacrum praestandum in ordine supernaturali et relate ad nostrum finem supernaturalem (Bouquillon, De virtute religionis, 1. I. p. I, c. 2, n. 35).
2 In officio religionis quatuor actus spectari possunt, qui quo perfectiores sunt, eo perfectior est hujus virtutis functio. Primus est consideratio infinitae majestatis Dei, et omnia ab ipsa pendere. Secundus est consideratio nostri nihili, i. e. nos ex nobis nihil esse, nihil habere, sed quidquid sumus et habemus Dei esse et a Deo assidue pendere. Tertius, profunda mentis submissio et inclinatio coram Deo, quo mens haec ipsa interius testetur. Quartus, eorundem professio exterior, verbis, gestu corporis vel aliis modis (L,essius, De justitia ceterisque virt. cardin., 1. 2. c. 36, dub. I, n. 6).
1. On the Virtue of Religion. 19
owe Him the profoundest respect and veneration. God is not only inconceivably exalted above heaven and earth ; but by His creative power He is also the source of all things, for they absolutely depend on Him as to their being, their existence, their activity. Since God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, He is therefore the sovereign Master and Lord of all that lives and moves in the uni- verse; consequently, He is "the King of kings and the Lord of lords" (i Tim. 6, 15), to whom all beings owe unconditional and constant service. Since the Almighty God has made all things and since all creatures are the work of His hands, they belong to Him as His property ; He has, then, the highest and the most absolute dominion over all creatures, for they exist only for Him, and must act only for Him, and serve Him alone. Most beautifully does the Church express this thought in the Invitatory of the Office of the Dead: Regem, cui omnia vivunt, venite adoremus — "Come let us adore the King unto whom all things live."
Holy Scripture frequently delivers these truths in most vivid and striking descriptions. "The Lord is terrible and exceeding great and His power is admirable" (Kcclus 43, 31). "The Lord's ways are in a tempest and a whirlwind and clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nah. 1,3). God is the Supreme Master and Proprietor of the universe, because it has come forth from His creative hand and is His work ; hence the Psalmist joyfully sings : "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof : the world and all they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas and He hath pre- pared it upon the rivers" (Ps. 23, i — 2). "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and weighed the heavens in His palm ? Who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth ? Behold the gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance : behold the islands are as a little dust. It is He that sitteth upon the globe of the earth ; He that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names ; by the greatness of His might and strength and power, not one of them was missing" (Is. 40, 12 — 26). "And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced. They were called and they said : Here we are ; and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to Him that made them" (Bar. 3, 34 — 35). "O Lord, great art Thou, and glorious in Thy power, and no one can overcome Thee. Let all Thy creatures serve Thee ; because Thou hast spoken, and they were made : Thou didst send forth Thy spirit, and they were created, and there is no one that can resist Thy voice. The mountains shall be moved from the foundations, with the waters : the rocks shall melt as wax before Thy face" (Judith 16, 16 — 18). "He looketh upon the earth, and maketh it tremble : He toucheth the mountains, and they smoke" (Ps. 103, 32).
And what is man in comparison with the Most High, with the Almighty Creator and powerful King, greatly to be feared, who
20 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
sitteth upon His throne and is the God of dominion? (Ecclus. I, 8). "Man's days are as grass, as the flower of the field so shall he flourish. For the spirit shall pass in him, and he shall not be : and he shall know his place no more" (Ps. 102, 15 — 16). Man is earth and ashes (Ecclus. 17, 31) ; he is a leaf and a dry straw carried about by the wind ; like a flower he cometh forth and is destroyed and he fleeth as a shadow (Job 13, 25; 14, 2). Now should not man — a weak, frail, miserable creature — bow down and humble himself to the dust, should he not tremble with awe, reverence and astonishment before the power, grandeur and majesty of God, "whose throne is the heavens and whose footstool is the earth" (Is. 66, i). The pillars of heaven tremble and dread at His beck ; the morning stars praise Him and the sons of God make a joyful melody to Him (Job 26, ii ; 38, 7). The choirs of holy spirits sing in the highest heavens to the Lord day and night their never-ceasing "Holy, holy, holy;" the glorified saints prostrate themselves before Him that sitteth on the throne and adore Him that liveth forever and ever ; they lay down their crowns before the throne, saying: "Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power ; be- cause Thou hast created all things and for Thy will they were and have been created" (Apoc. 4, 10 — 11). In this jubilation of eternal praise and adoration man also should unite, according to his ability, in glorifying God, who is justly exalted above all.
2. The virtue of religion, moreover, quickens our zeal and spurs us on to the performance of acts calculated to render to the Divine Majesty due honor and glory ; and these acts may be divided into two classes. *
a) In the first class are comprised all acts which in themselves refer to the honor of God and promote it, that is, those which by their nature are intended and calculated to render to the greatness of God due acknowledgment and worship. 2 We perform such acts when, for instance, we pray and offer sacrifice, make and fulfil vows, adorn churches and decorate altars. 8
b) The second class includes the acts of all the other virtues — , figuratively speaking, in so far as they are performed by command of God, that is, by an inspiration from Him and from a motive of
1 Religio habet duplices actus : — quosdam quidem, quos elicit per quos homo ordinatur ad solum Deum, sicut sacrificare, adorare et alia hujusmodi — , alios autem actus habet, quos producit tnediantibus virtutibus, quibus imperat, ordinans eos ad divinam reverentiam, quia sc. virtus ad quam pertinet finis, imperat virtuti- bus, ad quas pertinent ea quae sunt ad finem. — Et secundum hoc actus religionis per modum imperii ponitur esse, "visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum," quod est actus elicitus a misericordia ; "immaculatum autem se custodire ab hoc saeculo" imperative quidem est religionis, elicitive autem temperantiae vel alicujus hujusmodi virtutis (S. Thorn. 2. 2. q. 81. a. 1. ad 1).
* These are according to their distinctive characteristic acts of religion in the strictest sense — actus eliciti religionis.
8 Ipsius latriae est sacrificium offerre Deo, et hoc sacrificium soli Deo debetur ; et latria dicit cultum soli Deo debitum (S. Bonav. Ill, dist. 9, a. 2, q. 2).
1. On the Virtue of Religion. 21
honoring Him, consequently made with a view and intention of giving glory to God. * The virtue of religion can and must direct / to the glory of God all the works and exercises of a Christian life, f that it may become a perpetual divine service. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do. do all for the glory of God" (i Cor. 10, 31). 2
To this effect St. Augustine says: "God is to be honored by faith, hope and charity" (Manuale i, 3). The acts of faith, hope and charity are in themselves acts, not of the moral virtue of religion, but of the three essentially different theological virtues ; yet they may be elicited with the intention of acknowledging the divine truth, fidelity and goodness, and God is thereby greatly honored and glorified. In believing, hoping and loving we give ourselves to God with all the powers of our soul, we lean upon God and rest in God as our last end ; in other words, we render to the divine perfections and majesty due homage and submission. — The three divine virtues also condition the development and completion of the Christian life, which is founded on faith, nourished by hope and animated by charity. Faith enlightens the understanding with celestial light, hope endows the soul with supernatural strength, and love inflames the heart with divine fire ; thus these, three virtues enable us by a new and holy life to announce to men the glorious prerogatives and perfections of God, that they may see our works and glorify our Father who is in heaven (i Peter 2, 9 ; Matt. 5, 16). They give rise to the virtue of religion, and excite us to glorify God through works of piety, mercy and penance. 3
We read in the epistle of St. James (i. 27) these words: "Re- ligion (religio) clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this ; to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." The meaning of the above is — that if we would honor God the Father in a sincere and proper manner, we must be assiduously intent upon assisting the poor, the abandoned and the distressed, upon consoling and com- forting them, and, at the same time, endeavor, amid the universal corruption of the world, to serve God alone and to please Him by purity of heart and the righteousness of our ways. Thus the virtue
1 These are acts imperati religionis, that is, acts of other virtues, the practice of which is commanded by religion, whereby, without losing their particular character, they become likewise acts of religion.
2 Ad religionem pertinent non solum oblationes sacrificiorum et alia hujus- modi, quae sunt religioni propria, sed etiam actus omnium virtutum, secundum quod referuntur ad Dei servitium et honorem, efficiuntur actus religionis (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 186, a. 1 ad 2).
3 Dicit S. Augustinus Deum soli fide, spe et caritate, non quod religio eliciat actus fidei.spei et caritatis, sed quia vel eos imperat vel ab eis imperatur (Billuart, Dereligione dissert. 1, art. 2).
22 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
of religion will produce abundant fruits uthat in all things and above all things God may be glorified" (ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus). 1
3. Religion holds the first place among the moral virtues. Although, like all other moral virtues, the virtue of religion is in- ferior in merit and dignity to the divine virtues of faith, hope and charity, it is, nevertheless, most intimately connected with them, for it regulates the conduct of man toward God. It holds the first rank among the moral virtues, because it approaches nearer to God than the others, in so far as it produces and has for its primary ob- ject those acts which refer directly and immediately to the honor of God — that is, whatever acts pertain to the divine service. 2 The sublime virtue of religion ennobles man precisely in this, that it completely subjects him to the will and dominion of God and brings him into the closest communication with the primal Source of all holiness. "For in offering honor and homage to God we submit our mind to Him, and it is in this submission that its perfection consists. An object is perfected by its submitting to its superior. Thus the; perfection of the body consists in its being vivified by the soul ; and the perfection of the atmosphere in its being thoroughly illumined by the light of the sun."8 Honoring God fervently renders man truly great and exalted, and \mparts to him abundant gain and bles- sing for his spiritual life.
4. The worship due to the Divine Majesty consists principally in acts of adoration, thanksgiving, petition and propitiation.
As we have seen, God immeasurably excels all creatures, even the highest and the sublimest of the heavenly spirits ; He excels them not merely by His infinite dignity and perfection, but also by reason of His boundless power and dominion. Hence at all times and in all places, every creature is dependent upon God. It be- hooves man as a rational creature consciously and freely and actively to acknowledge his absolute dependence upon God — in a word, to adore God. By adoration ( \arpda, adoratio latreutica, cultus latreuticus), we understand that supreme and most perfect homage due, not to any mere creature, but only and solely to God on account of His infinite perfection, majesty and sovereign authority. 4
1 Omnia secundum quod in gloriam Dei fiunt, pertinent ad religionem, non quasi ad elicientem, sed quasi ad imperantem; ilia autem pertinent ad religionem elicientem, quae secundum rationem suae speciei pertinent ad reverentiam Dei (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 81, a. 4 ad 2).
1 Religio magis de propinquo accedit ad Deum, quam aliae virtutes morales, in quantum operatur ea, quae direc te et immediate ord.ina.ntur in honorem divinum. Et ideo religio praeeminet inter alias virtutes morales (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 81, a. 6).
8 S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 81, a. 7.
4 Cum obsequium diversis possit exhiberi, speciali quodam et supremo modo Deo debetur, quia in eo est suprema ratio majestatis etdominii; et ideo servitium vel obsequium, quod ei debetur, speciali nomine nominatur et dicitur (S. Thorn. III. dist. 9, q. I. a. 1, sol.l).
1. On the Virtue of Religion. 23
God alone is adorable ; l He alone is the Most High, the Almighty Creator and Ruler of creation. Those rights and perfections which belong exclusively to God, are also to be acknowledged and honored by a special worship, — the worship of adoration. Hence to adore God is at the same time to acknowledge, admire and to praise His majesty and sovereign power; it is profoundly to humble and, in a manner, to annihilate ourselves in the presence of His infinite gran- deur and dignity ; it is to submit, to consecrate and to resign our- selves unreservedly to Him as our first beginning and our last end. Consequently, adoration is the most excellent and the most precious homage that God can receive from creatures endowed with reason, man included.
Two other religious duties and acts are inseparably connected with adoration — namely, thanksgiving and petition. Because God is adorable, that is, because He possesses infinite perfections, unlimited power, and boundless goodness, He is the inexhaustible fountain whence proceeds every good and perfect gift, in heaven and upon earth. 2 All that we are, that we have and can do, both in the order of nature and in the order of grace, is the outpouring of the overflowing love of God. — Now, with respect to the numberless gifts and graces which we have already received and daily yet receive, we owe heartfelt thanks for them, one and all, to God, our greatest Benefactor ; moreover, all the good that we may expect, hope for and implore, can likewise come to us only by the infinitely bounteous hand of God ; hence it behooves us to turn to Him in humble supplication.
To adore God, to thank Him and to implore of Him His gifts is therefore a threefold duty incumbent upon man, for the simple reason that man is altogether dependent upon God. But in conse- quence of his having fallen away from God and become corrupt by sin, there devolves upon him, now laden with iniquity and deserving of punishment, still another obligation, namely, that of appeasing an offended and irritated God, by appropriate propitiation or satisfaction.
5. The acts of religion must above all be interior, that is, be performed with mind and heart ; furthermore, they must also reveal
1 To the whole humanity of Christ, as well as to its single parts, for example, the Sacred Heart, the Precious Blood, the Five Wounds, — and also to the Eucha- ristic Body and Blood of Jesus Christ supreme adoration is due. But, at the same time, it is to be observed that the human nature of Christ in itself (in se), but not on account of itself (propter se) is adorable : the foundation of this absolute adoration of the humanity of Christ lies in the hypostatic union, that is, in this that the Son of God has made this human nature His own and is thereby truly man. Consequently, the one and entire Christ, that is, Christ also as man, or in His human nature, must be adored. — Per gratiam unionis Christus dignus est non tantum felicitate gloriae, verum etiam adoratione latriae, quae est cultus reverentiae soli Deo debitae (S. Bonav. Brevil. P. IV, c. 5).
2 Deus a quo bona cuncta procedunt — Deus virtutum, cujus est totum, quod est optimum (= bonum). Orat. Eccles.
24 !• Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
themselves externally, appear visibly and in a manner become cor- poreal ; — the virtue of religion, as it must be exercised by man, comprises therefore interior and exterior acts. At the same time it must not be forgotten, that exterior acts of divine worship, to be pleasing to God and conducive to His honor, should always be ani- mated and enlivened by the interior. The exterior acts of religion should proceed from the heart, should express the interior life of the soul, and practically show forth the mind's religious reverence and submission, according to the words of the Royal Prophet: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God" (Ps. 83, 3). 1 Why is man commanded to honor God by outward acts ?
a) Man is not, as the angels, purely spiritual, but a creature composed of spirit and body. As such he must honor and glorify God in a manner appropriate to his corporeal and rational nature. But man renders the homage of his whole nature only when his body also takes part in his acts of divine worship, so that the interior worship is manifested by outward acts. 2 — Man in his entire being, created by God and dependent upon Him, belongs in body and soul to God ; therefore is man bound to serve and to worship God, his Creator, Preserver and Lord, with the powers of his soul and body, by spiritual and corporal acts. Moreover, the body of a Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost, for it becomes sanctified by grace, and is to be transfigured by glory. Hence the Church implores God to grant "that we may serve and please Him not only with the soul, but also with the body." 3
b) The most intimate reciprocity exists between man's interior and exterior acts ; they proceed from one another, they mutually assist and complete each other. Those things which stir man's in- most soul — such as joy and sorrow, love and anger, hope and fear — ,
1 Deo reverentiam et honorem exhibemus non propter seipsum, quia ex seipso est gloria plenus, cui nihil a creatura adici potest ; sed propter nos, quia videlicet per hoc quod Deum reveremur et honoramus, mens nostra ei subicitur,, et in hoc perfectio consistit : quaelibet enim res perficitur per hoc quod subditur suo supe- riori, sicut corpus per hoc quod vivificatur ab anima, et aer per hoc quod ilium iuatur a sole. — Metis autem humana indiget ad hoc quod conjungatur Deo, sensibilium tnanuductione . . . et ideo in divino cultu necesse est aliquibus corporalibus uti, ut eis quasi signis quibusdam mens hominis excitetur ad spirituales actus, quibus Deo conjungitur. Et ideo religio habet quidem interiores actus quasi principales et per se ad religionem pertinentes ; exteriores vero actus quasi secundarios et ad interiores actus ordinatos (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 81, a. 7).
8 Non est minim, si haeretici, qui corporis nostri Deum esse auctorem negant, hujusmodi corporalia obsequia Deo fieri reprehendunt. In quo etiam apparet, quod se homines esse non meminerunt, dum sensibilium sibi repraesentationem neces- sariam non judicant ad interiorem cognitionem et affectionem ; nam experimento apparet quod per corporales actus anima excitatur ad aliquam cognitionem vel affectionem; unde manifestum est, convenienter etiam corporalibus quibusdam nos uti ad mentis nostrae elevationem in Deum. (S. Thorn, c. gent. 1. 3, c. 119).
8 Ut corpore tibi famulemur et mente — ut corpore tibi placeamus et mente. Orat. Eccles.
1. On the Virtue of Religion. 25
involuntarily betray their impression in his exterior: and this is especially the case with regard to the interior acts of religion. And why should not the fervent interior life, the ardent devotion and divine love of a pious soul, be spontaneously manifested in the out- ward man, and so take possession of his entire being, as to impel him not only "to sing in grace in his heart to God," but further- more to pour himself out "in psalms and hymns and spiritual can- ticles" (Coloss. 3, 16), — to join his hands, bend his knees and prostrate his form upon the earth before the face of the Most High ? "My heart hath been glad and my tongue hath rejoiced" (Ps. 15,9), exclaims therefore the Royal Prophet. "Let my soul be filled with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips" (Ps. 62, 6). — Reversely, the exterior also affects the interior man : outward signs and acts arouse the affections of the spirit, in- flame and nourish the fervor of devotion, refresh and invigorate the life of the soul. The interior acts of religion grow in perfection, be- come durable and constant, when they thus live and exercise their activity in the body, that is, when they, so to speak, assume flesh and blood. When, however, exterior divine worship is neglected, the interior soon languishes and dies.
c) Man is lord and master of irrational creatures, which also must be led to glorify the Creator. But it is principally by exterior worship that man can and must lead the visible creation to serve and . praise the Creator. The use in religious service of creatures imparts to external nature a higher consecration and activity. "For the building up and the adornment of the temple, the earth presents its treasures and precious metals ; the ocean, its pearls ; spring, the magnificence of its flowers."
d) Not the individual man alone, but society also, as a religious body, must render to God due homage and submission. Now a common public service (cultus socialis} requires external acts. Hence visible, outward worship is necessary as the bond of the religious community, namely the Church.
It behooves us, then, in accordance with our own nature and the express divine commandment, to honor God with our mental and corporal powers, that is, we must not merely by interior but also by outward acts adore Him, thank Him, beseech and propitiate Him.
This fourfold duty is fulfilled principally by prayer and sacri- fice, which are intimately connected with each other, which permeate and complete one another. The interior acts of divine worship manifest themselves outwardly, in the first place, by vocal, that is, by corporal, prayer — then in the offering of sacrifice, which, as the most sublime act of religion, is far more excellent and meritorius than prayer.
6. The virtue of religion is exceedingly precious and rich in blessings. It teaches us humbly to acknowledge our own littleness and misery, and to render to God, of whose goodness there is no end (Ps. 144, 3), due honor in all things, thereby winning for us the
26 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
richest blessings. A spirit of reverential homage should, as a heavenly spice and consecration, pervade our whole life, in order to render it daily more and more pleasing and meritorious in the eyes of God. To worship God should be our joy and happiness ! "Come let us praise the Lord with joy, let us joyfully sing to God our Saviour. Let us come before His presence with thanks- giving and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. For in His hands are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are His. For the sea is His, and He made it ; and His hands formed the dry land. Come let us adore and fall down ; and weep before the Lord that made us. For He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hands" (Ps. 94, i — 7). A true knowledge of God and a correct under- standing of ourselves furnish the solid basis upon which rest the virtue of religion and the spirit of the most submissive adoration. Ever seeking to know God and ourselves more perfectly is the higher wisdom and the science of the Saints, and after this we should in- cessantly strive. Noverim te — Noverim me ! prayed St. Augustine. l O God, grant that I may know Thee — Noverim te! Give me an intimate knowledge of Thy adorable perfections, which are without measure or number — of Thy infinite grandeur and glory, Thy in- conceivable power, wisdom and goodness, Thy unspeakable beauty, sweetness and amiableness ; penetrate me with a deep knowledge of "the profound things of Thy divinity, which only the Holy Spirit searcheth" (i Cor. 2, 10), that is, the works and riches of Thy grace and glory, Thy infinitely just and merciful decrees, the wonder- ful and inscrutable dispensations of Thy providence ! — Noverim me! Grant me, moreover, a wholesome knowledge of myself ! "O my God, illumine my darkness" (Ps. 17, 29), that Thy light may permit me to look down deeply into the abyss of my nothing- ness, my misery, my helplessness, my frailty and my sinfulness !
2. Sacrifice in its Proper Sense.
The interior acts and affections of the virtue of religion, that is, of adoration, thanksgiving, petition and satisfaction, manifest them- selves in many ways, but find their supreme and most solemn ex- pression in sacrifice. Sacrifice is a special act of divine service, and, as such, differs essentially from all other acts of worship. To form a correct idea of sacrifice, we must inquire what is properly meant by sacrifice, and in what its essence consists. By sacrifice we under- stand the offering of a visible object, effected through any change, transformation or destruction thereof, in order effectually to acknowl- edge the absolute Majesty and Sovereignty of God as well as man's total dependence and submission.
1 Soliloq. II, I.
2. Sacrifice in its Proper Sense. 27
Among the requisites of sacrifice, the gift and its presentation, as well as the object and meaning of the exterior act, chiefly deserve consideration.
1. Sacrifice is the offering of a visible object; hence, in the first place, a visible gift is necessary as an offering to God. This gift ought to correspond to the object in view, and should, therefore, be selected with due regard thereto. Consequently, the offering most appropriate to God is that which is the noblest in the visible creation — human life. Wherefore Christ, in order to present the most perfect sacrifice, offered His precious life on the Cross, accord- ing to the will of His Father. In eveiy other case God did not wish that human life should be sacrificed to Him, but rather contented Himself with the interior offering of the heart and its symbolical ex- pression — namely, with the presentation of an irrational creature substituted for human life and offered in its stead. l It is at once evident that especially the living and inanimate things which serve directly for the support of man, and thus may represent his life, may be appropriately substituted as offerings for man himself. Before Christ such offerings consisted, for example, of lambs, heifers, doves ; bread, wine, oil, salt, incense.
As such gifts were offered to give honor to God, it is self-evident that they had to be as perfect as possible, without blemish or defect. 1 In as far as sacrifice is an external act of worship, its value depends chiefly on the dignity and interior disposition of the person who offers ; the value of the gift presented also contributes to make the sacrifice more acceptable to God. Hence when proper sentiments animate the heart, only precious gifts will be selected as offerings for an action so exalted and holy. On the other hand — to make choice of indifferent, trifling or imperfect objects as offerings is a sign that the proper spirit of sacrifice and respect for the Divine Majesty are wanting (cf. Mai. I, 7 — 8).
2. Not every gift offered to God is a sacrifice. It greatly de- pends on the way and manner of offering. — Some change or de- struction of the gift must take place to constitute a sacrifice. An entire destruction of the gift, or such as is at least morally equivalent,
1 This substitution for man and human life is, as seen in the rite of the Old Testament for the offering of sacrifices, expressed and commanded in the clearest manner (compare the ceremony of laying hands on the head of the animal to be slain, — the sacrifice of the two goats on the great Feast of Atonement). Recall also the sacrifice of Abraham. The patriarch was commanded to sacrifice his only son Isaac: but, in accordance with the will of God, he took a "ram and offered it as a holocaust in place of his son" (Gen. 22, 13). The Fathers teach the same. Cum Patriarchae . . . quasi divino spiritu illustrati viderent, magno sibi opus esse obsequio ad suorum humanorum delictorum purgationem, pretium pro salute sua ei, qui vitam atque animam praebuisset, se debere putabant. Sed cum nihil prae- stantius aut pretiosius anima sua haberent, quod dicarent, pro hac interim bru- torum animalium vitam offerebant ; pro sua anima sacrificia suae vitae vicaria (arrtyvxaC) offerentes (Euseb. Demonstr. evang. 1. I, c. 10).
1 Omne, quod est optimum, Deo est attribuendum (S. Thorn. 1, 2, q. 102, a. 3 ad 4).
28 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
pertains essentially to the idea of sacrifice ; hence its outward form. Whatever has not been liturgically transformed, v. g. destroyed, cannot be a real sacrifice {sacrifidum} , but is only a religious gift (oblatio), essentially different from sacrifice. l Thus we find in all sacrifices mentioned in Holy Writ, that there was ever some mode of destruction or dissolution, appropriate to the nature of the matter of the sacrifice. Thus, the animals were slain and their blood spilled on the altar, incense was consumed by fire, and wine was poured out. The intrinsic and more weighty reason why such a trans- formation, or destruction, of the gift is requisite for the act of sacri- fice, lies in the peculiar meaning and in the special object of sacrifice.
3. Sacrifice, that is, the transformation of the gift offered, is intended to represent symbolically that God possesses absolute authority and dominion over all things — and, consequently, that man is essentially dependent upon God, belongs and is subject to Him and, therefore, that he is bound and is ready to give and dedicate his life entirely to God. God is the Supreme Ruler, in- finitely holy, the primal source of all being, and the last end to which all being should return, "that He may be all in all" (I. Cor. 15, 28). And now how could this grandeur and sovereignty of God over all that is and that can be outside of Him, be more appropriately expressed than by the destruction of a visible object, as is done in sacrifice ? How could man's dependence on and obligation to serve God be more suitably made apparent than in sacrifice, wherein a tangible, material object, is destroyed in the place of a human life ?
If the exterior rite of sacrifice is in reality to have the above meaning and be a worship acceptable to God, then it must also be an expression of the interior and spiritual sacrifice, and be animated and vivified by the essential sentiments of sacrifice. 2 — "The visible sacrifice," says St. Augustine, "is a holy sign of the invisible offering." 8
1 Actus, quo res externas ad Dei cultum consecramus, dividitur in oblationem et sacrifidum; omnes enim actus, quibus res externas Deo offerimus, sub aliquo ex illis duobus membris constituuntur. J3t quamvis oblatio large dicta comprehendat sub se sacrificium ; istud enim quaedam oblatio est, et sub genere oblationis conti- netur: tamen oblatio specialiter dicta (licet nomen generis retineat) a sacrificio distinguitur. Nam oblatio dicitur, quando res integra et immutata offertur ; sacri- fidum vero vocatur, cum res immutatur in ipsa oblatione . . . Res, quae sacri- ficantur, debent in ipso sacrificio Cquod in hoc a simplici oblatione distinguitur) immutari vel mactatione vel cotnbustione vel fractione vel divisione vel alio niodo (Salmant. De Incarn. disp. 31, dub. 1, n. 1).
2 Oblatio sacrificii fit ad aliquid significandum. Significat autem sacrificium, quod offertur exterius, interius spirituale sacrificium, quo anima seipsam offert Deo (Ps. 50, 19), quia exteriores actus religionis ad interiores ordinautur. Anima autem se offert Deo in sacrificium sicut principio suae creationis et sicut fini suae beatificationis. Secundum autem veram fidem solus Deus est creator ani- inarum nostrarum ; in solo etiam eo animae nostrae beatitude consistit. Et ideo sicut soli Deo summo debemus sacrificium spirituale offerre, ita etiam soli ei debe- mus offerre exteriora sacrificia (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 85, a. 2).
8 Sacrificium visibile invisibilis sacrificii sacramentum, i. e. sacrum signum est (De civit. Dei 1. 10, c. 5).
2. Sacrifice in its Proper Sense. 29
Hence the offering up of sacrifice essentially aims to glorify God as the absolute Lord and supreme Legislator of all creatures, and this is to adore God. This meaning is inseparably connected with sacrifice ; it holds the first place, and is ever an act of worship due to God alone, — an act of adoration. l — With this main object, thanksgiving and petition are naturally combined, inasmuch as the gift is presented also to honor and acknowledge God as the omni- potent and merciful Dispenser of all good gifts, that is, to show one's self grateful for benefits received, and to supplicate for new graces. — In consequence of the fall of man, sacrifice assumes the additional characteristic of atonement. It is offered to express the need and desire of appeasing the irritated justice of God and of being thereby freed from sin and its punishment. Atonement for sin com- mitted is made by sacrifice, inasmuch as the offended majesty of God is glorified, in order to restore to God the honor of which He had been deprived and to make satisfaction for the injury done to Him. The destruction of the offering is especially suitable to this end. How could sinful man more worthily and more strikingly acknowl- edge himself deserving of death on account of his fault,and, willing to undergo death in satisfaction for it, than when, by the laying of his hands on the victim, he transfers to it his sins, and slaying it and shedding its blood, offers it to God instead of his own life ? 2
History shows us atonement as always accompanying adoration and holding the rank next to it in the idea of sacrifice. The first and greatest want and desire of fallen man was to appease the anger of an offended God, to obtain mercy and forgiveness for sin ; hence it is quite natural that among the guilty, unredeemed generations living before Christ the character of atonement should have been impressed in a marked manner upon their sacrifices. 3 In whatever necessity sinful man presents himself before God, whether to adore, to thank or to petition Him, his first and deepest conviction is that he is a poor sinner, unworthy of being heard and answered by God ; hence it is most natural that precisely in the most ardent acts of worship, such as sacrifice, he will always, and at the very start, feel deeply conscious that he is laden with sins and debts to God. How could he, a sinner, more worthily acknowledge the Divine Majesty
1 Illo cultu, qui graece Xarpefa dicitur, latine uno verbo dici non potesti cum sit quaedam proprie divinitati debita servitus, nee colimus nee colendum doce- mus nisi unum Deum. Cum autem ad hunc cultum pertineat oblatio sacrificii, nullo modo tale aliquid offerimus aut offerendum praecipimus vel cuiquam martyri vel cuiquam sanctae animae vel cuiquam angelo (S. Aug. C. Faust. 1, 20 c. 21).
2 Per occisionem animalium significatur destructio peccatorum, et quod homines erant digni occisione pro peccatis suis, ac si ilia animalia loco eorum occiderentur ad significandatn expiationem peccatorum (S. Thorn. 1, 2, q. 102, a. 3 ad 5).
3 Aeterne Deus, qui post offendicula lapsus primi hominis instituisti tibi offerri propitiatorii delibamenta libaminis, ut culpa quae praecesserat per super- biam, futuris temporibus expiaretur per munera, quibus honorarentur altaria, honorificarentur et templa (Pontif. Roman. De alt. port, consecrat.)
30 I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
of the infinitely holy and just God, show his gratitude towards Him in a more appropriate way, and approach Him with greater con- fidence of being heard?"
It is for this fourfold end that sacrifices are offered : hence there are sacrifices of adoration, of thanksgiving, of petition and of pro- pitiation. 1 These divisions are not made according to the exclusive object of Sacrifice, but only with reference to its predominant end. This means only that in the rite of celebration and in the intention of the person offering, one of these ends is chiefly in- tended, without, however, excluding the others. Every sacrifice has in itself a fourfold signification : it serves at one and the same time to glorify the Divine Majesty (sacrificium latreuticum) ; to return thanks for benefits received (sacrificium eucharisticum) ; to petition for new benefits (sacrificium impetratorium) ; and finally, to satisfy for sin and its punishment (sacrificium propitiatorium) .
4. In so far as sacrifice has a symbolical meaning and is a con- stituent part of public worship, it must positively be instituted by a legitimate authority. 2 The sacrificial service of the Old Law was regulated and ordained by God Himself in its most minute details ; in the New Law the essential elements and features of worship proceed directly from Jesus Christ — hence, first of them all, sacri- fice, which constitutes the fundamental and central act of divine service. Neither to the Synagogue nor to the Church did God impart the right or the power to institute sacrifices : in His in- finite mercy He Himself condescended to prescribe the sacrifices by which He would be honored and propitiated. No mere man, but our Divine Saviour alone could institute so sublime and so ex- cellent a Sacrifice as we possess in the Holy Mass.
5. Sacrifice is an act of worship which can not be performed by anybody but a priest. He alone who has been especially chosen, called and empowered, that is, only the priest can and may perform the office of sacrificer. Sacrifice and priesthood are inseparably connected : no sacrifice can exist without a priest- hood, and no priesthood without a sacrifice. A special priest- hood is, therefore, required by the very nature of sacrifice, which, as a public, solemn act of worship, must be performed in the name and for the welfare of the religious body by a duly authorized person. — Consequently, it is highly proper that only he who is, at least by his office and dignity, especially separated from sinners and sancti- fied, should present himself in sacrifice as mediator between an offended God and sinful man. "For every highpriest taken from among men," so writes the Apostle, "is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices
1 Maxime obligator homo Deo propter ejus majestatem (Sacrifice of Adoration;, secundo propter offensam commissam (Sacrifice of Propitiation), tertio propter beneficia jam suscepta (Sacrifice of Thanksgiving), quarto propter beneficia sperata (Sacrifice of Petition) (S. Thorn. 1, 2, q. 102, a. 3 ad 10).
* Oblatio sacrificii in communi est de lege naturali ; sed determinatio sacri- ficiorum est ex institutione hutnana vel divina (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 85, a. 1 ad 1).
2. Sacrifice in its Proper Sense. 31
for sins" (Heb. 5, i). — It is clear that it belongs to God alone to bestow the honor of the priestly vocation and office, and to determine "who belong to Him, and the holy He will join to Himself; and they whom He shall choose shall approach to Him" (Num. 16, 5).
6. Nor is it less evident that for the celebration of so holy and solemn an act of worship it is especially becoming to make choice of a sanctified place ; such a place, where sacrifice is offered, is called an altar. Wherever sacrifice and priesthood are found, there also is always an altar.
7. From the above it follows that sacrifice is the most exalted and perfect manner of honoring God, and, therefore, excels all other acts of worship. It also constitutes the principal act, and is the central point of the whole divine service. In this all agree that man by the offering of sacrifice renders to God the highest possible honor and homage. In sacrifice the interior adoration of the Divine Majesty attains its fullest expression. Sacrifice is essentially an act of adoration, and, therefore, always includes the acknowledgment of the divinity of Him to whom it is offered. It is among all acts of worship the prerogative of God, and may be offered only to the one true God. * To offer it to a creature, even to the greatest saint or the most exalted of the angels, would be heinous idolatry. — At all times sacrifices have been offered to God, 2 to acknowledge in the most perfect and solemn manner His sovereignty, to express grati- tude for favors, to implore fresh blessings from Him and especially to avert the scourges of His avenging justice.
3. Sacrifice in a Figurative Sense.
i. Only such acts of divine worship as contain in themselves all the essential requisites and characteristics of the idea of sacrifice as explained above, are and may be called sacrifices in their proper sense. In the religious, ascetical life virtuous acts, differing essen-
1 Sacrificium certe, nullus hominum est, qui audeat dicere deberi nisi Deo . . . quis vero sacrificandum censuit nisi ei, quern Deum aut scivit aut putavit aut finxit? (S. August. De civ. Dei 1. 10 c. 4.) — Populus christianus memorias marty- rum religiosa solemnitate concelebrat et ad excitandam imitationem et ut meritis eorum consocietur atque orationibus adjuvetur, ita tamen ut nulli martyrum, sed ipsi Deo martyrum, quamvis in memoriis martyrum, constituamus altaria. Quis enim antistitum in locis sanctorum corporum assistens altari aliquando dixit: Offerimus tibi, Petre aut Paule aut Cypriane, sed quod offertur, offertur Deo, qui martyres coronavit (S. August. C. Faust. 1. 20, c. 21).
2 Many theologians assert that sacrifice is strictly required and commanded, by the very law of nature, that it is a natural necessity. Others do not grant this, but say that sacrifice is only in an eminent degree in accord with the law of nature, i. e., that it corresponds to the law of nature ; that not only the interior but also the exterior worship of God is assuredly commanded by the natural law, but that this obligation may be fulfilled by performing other acts, for example, by vocal prayer, by the joining of the hands and the bending of the knees. Doubtless, sacrifice is necessary in order to make exterior worship perfect. The Church teaches that human nature calls for a visible sacrifice (hominum natura exigit visibile sacrificium — Trid. sess. 22, cap. 1).
32 I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
ally from sacrifice, are often called by that name. The term sacrifice applied to such acts is not to be taken in its original and strict meaning, but is to be understood in a derivative and improper sense: acts of virtue are and are called sacrifices in a broader sense. — The word sacrifice, for example, is often used figuratively to designate good, meritorious actions, inasmuch as they bear a certain resemb- lance and relationship to true and real sacrifices. * This resemblance and relationship consists chiefly in two points : sacrifice serves to glorify God — and is accomplished by the destruction of a sensible object. The various acts of virtue, therefore, resemble sacrifice in so far as they are performed with the right disposition and intention of giving glory to God2, and in so far as they require a certain destruc- tion, that is, the mortification of the perverse and sensual nature of man8. The base, sensual, earthly, material life must be curbed and overcome, — must die, so that the higher, spiritual, heavenly life of grace may be vigorously and fully developed in man. Mortification, however, is painful to man and costs labor and exertion. We are accustomed to think of this necessary renunciation and self-denial chiefly when we designate as a sacrifice individual acts of virtue, and also a life that is wholly Christian and perfect. Some examples 4 may throw light upon the above and confirm what has been said.5
1 Sicut cultus Dei multipliciter dicitur, sic et sacrificium. Est enim sacrifici- um bonae operationis, et sacrificium devotae orationis, et sacrificium immolationis. Primum est virtutum omnium; secundum virtutum theologicaru m; tertium spectat ad ipsam latriam. Ipsius enim latriae est sacrificium offerre Deo, et hoc sacrificium soli Deo debetur, et latria dicit cultum soli Deo debitum. (S. Bonav. Ill, dist. 9, a. 2, q. 2).
* According to St. Augustine our works are sacrifices only when we perform them in order to be closely united to God, that is, when we refer them to that Supreme Good in whom consists our happiness. Unde ipsa misericordia, qua homini subvenitur, si propter Deum non fit, non est sacrificium. Etsi enim ab homine fit vel offertur, tamen sacrificium res divina (something divine) est : unde et hoc quoque vocabulo f sacrificium from sacrum, facere) id Latin i veteres appella- verint. (S. Angus., De civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 6). — Omne opus virtutis dicitur esse sacrificium, in quantum ordinatur ad Dei reverentiam. (S. Thorn. 2. 2, q. 81, a.4 adl).
3 Mortification (mortificatio) is, as Alvarez de Paz aptly says : mors quaedam specialis, qua id, quod Deo displicet et homini nocet, corrumpitur, ut mens nostra jucundiori vita vestiatur, (De exterminat. mali et promot. boni, 1. 2, p. 3, c. 3). — Bona mors, quae vitam non aufert, sed transfer! in melius, bona, qua non corpus cadit, sed aninia sublevatur (S. Bernard., In Cantica serm. 52, n. 4).
4 In Holy Scripture where the word sacrifice is simply used, that is, without modification or explanation, sacrifice is to be understood in its strict sense ; but when good works are called sacrifices, that is, when the word is taken in a broader sense, this is, as a rule, indicated by additional words or at least by the context. — When sacrifices in the strict sense are enumerated together with such acts of virtue, or rather placed in contrast with them, they are called simply sacrifices, e. g., Misericordiam volui et non sacrificium, et scientiam Dei plus quam holo- causta (Os. 6, 6).
4 Triplex est hominis bonum : — primum quidem est bonum animae, quod Deo offertur interiori quodam sacrificio per devotionem et orationem et alios hujus- modi interiores actus; et hoc est principale sacrificium. — Secundum est bonum
3. Sacrifice in a Figurative Sense. 33
2. Acts of charity, works of mercy, whereby the poor and needy are assisted and consoled, are called sacrifices by the Apostle — and this in so far as the Christian intends, in the person of the poor, to give something to God Himself by the alms which he bestows: "Do not forget to do good and to impart; for by such sacrifices God's favor is obtained. " l The same Apostle called the alms sent to him by the Christians of Philippi, uan odor of sweet- • ness, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God."'2
To renounce sensual pleasures, to treat the body with rigor and austerity, is still more difficult than to forego worldly goods and pos- sessions ; hence St. Paul exhorts the Christians "by the mercy of God that you present your bodies (through mortification) a living sacri- fice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." 3
A "sacrifice" which God does not reject, but graciously accepts is "an afflicted spirit," "a contrite and humble heart," that is, a spirit and a heart which, wounded with love and sorrow, penitently bewails and detests the sins and transgressions of its past life. 4
Prayer stands in intimate relation and connection with sacrifice ; for the spirit of prayer and the sentiments of the heart constitute the instrinsic being of sacrifice, the soul of the exterior rite of sacrifice. Hence, as sacrifice is called effective or real prayer (oratio realis), on the other hand, prayer is also called sacrifice. Thus the Prophet designated the prayer of praise and thanksgiving as "the sacrifice of the lips" (vituli labiorum — Osee 14, 3). Referring to this the Apostle writes : "L,et us offer the sacrifice of prayer always to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name." 5 In the Psalms we are invited "to offer to God the sacrifice of praise." 6
corporis, quod Deo quodammodo offertur per martyrium et abstinentiam seu con- tinentiam. — Tertium est bonum exteriorum rerum, de quo sacrificium offertur Deo : directe quidem, quando immediate res nostras Deo offerimus, mediate autem, quando eas communicamus proximis propter Deum (S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 85, a. 3 ad 2).
1 Beneficentiae et communionis nolite oblivisci: talibus enim hostiis prome- retur Deus (Hebr. 13, 16). The annex talibus (such) shows that the word hostia (sacrifice) is here used not in its strict sense.
2 Odor suavitatis, hostia accepta, placens Domino (Phil. 4, 18). — Beatus Apostolus Paulus in necessitate pressurae adjutus a fratribus opera bona quae fiunt, sacrificia Dei dixit esse (Phil. 4, 18) ... Nam quando quis miseretur pauperis, Deum foenerat (lends to God with interest) ; et qui dat minimis, Deo donat, spiritualiter Deo suavitatis odorem sacrificat (S. Cyprian. De Orat. domin. c. 33).
3 Ut exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem, sanctam, Deo placentem (Rom. 12, 1). — Exhibet homo Deo corpus suum ut hostiam tripliciter: uno quidem modo, quando aliquis corpus suum exponit passioni et morti propter Deum . . . Secundo per hoc quod homo corpus suum jejuniis et vigiliis macerat ad serviendum Deo . . . Tertio per hoc quod homo corpus suum exhibet ad opera justitiae et divini cultus exsequenda (S. Thorn. In ep. ad Rom. c. 12, lect. 1).
4 Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus ; cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies (Ps. 50, 19).
5 Per ipsum offeramus hostiam laudis Deo semper, i. e. fructum labiorum confitentium nomini ejus (Hebr. 13, 15).
6 Immola Deo sacrificium laudis (P. 49, 14).
2
34 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
A life that is entirely consumed amid suffering and struggle, in labor and fatigue, for God and His honor, is a holocaust : "As gold in the furnace He hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust He hath received them."1 "The man also who in God's name consecrates himself wholly to God is a sacrifice, in so far as he dies to the world, to live to God."2
A sacrifice most perfect and acceptable to the Divine Majesty is pre-eminently the renunciation and consecration of religious per- * sons, who by the threefold perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, freely and cheerfully renounce the earth and its goods, the world and its pleasures, in order to devote and dedicate them- selves in body and soul forever to the service of God. 3
Sacrifice in a broader sense made up the unspeakably humble and painful life of the poor, virginal and obedient Jesus, whilst His death on the Cross for the redemption of the world is a sacrifice in the strictest sense. The same cannot be said of the bloody death of the martyrs, however precious it was in the sight of the Lord ; — their martyrdom had not the character of a real sacrifice. The mar- tyrs indeed (as the Church sings in the divine Office) loved Christ during life and imitated Him in their death, for God's sake they in- deed offered their bodies to the torments of death and shed their blood gloriously for the Lord, thereby obtaining unfading crowns ; still they were destined neither as sacrificing priests nor as sacrificial victims to consecrate their lives to the adoration and propitiation of the Divine Majesty, but they suffered a violent death only in testi- mony and in defence of the truth, holiness and divinity of the Catholic faith. 4 Now, "although in the sight of the Lord the death of many saints was precious (Ps. 115, 15), yet none of these innocent victims accomplished the redemption of the world. The just received crowns of victory, but they did not bestow them ; from the fortitude of the faithful proceeded models of patience, not gifts of justice."5
3. To sacrifice taken in a broad or figurative sense corresponds the figurative or general priesthood of all the faithful. Hence the prince of the Apostles called all Christians "a holy priesthood," chosen and qualified "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."6 The faithful constitute "a holy priest-
1 Tamquam aurum in fornace probavit illos et quasi holocausti hostiam accepit illos (Sap. 3, 6;.
* • Ipse homo, Dei nomine consecratus et Deo votus, inquantum mundo moritur ut Deo vivat, sacrificium est (S. August. De civit. Dei. 1. 10, c. 6).
1 Religionis status est quoddam holocaustum, per quod aliquis totaliter se et sua offert Deo (S. Thorn. 2. 2, q. 186, a. 7). — Totum Deo dedit, qui seipsum obtulit (S. Hieron. Epist. 53 ad Paulin. n. 11).
4 It is only in a wider sense that the Church speaks of an "odoriferum mar- tyrii sacrificium" (Martyrol. Roman. 18. Febr.)- — Etsi fratres pro fratribus moriantur, tamen in fraternorum peccatorum retuissionem nullius sanguis martyris funditur, quod fecit ille (Christus) pro nobis : neque in hoc quid imitaremur, sed quid gratularemur contulit nobis (S. Aug. in Joann. tr. 84, n. 2).
* St. L,eo, 13th Sermon on the Lord's Passion.
6 Sacerdotium sanctum, offerre spirituals hostias, acceptabiles Deo per Jesum
4. The Meaning and Efficacy of the Sacrifices of the Old Law. 35
hood," in so far as they have by the sacramental character and the sacramental grace of baptism, separated themselves from sinners, being dedicated and sanctified, that by the "spiritual sacrifices" of a new and virtuous life, that is, by prayer, fervor, piety, self-denial, patience, compunction, benevolence and charity for the neighbor they may honor and glorify God. As often as we perform a good action, with an upright intention directed to God, especially if in the midst of temptation and struggle, we offer a sacrifice to God. 1
4. With sacrifice and priesthood the altar is inseparably con- nected. The word is also not unfrequently used in a broader sense, that is, figuratively. Thus St. Augustine writes: "We are the temple of God, because He deigns to dwell in us. Our heart is His altar, when it is raised toward Him (cum ad ilium sursum est, ejus est altar e cor nostrum) ; to Him we immolate bloody sacri- fices (cruentas victimas), when we combat unto blood for His truth ; to Him we burn most fragrant incense (suavissimum adolemus incensum), when we are on fire in His presence with devout and holy love ; to Him we present the sacrifice of humility and praise upon the altar of our heart in the fire of inflamed love (hostiam humilitatis et laudis in ara cordis igne fervidae charitatis)."3
4. The Meaning and Efficacy of the Sacrifices of the Old Law.3
i. By the sin of our first parents, in whom all mankind fell, the original plan of salvation was frustrated. But God did not wish the unhappy world to perish in an abyss of temporal misery and eternal death ; in the excess of His goodness and love, He determined to raise man from his fall and again to enrich him with gifts of grace and glory. This restoration was to be effected in the fulness of time, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3, 24). Jesus Christ by His sacrifice on the Cross for the redemption of the world, is the salvation of all ages ; from the beginning, there was no name under heaven given to men whereby they were to be saved, other than the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Acts 4, n). Already before the Christian era no one could obtain the life of grace and eternal salvation except by adhering to Christ ; this adhesion could then be effected only by supernatural faith in the promised and coming Redeemer.
Christum (I. Petr. 2, 5). Sancti non dicuntur sacerdotes ab oblatione corporis Domini, sed sui, quia unusquisque corpus suum offert hostiam viventem (Rom. 12, 1). (S. Bonav. IV, dist. 13, a. 1, q. 2 ad 4).
1 Quisquis igitur omnibus praeceptis coelestibus obtemperavit, hie cultor est verus Dei, cujus sacrificia sunt mansuetudo animi et vita innocens et actus boni. Quae omnia qui exhibet, toties sacrificat, quoties bonum aliquid ac pium fecerit (Lactant. Divin. instit. 1. 6, c. 24).
2 S. Augustin., De civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 3.
3 Cf. Stockl, Das Opfer, pp. 65—137; 210—334. — Thalhofer, Das Opfer des Alten und Neuen Bundes, pp. 24—142. — Scheeben, Dogmatik, III, 403 — 418. — Schopfer, Geschichte des Alten Testamentes, pp. 168 etc.
36 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
That this faith, necessary to salvation, as well as the hope and charity springing therefrom, might be within reach of all men, God always imparted His supernatural help and grace. "The mystery of the redemption was at no time inefficacious, not even in the Old Testament. It was not by a new decree nor through a later mercy that God cared for the welfare of man, but from the beginning of the world He opened and designated for all one and the same fountain of salvation. For the grace of God, whereby all the Saints have ever been justified, was merely in- creased at the birth of Christ, and not then first imparted. This mystery of ineffable love, which at present fills the world, was so powerfully efficacious even in all its figures, that they who believed in the promised redemption did not receive less than they who have received the gift."1
2. Among the means of bringing man into supernatural communication with God and the expected Redeemer, sacrifices already before the coming of Christ held a prominent place, yea, the very first place. As Abel even at the threshold of Paradise, so during the patriarchal age, Noah, Melchisedech, Abraham, Jacob, offered sacrifices to God, and God graciously accepted them. Then God Himself through Moses most precisely and minutely regulated and prescribed the entire sacrificial rite of the Old Law. As the Mosaic sacrifices were celebrated by the express will and command of God, thus also were sacrifices in patriarchal times undoubtedly offered up in consequence of a clearer light and by divine inspiration ; hence the Apostle writes: "By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice exceeding that of Cain" (Heb. n, 4).
In the Ceremonial of the Old Law there were bloody and un- bloody sacrifices. The bloody sacrifices were the principal and the most frequent ; they again were subdivided into various kinds : a) holocaust (holocaustum) : in this the animal to be sacrificed was entirely consumed by fire ; it was chiefly a sacrifice of praise and worship in acknowledgment of the Divine Majesty;3 — b) peace- offering (hostia pacifica) , in which a portion of the flesh was burned, another part was eaten at the sacrificial meal by those who had offered it, and the third part was reserved for the priests ; the1 same had pre-eminently the character of thanksgiving or petition ; 3 c) offering of propitiation, called also sin or debt-offering (hostia
1 St. Leo, Third Homily for Christmas.
2 Totum comburebatur, ut, sicut totum animal resolutum in vaporem sursum ascendebat, ita etiam significaretur, totum hominem et oinnia quae ipsius sunt, Dei dominio esse subjecta et ei esse offerenda (S. Thorn. 1, 2, q. 102, a. 3 ad 8).
* Hostia pacifica offerebatur Deo vel pro gratiarum actione, vel pro salute et prosperitate offerentium, ex debito beneficii vel accipiendi vel accepti. Et ista dividebatur in tres partes ; nam una pars incendebatur in honorem Dei, alia pars cedebat in usum sacerdotum, tertia vero pars in usum offerentium, ad significan- dum quod salus hominis procedit a Deo dirigentibus ministris Dei, et cooperanti- bus ipsis hominibus, qui salvantur (S. Thorn. 1. c.).
4. The Meaning and Efficacy of the Sacrifices of the Old Law. 37
pro peccato). In this a portion of the flesh was burned and the re- mainder consumed by the priests ; l whenever the offering was made for the sins of the whole people, or in a particular manner for the sins of the priests, then all was burned. The sacrifice of propitiation had principally for its object to appease the wrath of God and to ob- tain the pardon of sin.
3. These sacrifices previous to the Christian era had mainly the meaning and object essential to every sacrifice : they were acts of adoration, gratitude, petition and atonement. But in order to be truly acceptable to God, to possess value and merit in His sight, they were to be offered with the proper dispositions, that is, the exterior rite was to be the true expression of the interior act of sacrifice, of submission, resignation, homage, worship, praise, gratitude, sor- row and compunction.
In consequence of the divine dispensation, the sacrifices of the Old Law had a still higher meaning, inasmuch as they were typically to prefigure and represent the approaching sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. 2 In this consisted their chief object and value. 3 The typical character of these sacrifices, which rendered them figures of the sacrifice of Christ, is beyond all doubt most exalted, for St. Paul fully explains and proves this (Hebr. 8 — 10). The Old Law was, indeed, "the bringing in of a better hope, by which we draw near to God" (Hebr. 7, 19), that is, the preparation for the New and Eternal Covenant. As St. Augustine teaches, 1 'in the Old Law the New was hidden, and in the New Law the Old was unfolded."4 "In the Old Testament the New was prefigured; the former was the figure (figura), the latter is the full expression of truth (expressio veritatis)."5
Now, if the entire Old Testament, and especially its religious rite, was figurative for the future and preparatory for Christ, should not also the sacrifices which formed the essential part of the exterior service have borne the same character and have served the same end ? The Old Law contained "only the shadow of the good things to come,,'6 that is, the heavenly gifts of grace
1 Una pars comburebatur, altera vero cedebat in usum sacerdotum, ad signi- ficandum, quod expiatio peccatorum fit a Deo per ministerium sacerdotum (S. Thorn. 1. c.).
2 Per illud singulare sacrificium, in quo Mediator est immolatus, quod unum imtltae in Lege victimae figurabant, pacificantur coelestia cum terrestribus et ter- restria cum coelestibus (S. August. Enchirid. c. 16, n. 62).
8 Patet quare sacrificia placuerunt Deo tempore legis scriptae et spectabant ad cultum divinum, pro eo quod omnia erant signa profitentia et praefigurantia reparationem humauam, quae fuit per oblationem Agni immaculati et effusionem sanguinis Jesu Christi (S. Bonav. De Myst. Trin. q. 1, a. 2).
4 In veteri testamento est occultatio novi, in novo testamento est manifestatio veteris. ('S. Aug. De catech. rud. n. 8).
5 S. Aug. Enarrat. in Ps. 84. n. 4.
6 "Umbram habens lex futurorutn bonorum" (Hebr. 10, 1).
38 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
which Christ acquired for us and which He entrusted to the Church ; for this reason the ancient sacrifices were but shadows of the great atoning sacrifice of Redemption on Golgotha.
4. If we inquire into the efficacy of these sacrifices prior to the time of Christ, their propitiatory character is most striking. This is more clearly and forcibly evidenced in the bloody sacri- fices, which were also the most frequently offered, since in the Old Law the consciousness of unpropitiated and punishable guilt was still predominant. But these bloody sacrifices had not the power of appeasing an offended and irritated God and of releasing wretched man from the crushing burden of sin. The Apostle says, indeed : "It is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sins should be taken away" (Heb. 10, 4), and he therefore calls those sacrifices "weak and needy elements" (Gal. 4, 9), which could by no means make the persons who offered them perfect (Heb. 10, i), that is, which could neither procure for man the pardon of sin nor effect interior purification and sanctification.
The carrying out and offering (ex opere operato) of the Mosaic sacrifices imparted only the exterior or legal purification, 1 that is, they caused the Israelite to be no longer regarded as legally unclean, and he was, cpnsequently, again permitted to take part in the public service of God. Thus these sacrifices expressed the necessity of real atonement and interior purification, and, at the same time, referred to the future sacrifice of the Cross as the only source of reconciliation, forgiveness of sin and sanctification. As these imperfect sacrifices foreshadowed, promised and pledged the perfect redeeming sacrifice of Christ, they were capable of exciting and fostering true senti- ments of sacrifice, that is, they animated the Israelites to faith and hope, and disposed them to contrition and penance, which are the necessary conditions of acquiring interior justification (ex opere operantis)2. — In the Old Law there was no sacrament which by its own power and efficacy (ex opere operato) could justify and sanctify the properly disposed recipient ; perfect contrition was then the only means left to adults of obtaining true sanctity and becoming children of God. Only by a believing hope and contrite love could men (ex opere operantis) draw remission of sin and justification be- forehand from the fountain of grace which was to be opened at the foot of the Cross.
Thus "the old sacrifices were varied and manifold figures of the real sacrifice of Christ, inasmuch as this one sacrifice was prefigured
1 The Apostle calls the same emundatio carnis (Hebr. 9, 13) ; the theologians style it expiatio et sanctitas leg-alts.
2 Poterat mens fidelium tempore legis per fidem conjungi Christo incamato et passo, et ita ex fide Christi justificabantur, cujus fidei quaedam protestatio erat hujusmodi caerimoniarum (sc. sacrificiorum) observatio, in quantum erant figura Christi. Et ideo pro peccatis offerebantur sacrificia quaedam in veteri lege, non quia ipsa sacrificia a peccato emundarent, sed quia erant quaedam protestationes fidei, quae a peccato mundabat . . . Peccatum dimittebatur non vi sacrificiorum, sed tTLJide et devotione offerentium (S. Thorn. 1. 2, q. 103, a. 2).
5. Jesus Christ — the Representative Head of the Human Race. 39
by many, just as when one idea is expressed in many ways, in order to make a deeper impression 1. — In this manner the eye of faith was directed to the future, the coming Sacrifice of the Redeemer was confidently and eagerly grasped by the Jews and thus the fruit of the Sacrifice of the Cross was won beforehand. For this the presentiment, the obscure knowledge of the higher meaning con- cealed in the sacrificial rite was sufficient ; such an understanding of what these sacrifices prefigured could not have been unknown even to the mass of the people, still less could it have been wanting to the specially favored, to whom higher lights concerning the work of redemption were imparted. 2
CHAPTER THE SECOND.
The Bloody Sacrifice of the Cross.
5. Jesus Christ — the Representative Head of the Human Race.
1 . In the sacrifices of the Old Law irrational creatures — ob- jects of possession and enjoyment belonging to the animal or vegetable kingdom — were substituted for man and offered to God in place of human life. Such a substitution was imperfect, inefficacious and, consequently, inadequate. The blood of animals could not atone for sin or relieve man of its debt; but rather kept up "the remembrance of unatoned sin continually alive in those who offered these sacrifices" (Heb. 10. 3, 4), thus awakening the desire of the promised Sacrifice which would, in an incomparably more exalted way, take man's place with God and offer a perfect atonement for the guilt of all sin. This vicarious sacrifice the God-Man, Jesus Christ, offered, inasmuch as He, the Head of the human race, gave His life by a bloody death to present to God not merely a strictly equivalent or fully sufficient, but even a superabun- dant and overflowing satisfaction for the sins of all mankind.
2. Jesus Christ answered for us and represented us before God, that is, He performed all that God demanded in order to grant us pardon and restore us to grace, — and He indeed performed it for us, that is, in our stead. Hence that which we were obliged to do and yet unable to accomplish, Jesus Christ, as our substitute, performed for us ; — He appeased the Divine Justice and Majesty. The fruits of His sacrifice were to redound to our benefit ; His satis- faction and merits He wished to make over to us, to present them to us that we, being released from sin and its punishment, should also be enriched with the gifts of grace.
It was in order to become, in the most perfect manner imagin- able, our substitute or Representative, and to satisfy and merit for
1 S. August De civit. Dei., 1. 10, c. 20. — Cf. S. August. Enarrat. in Ps. 39, n. 12.
2 Quamvis non omnes sciant explicite virtutem sacrificiorum, sciunt tatnen implicite, sicut et habent fidem implicitam fS. Thorn. 2. 2, q. 85, a. 4. ad 2).
40 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
us, that the Son of God assumed human nature by being born of our race. According to the flesh He was truly, though indeed in a supernatural manner, of our race ; He was one of us, He was our Brother. As Christ ugave Himself a redemption for all" (i Tim. 2, 6), He did not give Himself for strangers, but for His own, for His brethren. "O wonderful exchange," exclaims the Church ; uthe Creator of mankind takes a body animated by a soul, and deigns to be born of the Virgin ; and proceeding as man, super- naturally conceived, He imparts to us His divine being!" — From this it follows that Jesus is the spiritual, supernatural Head of man- kind ; this constitutes the mystical body, for which Christ, the Head, offered satisfaction and gained merit. Christ is the second Adam ; as such He superabundantly repaired what the first Adam had destroyed and corrupted. "Therefore as by the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation ; so also by the justice of one, to all men unto justification of life" (Rom. V. 18), that is, as the sin of Adam has come by inheritance upon all his posterity, because God estab- lished him the head of the human family, so, in like manner, the merits and satisfaction of Christ are beneficial to all, because in the order of grace God placed Him at the head of the human race.
3. This consoling truth of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ is frequently alluded to in the writings of the Old and New Testaments ; it is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion.
How clearly does the Prophet behold and announce (Is. 53, i — ii ) the vicarious sacrifice of the sufferings and life of the coming Redeemer ! He calls Christ "the man of sorrows," and says of Him that "He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows," and that "He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins," and this because "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all".1 Our Lord voluntarily and with generous love subjected Himself to these torments and to death, in order to make satisfaction for us ; hence the prophet adds : "He was offered because it was His own will." The fruit of Christ's propitiatory sufferings consists in this, that "by His bruises we are healed."
The Prince of the Apostles had these prophetic words in view when he exhorted the Christians to endure even unjustly inflicted sufferings in silence and with cheerful resignation, looking up to Christ who suffered not only innocently and patiently, but, more- over, in our stead, that is, on account of our sins. "Christ," thus he writes, "who His ownself bore our sins in His body upon the tree (of the Cross), that we, being dead to sin, should live to justice" (i Peter 2. 24). Christ — the Apostle would say — perfectly in- nocent and sinless, laid the burden of our sins upon Himself and effaced them, inasmuch as He, by the sacrifice of His death on the Cross, atoned and satisfied for them. This expiatory and healing power of the blood of Christ should urge and strengthen us to live hereafter entirely unto justice and holiness of life.
1 ~R\cpeccata nostra portavit et pro nobis dolet (Resp. eccl.)-
5. Jesus Christ — the Representative Head of the Human Race. 41
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (for^p ^tw»0" (Gal. 3, 13), that is, the innocent Lamb of God took upon Himself the burden and punishment of sin in order to free us from it. "But God commendeth His charity toward us, because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us" (Rom. 5, 8). "In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us" (i John 3, 16). "Christ died for all ; that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them" (2 Cor. 5, 15). The excess of divine love is truly shown in this, that the eternal , the only-begotten Son of God, the King of glory, died the most painful death of the Cross, in order to rescue us poor sinners from the abyss of misery and eternal damnation.
4. This is that "great mystery of godliness, which was mani- fested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the gentiles, is taken up to glory" (i Tim. 3, 16). O adorable mystery ! what unmerited, incomprehensible favor and mercy of God radiates towards us in this marvellous decree and work of the redemption ! God's justice required a perfect, an infinite satisfaction — and His mercy gave us the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who as our Mediator offered this satisfaction for us. "God who spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?" (Rom. 8. 32.) Thus hath "God, whose mercies are without number and whose goodness is an inexhaustible treasure," Himself bestowed on us this great atoning sacrifice, which in return He deigned to accept from us1. Let us, then, gratefully acknowledge this with the Beloved Disciple : "In this is charity, not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins" (i John 4, 10). — Still more powerfully should we be penetrated with the desire to return love for love and with most joy- ful thanksgiving, when we, with full right, apply personally to our- selves what has been done for all ; when we so consider the great benefit of redemption as if it had been conferred on ourselves only, as the Apostle so simply and so touchingly expresses it : "And I live, now not I ; but Christ liveth in me. And that I now live in the flesh ; I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me" (Gal. 2, 20 )2. Thus every one may and should exclaim : Christ has loved me, and for the love of me, has
1 Quid misericordius intellegi valet, quam cum peccatori damnato aeternis tormentis et uiide se redimat non habenti, Deus Pater dicit: Accipe Unigenitum meum et da pro te ; et ipse Filius : Tolle me et redde pro te ? (S. Anselm. Lib. "Cur Deus homo," cap. 9).
2 Licet ego in came vivam, non tamen secundum carnis inclinationes vivo, sed spiritualiter vivo in fide Christi, Filii Dei et veri Dei qui dilexit me et tradidit semet ipsum iu mortem pro me. Dilexit me amore immense et aeterno, et in tern- pore obtulit se in sacrificium pro me, et licet omnes dilexerit sitque pro omnibus mortuus, dico tamen, ipsum me dilexisse et pro me esse mortuum, qui adeo me dilexit, tantumque ei debeo, quantum si me solum dilexisset et pro me solo passus esset (Arias, Thesaur. inexhaust. 1, tr. 4. cap. 18).
42 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
sacrificed His blood and life for me, for my sins ; for our Saviour in the Garden of Olives and on the Cross had each one of us present to His mind and in His heart, for each one of us He suffered and died, as though each one of us had been alone in the world. This thought should inflame and inspire our heart to make every sacrifice in the service of God. Quaerens me sedisti lassus — redemisti crucem passus — tantus labor non sit cassus (Dies irae).
6. The Highpriesthood of Jesus Christ.
As the Representative of the whole human race, Jesus Christ rendered to the offended majesty of God a satisfaction equalling and far exceeding the guilt, in order to take away the sin which was the cause of* the separation and enmity existing between heaven and earth. Hence, as mediator between God and man (i Tim. 2, 5), He established peace, consummated the work of reconciliation, and that too, by the Cross, that is, by the bloody death of the Cross, in- asmuch as He offered Himself and His life as a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ's death on the Cross is, therefore, a sacrifice in the strictest sense of the word — truly a death offered in sacrifice and truly a victim. It follows from this that, as Christ during His mortal life on earth exercised the priestly office, i. e., as He really and truly offered sacrifice, He must also be really and truly a priest ; for only a priest can and may offer sacrifice. — A closer consideration of the priesthood of Christ will prepare the way to a clearer understanding of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
i. Jesus Christ is "the great Highpriest" (dpx«/*<k f^h^ — Hebr. 4, 14) for the whole human race. The truth and dignity of the priesthood of Christ is circumstantially and diversely set forth by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews (Chap. 4 — 10). In what do the essence of the priestly office, the vocation and the mis- sion of the priest consist ? "For every highpriest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Heb. 5. i). Accord- ingly, the priest is destined and qualified to be a mediator between God and the people ; — consequently, to render to the Divine Majesty by sacrifice and prayer due honor and suitable atonement for sin, and to purify and sanctify men by dispensing grace and heavenly bless- ings. l — The proper and essential office of the priest is the offering of sacrifice ; the position, rank and prerogatives of the priesthood are
1 All these qualifications are indicated in the name sacerdos (= sacrum vet sacra dans). Therefore by a priest is meant a consecrated person (persona sacra), who by virtue of his ordination is empowered and called to impart that which is holy (sacra dare as dispensator mysteriotum Dei — 1 Cor. 4, 1). In the next place the priest is sacra dans = offerens Deo, in so far as he performs the acts of divine worship (sacrifice and psalmody) ; — then he is also sacra dans = ministrans vel distribuens hominibus, in so far as he imparts grace to men by administering the sacraments and sacramentals. — Sacerdos . . . quasi sacrum dans : sicut enim rex a regendo, ita sacerdos a sanctificando vocatus est; consecrat enim et sanctificat (S. Isid. Hispal. Etymolog. 1. 8, c. 12, n. IT). — Cf. S. August. Enarrat. in Ps. 44, n. 17.
6. The Highpriesthood of Jesus Christ. 43
measured and judged by the nature of the sacrifice. Now, since Christ offered an infinitely precious sacrifice of adoration, propiti- ation, thanksgiving and petition, whereby He procured to God all honor and glory, and to man grace and salvation, He is "the great Highpriest' ' of the whole human race. Therefore, Christ is not a priest of the same order as those, who before His coming were in- vested with the priestly office, or who after Him exercise the same : He is, indeed, the most exalted and the most perfect priest ; His priestly power is so extensive and so complete, that it cannot be im- parted to a mere creature. His divine-human priesthood isthe foun- tain of all the priestly powers and all the divine graces that ever were or may hereafter be imparted to a mere mortal ; He is the eternal Highpriest who at all times saves all those who by Him approach to God. He is the Highpriest for all men and for all times. "There were of course priests before Him and there are priests after Him. But the former were destined only to prefigure, by the sacrifices they offered, the one great Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in order thereby to preserve in mankind faith in the promised Redeemer. The priests of the New Law do not approach the altar in their own name and person, but in the name and in the person of Jesus Christ ; and it is He who by them and in them exercises the priestly office, continually representing His great Sacrifice to the Father. Thus, He is in truth, the ONE Highpriest for the whole human race" l.
2. It is God Himself who imparts His powers to the priest. No one can and no one may venture to exercise the priestly office, if he has not been chosen and invested therewith by God. "Neither doth any man take the honor (of priesthood) to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was" (Heb. 5, 4). It is self-evident that Christ is a priest, not according to His divine, but according to His human nature ; for it is only by acts of His sacred humanity that He can perform the part of mediator and priest. "So Christ also did not glorify Himself that He might be made a highpriest" (Heb. 5, 5), but God has constituted Him a highpriest forever, and that with a solemn oath: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech" (Ps. 109, 4).
The vocation and selection of Christ for the dignity of high- priest was already contained in the eternal decree of God that His divine Son should redeem the world by means of the Sacrifice of the Cross. — His installation into the office of highpriest took place at the first moment of the Incarnation. Namely, as soon as the human nature was created and hypostatically (personally) united to the Eternal Word, the God-Man undertook, in cheerful obedience to the will and decree of His Heavenly Father, the task and mission of offering His precious life on the Cross as a sacrifice for the world, whereby the ancient sacrifices were not only replaced but far sur- passed. This is touchingly expressed by St. Paul quoting and ex- plaining the words of the Prophet (Ps. 39, 7 — 9. Heb. 10, 5 — 7).
1 Kleutgen, Predigten, 1. Abth., p. 81—82.
44 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
After depicting the impotency and the inadequateness of the priest- hood of the Old Law and of its sacrifices, the apostle continues : "Wherefore when Christ cometh into the world (that is, at the first moment of the Incarnation) He saith to God : Sacrifice and oblation (these empty figures of future goods) Thou wouldst not ; but a body Thou hast fitted to Me (for sacrifice). Holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then, said I, behold I come : at the head of the book it is written of Me : that I should do Thy will, O God (by the sacri- fice of Myself) !" These words constitute the vow of Christ's sacri- fice, that is, the solemn formula in which He vowed to His Heavenly Father, by the Sacrifice of the Cross "to re-establish all things that are in heaven and on earth" (Eph. i, 10). Therefore, the Apostle adds : "In this will we were sanctified once for all by the Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ," — that is, by the one offering of His bloody atoning sacrifice, which was of infinite value and merit. Christ has acquired for us all grace and sanctification, in obeying with His human will the Divine will of His Father — even to the death of the Cross.
3. Jesus Christ was infinitely worthy of being clothed and adorned with the most eminent dignity of highpriest. — The priest, by his office, is mediator between God and man : it is chiefly by the offering of Sacrifice that he is to glorify God and to reconcile man to Him, and to obtain for man in return the favor and friendship of God, applying to him the fruits and graces of the Sacrifice. * To be enabled to exercise, in a perfect manner, the office of mediator, he must also take a medium position, namely, be related and united to God as well as to men, in order to transact the affairs of both properly and successfully. The priest "is ordained for men in all things that appertain to God," to appease God's anger and to draw down His blessing upon the earth : therefore, he must be pleasing in the sight of God by being free from sin and by exalted sanctity ; but he is also "ordained for men" to care for their salvation, to pray, to labor and to suffer: hence "he is taken from among men, that he may have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err ; because he him- self is also encompassed with infirmity" (Heb. 5, i — 2). In this twofold relation Christ unites in His person, in the most perfect manner, all that can render the priest acceptable to God and power- ful with Him, full of compassion and mercy toward men.
a) Jesus Christ is infinitely holy; therefore, God the Father takes infinite pleasure in Him. "For it was fitting that we should have such a Highpriest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than .the heavens" (Heb. 7, 26). The whole fulness of the divinity, an inexhaustible treasure of grace and truth, of virtue and wisdom, of holiness and happiness, was bestowed on the soul of Christ — and that already in the first moment of her creation and hypostatic union with "the Eternal Son of the Eternal
1 Offert Deo bonus mediator preces et vota populorum : reportans illis a Deo benedictionem et gratiam (S. Bernard., Tract, de morib. et offic. episcop., c. 3. n. 10). — Cf. S. Thorn. 2, 2, q. 86, a. 2.
6. The Highpriesthood of Jesus Christ. 45
Father. " — By virtue of the hypostatic union the humanity of Christ was deified (deificata, 0ew0e«ra), essentially and infinitely sancti- fied. At the same time, this "grace of union" (gratia unionis } is to be considered as the root and germ of all other supernatural privi- leges and perfections of the human nature of Christ : sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, * the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the graces
— in. superabundance, in the fullest and richest conceivable measure
— were the suitable, inamissible and inaugmentable endowment (portion) of the soul of Christ, which by its mystical union with the divinity attained an infinite dignity. In all these privileges — in the hypostatic union, in the Beatific Vision of God, in the fulness of grace — the absolute freedom of Christ from sin is based : the soul of Jesus was not only actually free from all sin, but it was incapable of committing sin, and not susceptible of even the slightest breath or shadow of sin. 2 Thus Christ as man is "the Saint of saints" (Dan. 9, 24). — From this infinite dignity and holiness of our Highpriest, Jesus Christ, proceeds the infinite value of all His labors and suf- ferings, of all His merits and satisfactions during His mortal life.
b) "We therefore have a great Highpriest, Jesus Christ the Son of God" (Heb. 4, 14), who is most pleasing to God by His in- finite majesty and fulness of grace. On the other hand, the per- fection of His priestly life and labors was greatly enhanced, in so far as He voluntarily humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, lovingly subjected Himself to the infirmities of fallen man and cheer- fully assumed our weaknesses. — This self-renunciation He practised as well for the sake of penance and atonement, as for our example and consolation, that we, "looking on Him, who having joy set be- fore Him endured the shame "(Heb. 12, 2), may neither succumb to the labors and difficulties of our earthly pilgrimage, nor despond amid the fears and anguish of death. 3 The keen air, the cold and
1 Those virtues only are excepted which presuppose or include incompatibility with the unio hypostatica and the v isio beatifica. With regard to the theological controversy, in and how far the habitus fidei, spei et poenitentiae may be ascribed to the soul of Christ, cf. Stentrup, S. J., De Verbo incarnate, P. 1, Christolog. thes. 81.
2 Dives est qui nee hereditario nee proprio unquam debito obnoxius, et ipse Justus est et alios justificat Christus (S. Aug. in Joann. tr. 84, n. 2).
3 Absque dubio congruum fuit, Christum assumere naturam nostram cum defectibus et poenalitatibus, et hoc triplici ex causa, principaliter videlicet propter pretium nostrae salutis, propter exemplum virtutis et propter fulcimentum nostrae fragilitatis. — Propter pretium nostrae salutis, quia proposuerat nos redimere non corruptibilibus auro et argento, sed pretioso sanguine suo (1 Petr. 1, 18), et animam suam ponere pro animabus nostris. Ad hoc autem non esset idoneus, nisi naturam deficientem et passibilem assumpsisset, et propterea defectus nostros et poenali- tates debuit in seipso habere. — Alia etiam ex causa congruum fuit hoc ipsum, videlicet propter exemplum virtutis, specialiter autem humilitatis, patientiae et pietatis, quibus mediantibus pervenitur ad coelum, et in quibus Christus voluit nos imitari ipsum secundum illud: "Discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde" (Matth. II, 29). — Tertia ratio est propter fulcimentum nostrae fragilitatis, ob quam natura rationalis habet in se difficultatem ad credendum vera, et irascibilis ad sperandum ardua, et concupiscibilis ad amandum bona. Et ideo voluit Christus
46 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
beat affected His delicate body ; His holy soul was filled with fear and anguish, with sadness and sorrow ; He was hungry and thirsty, He travelled and was fatigued, He fled and concealed Himself ; He groaned in spirit and was afflicted ; He wept with us poor mortals in this vale of tears. Therefore, how animating and encouraging, how refreshing and consoling, is it to glance devoutly at our Redeemer who so lovingly immolated Himself to the sufferings, infirmities and wants of our mortal life. This the apostle teaches when he says : * 'Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful Highpriest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people. For we have not a Highpriest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities : but one tempted in all things like as we are — without sin. For in that, wherein He Himself hath suffered and been tempted, He is able to succor them also that are tempted. Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid (Heb. 2, 17 — 18 ; 4, 15 — 16). The heavenly privileges and prerogatives of the humanity of Christ, by which He approached so near to God, as well as the earthly infirmities and miseries which He compassionately shared with us, have contributed to give honor and glory to the Father, (John 8, 49; 14, 23), l and also to redeem and sanctify mankind. Christ stooped to us, in order to raise us up ; His humiliation is our exaltation, His poverty our riches ; His sufferings are our joys, His wounds our cure, His death is our life. Our Lord is not only great, holy and powerful, and therefore infinitely worthy of praise ; but also "for us men and for our salvation" He became little, poor, insigni- ficant, and, therefore, infinitely deserving of love. "Tanto milii carior, quanta pro me vilior!" Yes, we have such a Redeemer that the Church in ecstatic, overflowing exaltation of heart can sing : 0 felix culpa, quae talem ac tanium meruit habere Redemptorem! "O happy fault, which has merited such and so great a Redeemer !" 1 'Truly should we be exeedingly joyful over the happy change, in consequence of which we have been transferred from earthly lowliness
non tantum nobis similari in natura, sed etiam in defectibus et poenalitatibus ut, manifestando in se veritatem humanae naturae, praeberet fulcimentum nostrae rational! ad credendum ; ostendendo nihilominus immensitatem suae misericordiae per susceptionem nostrae miseriae, praeberet irascibili fulcimentum ad sperandum ; ostendendo magnitudinem suae benevolentiae, praeberet concupiscibili incitamen- tum ad se amandum. — Et ideo licet incongruum videatur, hujusmodi defectus reperiri in Christo, si per se considerentur ; tamen, si ad finem referantur, magna reperitnr congruitatis condecentia (S. Bonav. IV, dist. 15, a. 1. q. 1). — Cfr. S. Thorn. 3, q. 14, a. 1.
1 Quoniam Deus est Justus et beatus, impassibilis et immortalis, homo vero lapsus est peccator et miser, passibilis et mortalis : necesse fuit, mediatorem Dei et hominum, ut posset hominem reducere ad Deum, cum Deo communicare in justitia et beatitudine, cum homine vero in passibilitate et mortalitate, ut sic habendo mortalitatem transeuntem et beatitudinem permanentem, hominem reduceret de praesenti miseria ad vitam beatcm (S. Bonav. Breviloq. P. 4, c. 8).
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 47
to the glory of heaven, through the unspeakable mercy of Him who has descended to us, in order to elevate us to Him ; so that He as- sumed not only the form, but also the condition of our sinful hu- manity, and that His divinity, incapable of suffering, permitted all the misery of mortal humanity to come upon him." x
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice.
Jesus Christ was in His mortal life, as He is now, that He sitteth at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens (Heb. 8, i), the perfect Mediator, the true and great Highpriest of the human race. Hence it follows that He must have offered a real sacrifice on earth ; for the offering of sacrifice is the first and essential duty of a priest. "For every highpriest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices : wherefore it is necessary that he should also have something to offer" (Heb. 8, 3). Christ offered Himself as an un- spotted sacrifice unto God (Heb. 9, 14) on the Cross, upon which He, as the Good Shepherd, gave His life for His sheep. To this end the Father had sanctified and sent Him into the world (John 1 1 , 36) at the moment of the Incarnation. God willed, namely, that the redemption and restoration of the human race should be ac- complished by the bloody sacrifice of the Cross ; therefore, in loving obedience to the will of His Father, when the hour had come, Jesus Christ offered Himself, His body and blood, upon the altar of the Cross for the life of the world, so that "He Himself was the priest offering the sacrifice as well as the sacrifice offered" (ipse afferens, ipse et oblatio). 2 — The death of Christ on the Cross, the offering of His body and the shedding of His blood for the human race, is a sacrifice in the strictest and fullest sense of the word, not in a merely wide or figurative sense, as was His whole life upon earth. This His life constituted the preparation for the sacrificial death of Christ and is justly designated, in a wider sense, as a sacrifice ; for even in those mysteries of Christ which preceded His passion and death, we everywhere find the intention, will and deeds of sacrifice. 3
i. Holy self-sacrifice forms the seal of the life of Christ on earth : His life was a constant martyrdom, a bloody sacrifice of mor- tification, an incense-offering of devotion and prayer, a burnt-offering of love for God and men. — Truly, the whole earthly career of Christ from the womb of His Mother to the grave, was a sacrifice of abne- gation and self-denial. A vail of mourning shrouded His entire life, bearing the character of severe penance and atonement for a world full of frivolity, sinful, sensual enjoyment and horrible godlessness.
1 St. Leo, First Discourse on the Resurrection of our I/ord.
2 S. August., De civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 20.
3 Tota vita et conversatio Christi in came mortali a primo incarnationis in- stanti usque ad instans suae expirationis in cruce, fuit quasi una continua missa et celebratio, qua se indesinenter obtulit Patri pro nobis voluntate promptissima et affectuosissime oravit pro nobis, et quidquid deliberata voluntate precatus est, im- petravit (Dion. Carthus., Elementat. theolog., propos. J19).
48 I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
— This painful way began in the crib, to end only on the Cross : crib and Cross are closely connected with each other. In the crib Jesus lay as a rneek, lovely Infant-God ; on the Cross He was sus- pended, His body torn and bleeding : but in the one situation as well as in the other, He is the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. Calvary cast its shadow upon His hidden, silent life at Bethlehem and Nazareth. "Poor and sorrowful'7 (Ps. 68, 30) was Jesus throughout the whole course of his life. Privations, humiliations, sufferings were His inseparable companions : they surrounded Him on His entrance into the world, accompanied Him during His earthly pilgrimage and ascended with Him on the Cross. — Whatever the world cherishes, seeks and values, all its joys, riches and glory, all its pomp and grandeur, He despised and disdained ; in their stead He endured poverty, hardships, hostility, contradictions, vexations innumerable, such as only an unbounded love could choose and en- dure. As a stranger who had not whereon to lay His head, did the Lord of Heaven dwell many years upon this earth, — an earth yield- ing thorns and thistles. At the same time, we must remember that His pure, delicate body and noble and holy soul were created pecu- liarly susceptible of suffering, and consequently experienced, a thou- sand times more than men can imagine, the severity, acuteness and bitterness of all corporal and spiritual sufferings. — His infancy, boyhood and youth were passed in retirement and obscurity, in poverty and self-denial, in painful labor and austere penance ; also the three years of His public life, His ministry among an "un- believing and perverse generation" (Matt. 17, 16) were rilled with bitterness arising from the inappreciation, ingratitude and perse- cution on the part of His own nation ; and this was all the more painful to Him, since He had come but to seek and save those who were lost. He was repudiated, blasphemed and calumniated by the obdurate Jews, so that before leaving this world, He could apply to Himself these words of the Prophet : "They have hated Me without cause" (John 15, 25 ; cf. Ps. 68, 5), and He could say to His dis- ciples : "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated Me be- fore you" (John 15, 18).
An offering of sweetest incensed prayer, ascending to God from the golden altar that stands before the throne of God ( Apoc. 8, I — 4), was the wonderful life of our Saviour under the form of a servant. The fire of devotion burned unceasingly with heavenly ardor and purity in His Sacred Heart. All the days and nights, yea, all the hours of His poor, humble and painful life He consecrated by prayer, by the most sublime and powerful prayer that ever pierced the clouds and mounted to the throne of the Most High.
In fine, the life of Jesus was a most perfect holocaust of the purest love of God and man. His food was to do the will of His Heavenly Father (John 4, 34) ; at the close of His earthly career, He could say to His Father : "I have glorified Thee on the earth : I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John 17, 4). Like unto the flame of sacrifice the zeal glowed in His breast for the
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 49
house of God and for the honor of His Father, and "consumed" Him as the burning wick consumes the altar taper (John 2, 17). — From this fervent love of God proceeded the flame of His zeal for the conversion and the salvation of mankind.
What our Lord thus did and suffered "in the days of His flesh," during His three and thirty years upon earth, would have been more than sufficient to redeem thousands of worlds, to amass untold treasures of grace and merits ; but according to the adorable decree of God, this did not suffice to free us from the slavery of sin and purchase for us the liberty of the children of God ; for this the price of the blood and life of Christ was requisite. The justice of God re- quired this ransom for our redemption, and Christ voluntarily, through love, offered Himself to pay it for us ; Christ's death on the Cross was to constitute the crown, the conclusion and the completion of the work of redemption. That the death of Christ is a true and real sacrifice is especially taught by the word of God, and has at all times been believed and acknowledged by Christians.
2. From a multiplicity of proofs only a few will be given here.
a) The primary object of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, particularly the principal ones, that is, the bloody sacrifices, was to prefigure and to represent the offering of the life of Jesus by a violent death. Now, if these imperfect figures and representations of the only and truly redeeming death of Christ on the Cross were, without doubt, real sacrifices, must not His death itself have been a real sacri- fice, a sacrifice in every sense of the word ? The reality, fulfilment and consummation cannot and must not be inferior to the shadow, figure and representation. The holy Pope St. Leo thus very beauti- fully expresses this thought : "In the public sacrifice was to be ful- filled what in the figurative mystery had long before been promised : that the true Sacrificial Lamb was to supplant the figurative, (ut uno expleretur sacrificio variarurn differentia victimarum) and that in one sacrifice the various, manifold sacrifices were to find their ac- complishment : for all that which was ordained beforehand by God through Moses relative to the sacrifice of the lamb, predicted the Redeemer and explicitly announced the sacrificial death of Christ. That, therefore, the shadows might depart from the body, and figures cease at the appearance of truth, the old custom was abolished by the new mystery, the victim passed over into the Victim, (hostia in hostiam transit), blood replaced by blood, and the legal celebration found its fulfilment inasmuch as it was changed." l
b) What the sacrificial worship of the Old Law prefigured in a mystical sense, the Prophet, enlightened by God, announced before- hand in a precise and touching manner: prophesying the sacrificial character of the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Isaias2 says ex-
1 Seventh Discourse on the Sufferings of the Lord.
2 Posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum. Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit . . . sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur et quasi agnus coram tondente se ob- mutescet ... si posuerit pro peccato (as a sin-offering) animam suam, videbit semen longaevum (Is. 53, 4 — 12).
50 /• Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
pressly that Christ would suffer and die for our sins, and that the death which He would voluntarily undergo for us would be a true atoning sacrifice : "He was offered because it was His own will." Then the Prophet compares the Saviour to a sheep led to the slaugh- ter and not opening its mouth, as well as to a lamb dumb before its shearer: these pathetic symbols are intended to signify that He, though innocent, would undergo the painful sacrificial death in quiet resignation and peace. An eternal spiritual generation is designated as the fruit of His atoning sacrifice, that is, the whole assembly of the predestined whom no one can number, all those whose names are written in the Book of Life — they were and they will be saved only by the redeeming blood of Christ shed for them.
c) In the Old Law a lamb was one of the animals most usually sacrificed : recall the Paschal Lamb, the daily morning and evening sacrifice. As Christ was prefigured by these lambs, it is quite natural that in the New Law He should often be represented and extolled as the true Lamb, the Lamb without blemish, as our Pasch, as the Lamb of God ; in the Apocalypse of St. John there occurs in many places the word Lamb (Agnus) even as the very name of the God- Man. The designation of Jesus as the Lamb is, then, characteristic, and is intended to express that His death is a sacrifice, a real pro- pitiatory sacrifice, — drawing attention, at the same time, to the heavenly meekness, resignation and patience that He displayed during His passion. The Prince of the Apostles reminds us of this, when he says that "The Lord did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who, when He was reviled, did not revile : when He suffered, He threatened not : but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly" (Peter 2, 22 — 23). — St. John Baptist alludes to Christ as "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world,"1 that is, who reconciles Heaven and earth by shedding His blood. — St. Paul exhorts us to celebrate the true spiritual Pasch, since Christ our Pasch is sacrificed. 2 — St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, encourages and exhorts Christians to lead a holy life in view of the glorious ransom by which they have been redeemed: "Walk in (holy and wholesome) fear during the time of your sojourning here. Knowing that you were not re- deemed with corruptible things, as gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb unspotted and undefiled" (i Peter, i, 19). Therefore, Christ, absolutely sinless and holy, is the Lamb, the Victim perfectly faultless and infinitely pleasing to God, whose blood effaces all sin and effects true reconciliation. — Writing on these texts of Scripture, St. Leo remarks that "the reconciliation of the Immaculate Lamb and the fulness of all the sacraments were imparted to us," and then adds, "Christ offered
1 Ecce Agnus (6 a^vin — the prophetically foretold lamb as a victim) Dei ecce qui tollit (6 atpwv — who has the power to take upon Himself and thereby to take away) peccatum mundi (all the sins of all men). John 1, 29.
8 Pascha nostrum (our paschal Lamb) immolatus est (MOy — being slain, is offered as a bloody sacrifice) Christus (1 Cor. 5, 7).
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 51
Himself to the Father as a new and truly reconciling sacrifice,"- and that it was not in the Temple nor within the limits of the city, but outside of it and the camp that He was crucified, so that after the old, figurative, immolated sacrifices should cease, "a new Sacrifice would be placed upon the new altar, and the Cross of Christ should be the altar not of the Temple, but of the world" ( nova hostia novo imponeretur altari et crux Christi non templi esset ara, sed mundi. — De pass. Dom. Serm. 8, n. 5).
d) Our Lord Himself declared that He had come "to give His life a new redemption for many."1 Vicarious blood-shedding or the giving up of life is, indeed, a real sacrifice. Shortly before His departure from this world, Christ in His prayer, as Highpriest, called His death a sanctification, that is, a dedication and offering of Him- self for His disciples, to merit for them true sanctity, interior puri- fication from sin and justification : "For them do I sanctify Myself : that they also may be sanctified in truth."2 — St. John writes: "Jesus is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." 3 St. Paul says that we become justified "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation through faith in His blood." 4 To restrain the faithful from sin and to animate them to the practice of virtue, the Apostle represents to them the intimate and courageous, tender and generous love of Christ, by which He offered Himself for us : "Be ye, therefore, followers of God, as most dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given Himself for us as an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness" 5 — In the Epistle to the Hebrews the doctrine of the vicarious and atoning death of Christ is repeatedly expressed in the clearest and most emphatic manner. The Apostle therein proves the dignity and efficacy of the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the Cross in contrast with the inefficacious offerings of the Old Testament. To abolish and re- move these inefficient figures, Christ offered "the sacrifice of His body," the sweet odor of which ascended to heaven, drawing down
1 Dare animam suam (His soul = His life, His blood, Himself) redemptionem (Xi/rpov = money or price of ransom) pro multis (dvri iro\\£i>, representative for many, who actually obtain the full result or fruit of the redemption in heaven). Mat. 20, 28.
2 Pro eis ego sanctifico meipsum (= in sanctam hostiam me tibi offero et im- molo in cruce), ut sint et ipsi sanctificati in veritate (Joann. 17, 19).
3 Ipse est propitiatio (I\as/ix6f=sacrificium expiationis) pro peccatis nostris : non pro nostris autem tantum, sed etiam pro totius mundi (1 Joann. 2, 2).
4 Quern proposuit (vpotdero, publicly erected on the cross) Deus propitiationem (as a sacrifice of reconciliation l\aa-r^piov) per fidem in sanguine ipsius (Rom. 3, 25). God gave up His Son and revealed Him on the cross as a propitiatory sacri- fice, which He "in His own blood," i. e., by shedding His blood, offered, and in which we share "by faith" (5td rrjs Trfo-Tews).
5 Christus dilexit nos et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis oblationem (irpos<f>op&v) et hostiam (Ova-lav) in odorem suavitatis (Eph. 6, 2). — Christus obtulit sacri- ficium suavitatis summae pro perfecta Dei placatione (S.Bonav. Brevijoq. p. 4, c. 9).
52 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
God's favor and grace, procuring for us all salvation and saucti- fication. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered Himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our con- science from dead works (that is, from sin), to serve the living God" (9, 14). "To offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, this Christ did once, in offering Himself" (7, 27). "But now once at the end of ages, He hath appeared for the destruction of sin in sacrifice (per hostiam suam) ; so also Christ was offered once (oblatus est) to ex- haust the sins of many" (9, 26, 28).
3. Now, how is Christ's death on the Cross to be understood as a true sacrifice ? In how far does it contain all the constituents of a sacrifice taken in its strict sense ? — Upon the altar of the Cross, Jesus Christ, the great Highpriest, as the representative of the human race, dedicated His precious life to the most painful of deaths, thus worthily to glorify and perfectly propitiate the Divine Majesty, as well as to regain for man the favor and grace of God.
a) He who was sacrified on the Cross, was Jesus Christ, the Man-God and our Highpriest. Hence it was a divine Person, it was the Son of God Himself who was offered on Mount Calvary ; but He could offer the sacrifice only through His human nature, that is, by acts of love and obedience, of humility and submission, with which His holy soul was filled and inflamed. This sacrifice was of an infinite value and merit, because it proceeded from and was offered by an infinite Person.
b) That which was offered on the Cross — the Victim — was also the Son of God according to His human nature ; in other words, it was the human nature, in so far as it was united to the Eternal Word and through this union possessed of infinite dignity. Thus Jesus Christ was not only the Priest of His sacrifice, but also the sacrifice of His priesthood, when He offered Himself, His life, His body and His blood on the tree of the holy Cross. For according to St. Peter, "it is the Author of life (auctor vitae) you killed" (Acts 3, 15) ; according to St. John, "God hath laid down His life forus"(i John 3, 16) ; according to St. Paul, "the Jews crucified the Lord of Glory" and "God purchased the Church with His own blood" (i Cor. 2, 8 ; Acts 20, 28). l
In the Sacrifice of the Cross, therefore, the God-Man2 is the
1 Absque dubio concedendum est, F 'ilium Dei pro nobis fuisse mortuum, et hoc quidem sibi vere attribuitur non secundum naturam divinam, sed secundum humanam ... Et hoc in nullo derogat divinae dignitati et multum consonat pie- tati. Nullum enim verbum majoris dignationis resonare potest in auribus cordis nostri, quam quod unigenitus Dei Filius mortuus fuerit pro nobis debitoribus mortis. Et ideo non tantum est hoc credendum et asserendum tamquaui verum, sed etiam frequentissime recolendum (S. Bonav. Ill, dist. 21, a. 2, q. 3;.
8 The Son of God alone — not the Father and not the Holy Ghost — is both Priest and Victim, because and inasmuch as He alone assumed human nature, which placed Him in a condition to sacrifice and to be sacrificed ; but according to His divine nature, by which He is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, He re- ceives and accepts the Sacrifice which is perpetually offered to the triune God.
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 53
priest offering and, at the same time, the lamb offered : He offers and He is offered according to His human nature'. He is Priest and offers, in as far as He acts without restraint and freely gives His life ; He is the Victim and He is offered, inasmuch as He suffers pain and undergoes death, in order to be slain for the honor of God. 1
c) Since the offering of sacrifice pertains to the priest, it must, consequently, have been accomplished by our Saviour Himself upon Golgotha. — Evidently it did not consist in the physical execution effected by the enemies and tormentors of Jesus, but in the voluntary acceptation and endurance of the bloody death on the part of the Man-God as Highpriest. The executioners and soldiers who lacer- ated our Lord, wished to kill Him and in reality they did so with violence and cruelty, but in nowise did they sacrifice Him ; they did not perform a work pleasing to God, but rather committed the greatest of outrages. 2 "The Lord took upon Himself what, according to the decree of His will, He hath chosen ; He permitted the hands of the godless to rage against Him, this became of service to Him in the performance of their own transgressions."3 — Jesus Christ acting as priest on the Cross performed the sacrificial act without compulsion, but of His most free choice He shed His blood amid unspeakable pains, and in prompt obedience gave His infinitely precious life, in order to glorify and to propitiate the majesty of the most High dis- honored by sin. — To be a real sacrifice, Christ's passion and death had to be entirely voluntary, that is, to depend upon His human will, to be accepted by it and directed to the divine glory. That this was really the case is frequently and strongly proved in Holy Writ: "Christ was offered because it was His own will" (Isa. 53, 7). — In the first place, the willingness of Christ to undergo His passion and death is evidenced by His allowing sinners to afflict and torment His body, although by His human will He could easily have pre- vented it ; for without or against His will all the powers of this world and all the rage of hell could not have done Him the slightest harm. When His hour had come, the Saviour voluntarily surrendered Himself into the hands of His enemies and ascended the altar of the Cross ; for by His mere words, UI am He" (John 18, 6), He prostrated the soldiers to the ground, rendered His
1 Nihil mundum (Christus) invenit in hominibus, quod offerret pro homini- bus : seipsum obtulit mundam victimam. Felix victima, vera victima, hostia im- tnaculata ! Non ergo hoc obtulit, quod nos illi dedimus: itnmo hoc obtulit, quod a nobis accepit et mundum obtulit. Carnem enim a nobis accepit, hanc obtulit. Sed unde illam accepit ? De utero Virginia Mariae, ut mundam offerret pro im- mundis. Ipse rex, ipse sacerdos : in eo laetemur (S. August. Enarrat. in Ps. 149, n. 6). — Formam servi obtulit (Christus), in hac oblatus est: quia secundum hanc mediator est, in hac sacerdos, in hac sacrificium est (S. August. De civit. Dei, 1. x, c. 6).
2 Passio Christi ex parte occidentium ipsum fuit maleficium, sed ex parte ipsius ex caritate patientis fuit sacrificium. Unde hoc sacrificium ipse Christus obtulisse dicitur, non autem illi qui eum occiderunt (S. Thorn. 3, q. 48, a. 3 ad 3).
3 St. L,eo, Eleventh Sermon on the I/ord's Passion.
64 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
adversaries powerless, and at His petition the Father would have sent "more than twelve legions of angels," consequently, an in- numerable host of heavenly warriors to His aid (Matt. 26, 23). But "the Son of the living God" would not ward off the violence committed against Himself : of His own choice and love He entered upon the painful way of the Cross. — Hence sufferings and death were the natural outcome of those cruel torments by which the body and the soul of the Saviour were overwhelmed and con- sumed ; but these natural consequences, — suffering and death — He could likewise have prevented by His own free-will and power. This He refused to do ; rather would He drink the chalice of suffer- ings to the dregs and taste the bitterness of death in all its severity. — With strong voice and loud cry He commended His spirit into the hands of His Heavenly Father (Luke 23, 46), bowed His head and expired, "because He willed it, when He willed it and as He willed it." x Why this loud cry ? To show His power over death and life ; to prove to the world that He possessed the might and strength to ward off death and to preserve His life ; that "He died not out of weakness, but by His own might," 2 that is, by His free will and free choice. The effect upon the beholders was, in fact, so great that later on the Pagan Centurion exclaimed: "Indeed, this man was the Son of God!" Thus was accomplished on Golgotha what the Saviour had, beforehand, distinctly foretold: "I lay down My life for My sheep ; no man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself and I have power to take it up again" (John 10,
15, i8)-3
The priestly activity and self-sacrifice of our Saviour were first
of all accomplished in spirit and in heart, but did not remain interior and invisible, for Christ's intention and will to offer Himself in sacri- fice appeared outwardly and revealed itself by the shedding of His blood and the loss of His life, which He could have prevented, but would not prevent.
d) The object and fruit of this bloody sacrifice of Christ was the redemption of the world, the restoration and completion of the super- natural order in the human race, in fact, in the whole creation. For "what else has the Cross of Christ effected, what else does it still effect, than that enmity is destroyed and the world reconciled to God, so that by the sacrifice of the Lamb slain all be led back to true peace?" 4 — To accomplish the redemption, the Lord did not offer a gift of little value, but His own humanity, which in itself is in- comparably more valuable than all creation, and which, in union with the divine nature, possesses infinite dignity and majesty. It
1 Quia voluit, quandovoluit, quomodovoluit(S. August., DeTrinit., 1. 4, n. 16).
1 Non infirmitate, sed potestate mortuus est (S. August., Denat. etgrat. n. 26).
8 Quia anima Christ! non repulit a proprio corpore nocumentum illatum, sed voluit, quod natura corporalis illi nocumento succumberet, dicitur suam animam posuisse vel voluntarie mortuus esse (S. Thorn. 3, q. 47, a. 1).
4 St. Leo, 15th Sermon on the Lord's Passion.
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 55
was this august, adorable humanity of Christ that was sacrificed on the Cross, that was "bruised in its infirmity" (Isa. 53, 10), actually to acknowledge and honor the inviolable majesty of the Most High, as well as to appease the anger of God and propitiate His justice. l — The fruit of this homage and atonement which Christ offered for us, and in our stead, is profitable to us men ; by means of it He de- served for us the remission of all sin and punishment, as well as the bestowal of every grace and blessing. The majesty and justice of God could not have been glorified in a more brilliant and stirring manner than was done by the unfathomable and incomprehensible self-abasement of the divinely human Highpriest on the Cross. In- finitely worthy was the adoration offered to the Divine Majesty by the Sacrifice of the Cross ; infinitely perfect the satisfaction rendered to the divine justice by the passion and death of Christ ; infinitely abundant also the merit which our Saviour, by giving His life, ac- quired for man. "What sacrifice was ever holier than that which the true Highpriest offered on the altar of the Cross by the sacrifice of His body ?" 2 Here the Highpriest is infinitely worthy, the gift offered infinitely precious, and the act of offering infinitely valuable ; consequently, it is the absolutely perfect Sacrifice to which all other sacrifices are referred, and from which all other sacrifices draw their significance, power and efficacy. 3
4. At the touching ceremony of the unveiling of the Cross on Good Friday, the Church three times sings these words to the faith- ful : Ecce lignum crucis, in quo solus mundi pependit. Venite, ado- remus! "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which was suspended the Salvation of the world. Come, let us adore !" We will accept
1 Sacrificium proprie dicitur aliquid factum in honorem proprie Deo debitutn ad eum placandum. Christus autem "seipsum obtulit in passione pro nobis" (S. Aug.) et hoc ipsum quod voluntarie passionem sustinuit, Deo maxime acceptum fuit, utpote ex caritate maxima proveniens. Unde manifestum est quod passio Christi fuerit verum sacrificium (S. Thorn. 3, q. 48, a. 3).
2 St. Leo, 13th Sermon on the Lord's Passion.
3 Consideremus hujus sacrifi.cii latitudinem, qua universum in suis complecti- tur primitiis, et universo profuit mundo ; ejus longitudinem, quum jam adumbratum fuerit in Abelis oblatione, qua de causa Christus agnus occisus ab origine mundi dicitur (Apoc. 13, 8), et idem commemorandum sit usque ad saeculi consummatio- nem; ejus altitudinem, sua enim virtute penetravit coelos eosque nobis iterum aperuit ; pro/unditatem effectuum, nam animae maculas radicitus delet et vel ex infernis animas justorum ibi degentium eripuit ; aut etiam ratione ss. Cordis Jesu, in quo radicatur. Huic enim Cordi adscribi debet a) tantum pietatis consilium, quo nos dilexit usque in finem non solum suae vitae, sed etiam usque ad supremarn caritatis mensuram : nam majorem hoc dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis (Joann. 15, 13). Ex illo Corde b) tamquam e fonte mana- vit sanguis ille pretiosus pro mundi vita ; c) ex amore illius Cordis speciale deri- vatur pretium hujus sacrificii, quia cum tanto oblatum est amore, ut plus contulerit ad mortem, quam carnifices : nisi enim ille permisisset, nihil hi potuissent. Quare Christus (Joann. 14, 31) ait : Sed ut cognoscat mundus, quia diligo Patrem . . . sur- gite, eamus hinc. Quocirca sacrificium crucis verum est holocausium, cujus ignis erat intensissimus ss. Cordis amor (Hurter, Theol. dogm. Comp. II. [edit. 2], p. 419).
56 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
this invitation ; therefore, let us tremblingly with reverence and adoration linger a while at the foot of the Cross erected upon Gol- gotha, the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense (Cant. 4, 6). Upon the mountain of Golgotha the passion of the High- priest was consummated amid incessant sacrificial prayer ; hence the place of Christ's crucifixion is a mountain of myrrh, that is, a moun- tain which became for our Saviour the myrrh of most bitter torments of soul and body — and a hill of frankincense, that is, a hill whence the odor of fragrant devotion and the sacrificial flame of acts of loving atonement ascended without intermission to Heaven from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. — Place yourself in spirit on Golgotha, behold the bleeding sacrificial Lamb and consider whether there was ever sorrow like unto His ! For eighteen hours — from the night before to the day of His death — the God-Man was immersed in a fathomless ocean of the bitterest sorrow. How piercing, excruciating and un- endurable were all His pains for His so delicately and nobly consti- tuted body and His most pure and sensitive soul ! The incompre- hensible prerogatives of the holy humanity of Jesus served but to sharpen His sense of pain and His confusion ; for it was, as it were, framed to taste fully the bitterness of suffering. * Along the blood- stained Stations of the Cross, the Divine Sacrificial Lamb was dragged without mercy to the shambles. His soul was overwhelmed with anguish and sorrow, with shame and contumely, His Heart was as molten wax in His body and all His bones were dislocated (Ps. 21, 15), His body struck and beaten, bruised and tortured, shamelessly stripped and scornfully clothed, His face spat upon and defiled, His head pierced with sharppointed thorns, His hands and feet transfixed with cruel nails. "From the soles of the feet to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in Him : wounds and bruises and swelling sores : they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil" (Isa. I, 6). He that was comely in countenance beyond all the children of men, from whose lips sweetness and benignity flowed, whom God had filled with blessings and anointed with the oil of gladness, — upon Golgotha He became a man of sorrows, a twig in an arid soil, one without form or beauty, a worm and no man, the reproach of men, the outcast of the people, unworthy of esteem, unrecognizable, and, as it were, struck and crushed by God (cf. Ps. 21 and 44 ; Isa. 53). In suffering and pain, in untold misery, amid the intense pangs of wounds, amid a parching thirst, the innocent Sacrificial Lamb hangs suspended, for three long hours, on the hard wood of the Cross, His blood oozing out in the slow agony of death. The sacrificial ardor with which the Divine Victim is consumed, is that fire which the Lord Himself brought from heaven upon the earth and enkindled — the fire of the love of God and of the neighbor ; that fire of love environs His thorn- crowned head, encircling in vivid flames His wounded body, radia-
1 Poenam amarissimam pro nostris peccatis in cruce sustinuit, in proprio cor. pore immaculatissimo, tenerrime ac nobilissime complexionato ideoque maxime perceptivo doloris et summe passive (Dion. Carthus. Enarrat. in I. Petr. 2, 24).
7. The Death of Jesus Christ on the Cross a True and Real Sacrifice. 57
ting in streams from His pierced members and from His open Heart. At the sight of such inexhaustible sufferings, the Church deeply penetrated and impressed, sings to the tree of the Cross :
O lovely tree, whose branches wore The royal purple of His gore ; How glorious does thy body shine, Supporting members so divine !
St. Ignatius bids us pray ' 'for sorrow with Christ filled with sorrow, to be bruised with Christ bruised ; to beg for tears, for interior grief at the remembrance of the excessive torments that Christ endured for us. ' ' Where may our hard, stony hearts be more readily softened and transported with love and gratitude, with grief and compunction, with constant sorrow for sin, than on Calvary at the sight of the Cross upon which our Saviour shows to us poor, lost creatures a love that shrinks from no sacrifice, that knows no measure and no bounds? "Is the Cross with our dying Lord upon it anything else than the open book of our sins ? Is not Christ He that knew no sin, but was, made by God sin for us, as says the Apostle ? (2 Cor. 5, 21.) Alas! if I open this book of the Cross, I read therein all my transgressions ! On beholding the pierced hands, I recognize all my perverse actions ; if I look upon the transfixed feet, I think on the evil ways in which I have strayed ; if I glance upon this body become one wound, I have before me all my effeminacy, all my sensuality ; do I consider the thorn-crowned, bleeding brow, it is a fearful mirror of my vanity, of my sinful ambition ; and this Heart transpierced by the lance — ah ! it denotes my want of love and my unfaithfulness toward God, my hardheartedness and impatience, my implacability towards my neighbor !" x "Our Lord bore our sorrows and endured our pains" on the Cross — and yet His boundless love is returned with cold- ness and indifference, with ingratitude and outrages of all kinds : this pains and wounds His Heart a thousand times more bitterly than all the sufferings of His passion. This should, moreover, impel us to compensate and atone for the despised love of our Redeemer, by gratefully considering and honoring the immensity of His sufferings, by which we bring sweetest consolation to His Heart.
But why this excess of suffering and misery, of humiliation and abandonment, of blood and wounds ? 2 All this was by no means
1 Molitor, Das Gleichniss von den klugen und thorichten Jungfrauen, p. 97.
2 Dolor passionis Christi inter ceteros dolores et passiones fuit acerbissimus et acutissimus. Et hoc patet, si ilia considerentur, quae doloris passionem acer- biorem reddunt. Haec autem sunt tria, videlicet causa passionis et modus patiendi et conditio patient is. — Si consideretur causa, ob quam Christus passus est, fuit in eo doloris afflictio magna. Non euim patiebatur pro culpa propria, imo pro aliena ; non pro amicis tantum, sed etiam pro inimicis, et etiam pro his, quos videbat in- gratos. — Si autem consideretur modus patiendi, fuit in eo passio doloris acerbior, turn propter generalitatem, quia in omnibus membris affligebatur, turn etiam propter continuitatem, quia suspendium ejus continuabatur, et clavi adeo affligebant pen- dentem, sicut affiixerunt, quando manus ejus et pedes confodiebantur, in quibus
58 I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
necessary to pay the full price of redemption ; the slightest suffering, each single tear, each single step and grief and sigh of our Saviour sufficed, since all His acts and sufferings were of infinite value on account of the infinite dignity of His person, and, consequently, they were infinitely meritorious and propitiatory before God. — And yet our Lord poured out His precious blood in streams and, so to speak, lavishly in the seven adorable mysteries, namely, of the Circum- cision, the Agony, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Transpiercing of His Sacred Heart ! 1 This He did through love of God and man ; for in what is the Divine Majesty more greatly and splendidly glorified, the sal- vation of mankind more powerfully and efficaciouly accomplished, than by a sacrifice so sorrowful, so bitter and painful as the one the Son of God consummated on the Cross ? The greatest mystery of God and Christ (i Cor. 2, 7; Eph. 3, 4), that is, the work of redemption, was in every detail to be perfect as a miracle of divine power, wisdom and love ; and, in effect, it is so profound, so glorious and so bountiful, that even the angels desire to con- template it (i Peter i, 12). Yes, during the long ages of eternity, it will be for angels and for man a subject of unfailing contem- plation and never ending adoration, — a subject in the meditation of which all the blessed spirits, with ecstatic jubilation and rever- ential awe, with ever fresh admiration, will be forever immersed and lost. Hence the Church, on the holy night of Easter, sings in trans- port of joy : 0 mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio ! 0 inaestima- bilis dilectio caritatis! Ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti! — "O wonderful condescension of Thy goodness to us, O God ! O
maxima erat afflictio propter nervos et musculos ibidem concurrentes, in quibus praecipue viget sensus. — Si autem consideretur qualitas sive conditio patientis, maxima erat afflictio propter maximam complexionis aequalitatem et propter sensus vivacitatem. Unde quia nullus potuit ei aequari nee in aequalitate complexionis, nee in vivacitate sensus, dolor illius omnium dolorum fuit acutissimus. — Et idea rationes, quae hoc ostendunt, concedamus, et ei gratias, quantas possumus et supra quam possumus, referatnus si quo modo donetur nobis, ut tarn graviter patienti com- patiamur (S. Bonav. Ill, dist. 16, a. 1, q. 2;. — In Christo patiente fuit verus dolor et sensibilis, qui causatur ex corporali nocivo, et dolor interior, qui causatur ex apprehensione alicujus nocumenti, qui tristitia dicitur. Uterque autem dolor in Christo fuit maximus inter dolores praesentis vitae (S. Thorn. 3, q. 46, a. 6).
1 Christus pro nobis sanguinem suum fudit piissime, plenissime et acerbissime . Piissitne fudit, si consideretur causa : nam causa effusionis sui pretiosi sanguinis fuit piissima, quia ipsum fudit ex charitate ferventissima, ex qua voluntarie pro nobis pati voluit. . . . Plenissime fudit, si consideretur mensura : quia totum sanguinem effudit, ita ut unica gutta in eo non remaneret. . . . Acerbissime fudit, si consideretur naftira : nam quanto natura et complexio est nobilior et delicatior, tanto est suae laesionis perceptibilior, et per consequens poena inflicta et ejus sensi- bilitas est acerbior ; sed constat, quod complexio corporis Christi fuit delicatissima, quia Spiritus Sancti artificio de Virginis sanguine formata, et ergo sui sanguinis effusio et poenarum illatio fuit acerbissima, et ideo dicit : Attendite (sc. mentaliter) et videte (sensibiliter), si est dolor similis, sicut dolor meus — quasi diceret: Non (Ludolph. de Saxon. Vita Jesu Christi, II, cap. 64, n. 16;.
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross. 59
inestimable favor of love ! To redeem the slave, Thou didst give Thy Son!" UO Eternal Wisdom!" — exclaims Blessed Henry Suso — "I realize perfectly that whoever desires a great reward and eternal salvation, exalted science and profound wisdom, whoever would be equal in love and sorrow, have perfect security from all evil and desire to taste Thy bitter passion and receive supernatural sweetness, must keep and bear Thee, O Crucified Jesus, at all times before the eyes of his soul, beholding himself therein as in a mirror, so as to regulate his life according to Thine. Ah ! loving Lord, draw me, by means of love and suffering, from all the world to Thee and to Thy Cross ; penetrate me most intimately with Thy Cross, so that my soul may enjoy Thee in all Thy glory !"
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross.
The Cross is, as Holy Church sings in her Passion chant, "a tree beautifully adorned, environed with light, a noble tree, selected from all trees, no forest produces its equal in foliage, blossom and fruit." The noble tree (arbor nobilis} of the Cross was besprinkled with the blood that gushed forth from the body of the Lamb ; hence its branches are full of blossoms of grace and fruits of life — and its foliage, which neither withers nor falls, avails for the salvation of nations. * The manifold, blessed fruits of the noble tree of the Cross, "to which was granted the privilege of touching members so holy, of bearing the ransom of the world," should now be con- sidered in all their details.
i . The glory of redemption by the Cross is to the angels a mystery as attractive as it is impenetrable, hence we may conclude, the fruits of redemption must be immeasurably rich and precious. Ecce lignum crucis ! Behold the Cross — what a sacrifice is there presented ! Whose body is thereon immolated ! Whose blood is there poured out ! Whose life is thereon offered up ! It is the body, the blood, the life of the God-Man — therefore the most magnificent sacrificial offering that may be conceived. This infinitely precious sacrifice is presented, after the most perfect manner, in the most per- fect sentiments, by the infinitely exalted sacrificing Priest, Jesus Christ, upon the altar of the Cross, to the Most High for the sal- vation of the whole world. Therefore, inestimable, infinitely rich must be the treasure of grace and salvation purchased at so great and so dear a price, at the price of such a sacrifice. — In fact, through Christ's blood we have not merely redemption from all sin and punishment, but also the fulness and superabundance of all the gifts of grace (Eph. i, 8 — 10) ;• by Christ's death God has not only res- cued us from the power of darkness, but yet more, translated us to the kingdom of His beloved Son and made us worthy to participate in the heritage of the saints in light (Col. i, 12 — 13). Through Christ we have " fulness of grace and gifts" (Rom. 5, 15) ; for "where sin abounded, grace did more abound" /'Rom. 5, 20).
1 Folia ligni ad sanitatem gentium. (Apoc. 22, 2.)
60 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
"Through Christ's unspeakable clemency, we have received more and greater gifts than we had lost by the envy of the devil. For those whom the wicked foe had driven from the happiness of their original abode, with them the Son of God has incorporated Him- self and placed them at the right hand of the Father. ' ' * From the dust, from the depth of misery God has raised us and placed us by the side of the angels ; He has elevated us to a height, dignity and glory which the heart of man could neither have con- ceived nor desired. Thus has God, "who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together in Christ (by whose grace we are saved), and has raised us up together and has made us sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus, that He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of His grace (abun- dantes divitias gratiae suae), in His bounty toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2, 4 — 7). — What is the frightful abyss of misery and wretchedness from which we have been delivered by the Sacri- fice of the Cross? And what are the heavenly gifts with which God, in Christ, has blessed us, according to the riches of His grace which has been imparted to us in superabundance (secundum divi- tias gratiae tuae, quae superabundant innobis)? (Eph. i, 3 — 8).
2. By the fall of our first parents, the entire human race was plunged into the deepest and most deplorable misery ; sin with its bitter consequences, like a crushing weight, lay heavy upon the children of Eve, banished from Paradise. They were spiritually- dead, that is, they were deprived of the supernatural life of grace and had forfeited eternal happiness ; hence, of themselves, they were absolutely incapable of rendering satisfaction for sin and its punishment and of propitiating the divine justice — they were also just as little capable of regaining and meriting the lost grace of being children of God and heirs to heaven. Without the mercies of the Lord, nothing would have remained for man to do but to pass from the distressing sufferings and trials of time into the hopeless pains and torments of eternity. This lamentable state in which man, full of concupiscence, infected with sin, was subject to tempo- ral and eternal punishment, is justly considered and represented in Scripture as a hard slavery under the tyrannical dominion of Satan.
From all these evils, Christ redeemed poor, unfortunate hu- manity by the sacrifice of His life ; He rendered on the Cross not only ample satisfaction for all the sins of the world, but also re- gained and merited for us all the gifts of grace. His passion and death possessed atoning and, at the same time, meritorious power and efficacy. By the treasure of satisfaction and merit comprised in the Sacrifice of the Cross, Christ paid for us to the divine justice so glorious a ransom that God delivered us from the slavery of Satan and reinstated us as His children.
3. Jesus Christ suffered and died in order to render satisfaction
1 St. Leo, First Sermon on the Lord's Ascension.
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross. 61
for the sins of the world : — how is this to be more clearly under- stood? Whoever is in the state of sin has not only incurred a debt, but is, moreover, liable to punishment ; for in sin guilt and punish- ment (culpa etpoena) are distinct. Both are evils that press upon sinful man and separate him from God ; man laden with guilt and deserving of punishment, is a stranger to God and remains at a dis- tance from Him, since God's anger and displeasure are resting upon him. If these evils — guilt and punishment — are to be removed from man, if sin is to be utterly effaced, a commensurate satisfaction must, before all, be presented to the divine justice. Now, in what does satisfaction for sin and punishment consist, and in what degree has Christ rendered it by the sacrifice of His passion and death?
a) When man sins he offends God, that is, he violates the rights of God, he does God an injustice by refusing to Him due honor and submission, dishonors the supreme majesty of God, despises His in- finite goodness. This places him in a state of guilt, that is, he thereby becomes an object of the divine displeasure and anger — an enemy of God (Rom. 5, 10). How can and how should this guilt be atoned for, that is, how can and how should be repaired the out- rage offered to God by the contempt of the honor, esteem and love due to Him — and consequently, in what manner can and should God's displeasure be overcome? To effect this, there is required such a voluntary act, that is, an action or a suffering, that honors the offended majesty of God as much as, or even more than, sin has displeased Him. 1 Satisfaction, therefore, reconciles man with an offended God, that is, it causes God to lay aside His anger and to be ready to forgive the guilt. Satisfaction for the guilt, conse- quently, is a mark of honor, or rather it is a restitution of honor ; accordingly, a good work will answer the object of satisfaction so much the better the more it is calculated to honor and glorify God. This is the case most especially in sacrifice, since it is the principal act of religion. — From what has been said, it is evident how far and how exceedingly proper the Sacrifice of the Cross of Christ was to effect the atonement demanded by the debt of sin. 2
Since Christ, through love and obedience to His Father, drained the bitter chalice of His passion and underwent the agony of death for us, He offered to God something far greater and more precious than was required to counterpoise all the offences that the sinful human race had committed and are still committing against Him ; hence God received far more joy and pleasure in the infinitely pre- cious propitiatory Sacrifices of the Cross than the pain and dis- pleasure He experienced from all the sins of mankind. Jesus was
1 Ille proprie satisfacit pro offensa, qui exhibet offenso id, quod aeque vel magis diligit, quam oderit offensam (S. Thorn. 3, q. 48, a. 2).
2 Morte sua quippe uno verissimo sacrificio pro nobis oblato, quidquid culpa- rum erat, unde nos principatus et potestates (the powers of hell) ad luenda sup- plicia jure detinebant, purgavit, abolevit, exstinxit (S. August., De Trinit., 1. 4, c. 13, n. 17).
62 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
obedient to His Father unto death — even unto the death of the Cross (Phil. 2, 8), and this His perfect obedience amply compen- sated for the disobedience of sinful man. How could the honor of which God was deprived by our sins be more worthily restored than was done on the Cross? Infinitely great are the honor and adora- tion offered to the triune God by the bloody self-immolation of the Saviour. God's inviolable majesty and holiness are there displayed in the clearest light, inasmuch as to acknowledge and propitiate them, the unspeakably perfect humanity of Christ was offered, that is, destroyed and dissolved. By the voluntary surrender of His precious life to the death of the Cross, the God-man offered infinite honor and glory to the Most High, in order to efface the insults and ignominies with which men had offended and continue to offend the divine Majesty.
b) With the guilt of sin punishment is inseparably connected : and as long as the guilt exists it deserves punishment. — Man laden with sin is a child of wrath (Eph. 2,3), subject to divine justice, — consequently, condemned to be punished for the sin committed in proportion to the guilt incurred, that is, to be humbled and afflicted. This punishment is either to be undergone (satispassio), or the re- mission of it may be obtained by satisfaction (satisfactio pro poena). — Satisfaction takes the place of the punishment to be undergone and remits it ; the punishment must needs be compensated for by an equivalent voluntary service. Good works, in so far as they are painful and laborious, are most suitable to this end; for the voluntary performance of something hard and difficult is especially well adapt- ed to supply the pain and humiliation inseparably connected with every punishment. — Now, inasmuch as in sacrifice the offering is destroyed and annihilated, sacrifice is most evidently endowed with the power of satisfying for punishment and is, therefore, most pe- culiarly fitted to supply for the punishment and merit its remission.
If we keep this in view, it will become evident to us why the punishment of sin, which weighs heavily on mankind, cannot be more perfectly compensated for and removed than by the propitia- tory sacrifice of the Cross. What can be more painful and humiliat- ing than to die on a cross between two thieves? There our Saviour, who is innocence and holiness itself, was immersed in a flood, in an abyss of pain and humiliation : a most bitter ocean of suffering raged around Him. From the soles of His feet to the crown of His head, His most pure body was but one wound ; covered with blood, cruelly scourged and bruised, He hangs as a victim on the stake of the Cross. In this manner has He borne "our sorrows"; thus has He suffered and expiated what we had deserved and what we should have undergone. l
1 It would be incorrect to say that Christ, the Innocent One, has been literally punished or chastised for us guilty men ; for His sufferings and death were no satispassio, that is, an involuntary undergoing of the punishment inflicted, as for example, we say of the souls in purgatory, that they have sufficiently satisfied (satispatiuntur), but it was a real satisfactio pro poena, that is, a voluntary pen-
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross. 63
Christ has, therefore, by His sacrifice on the Cross rendered satisfaction for us: this satisfaction has removed God's displeasure, that is, it has effaced all the debt of sin — and satisfied all the re- quirements of divine justice, that is, it has delivered us from all the punishment of sin. The sacrificial death of Christ has once more reconciled us with God offended by sin, that is, it has effected this boon that we are no longer objects of the divine displeasure and wrath — and that God, on His part, is prepared to remit our debt and punishment. Thus we have, through the blood of the Saviour, redemption and remission of sins (Eph. i, 7). "Jesus Christ has loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood" (Apoc. i, 5). This was accomplished when Christ concluded peace and reconciled us to God by the cross, killing the enmities in Himself (Eph. 2, 15 — 1 6), that is, by the sacrifice of His life. Yes, "for when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. 5, 10). And thus by the blood of the Cross it was brought about that all are united in peace in heaven and upon earth (Col. i, 20).
4. In addition to and after our reconciliation, the other chief fruit of the tree of the Cross is our restoration to grace. The sacri- ficial death of Christ had not merely the character of atonement, it was, at the same time, in the highest degree meritorious. 1 Christ by His death on the Cross obtained for us not only forgiveness of sins, but also superabundance of life (John 10, 10) and entrance into the sanctuary of heaven (Heb. 10, 19). He restored the king- dom of God, the supernatural order of grace. It is to the redeeming death of Christ that we owe all and every grace we receive from God — the grace of prayer, the vocation to the true faith, victory over temptations, conversion of the heart, the observance of the Commandments and final perseverance. To each of these graces there is attached, so to speak, a drop of the Precious Blood of Christ; for at the price of His blood has He purchased all graces for us — from the first enlightening of the understanding and the least mov- ing of the will to the consummation of the glory of heaven. Christ has merited for us not only the plenitude of actual graces, but also sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost, the heavenly transfiguration of soul and body, — in short, the whole glory of grace of the children of God, which here below is concealed, but which hereafter shall shine with unending
ance, undertaken and suffered out of pure love, which outweighed our punishment and, consequently, obtained for us its full remission. In this sense have the words of the Prophet to be understood : "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him'' (disciplines pacis nostrae super eum — Is. 53, 5).
1 To merit is to acquire by some act a right, a claim to recompense, that is, to a good which must in strict justice be given as a reward. While satisfaction (satisfactio) blots out and removes guilt, that is, acquires a claim to pardon and imparts to merit (meritum) a right to reward. One and the same good work has, under different aspects indeed, — both a satisfactory and a meritorious power (vis satisfactoria et meritoria).
64 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
brightness. The inexhaustible treasure of grace, the riches of heavenly blessings, the establishment of the Church and its endow- ment with all the gifts and means of salvation, are fruits that pro- ceed from the tree of the Cross. Thus has God, through the merits of Christ, presented us with the greatest and most precious promises (2 Peter 1,4). Filled with holy joy and gratitude, the Prince of the Apostles thus exultingly exclaims: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us into a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead — unto an inheritance incorruptible and un- defiled, and that cannot fade, reserved in heaven for you" (i Peter,
i, 4)-
5. By His atoning and meritorious sacrificial death, Christ rendered for us all that God, according to the rigor of His justice, required in order to bestow upon us remission of all the guilt of sin and its punishment, and favor us anew with His special benevolence and good pleasure, in consequence of which we are His children and heirs of heaven. — This salvation through Christ is frequently called redemption in Scripture l ; there we read that we were purchased or ransomed by the blood of Christ. Regarded in this light, the merit and satisfaction of the Sacrifice of the Cross constitutes the ransom required by God and paid by Christ that we might be freed from the bondage of Satan. God accepted the ransom that Christ, from the superabundance of His love, offered for us, as a full payment for our enormous debt, and thus broke the chains of slavery in which we were groaning, and restored us again to the freedom of the children of God.2 "That great dragon was cast out, the old serpent who seduceth the whole world" (Apoc. 12, 9); he had arrogated to him- self dominion over fallen man, God permitting it as a just punish- ment for sin. The devil exercised his tyranny over men, inasmuch as he tormented and oppressed them by a thousand snares and temp- tations, by the fear of death and of the torments of hell. Then Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, (that is, sin and
1 Redetnptio, Xtfrpuxrw, dTo\i/Tpw<r«, means loosening, freedom from sin and its consequences or from the slavery of the devil — and, in so far as is done by paying the ransom, means ransoming. (Cf. S. Thorn. 3; q. 48, a. 4. — q. 49, a. 2.)
8 Per peccatum dupliciter homo obligatus erat : Primo quidem servitute pec- cati (John 8, 34. — 2 Petr. 2, 19). Quia igitur diabolus hominem superaverat, in- ducendo eum ad peccatum, homo servituti diaboli addictus erat. — Secundo quan- tum ad reatum poenae, quo homo erat obligatus secundum Dei justitiam, et hoc est etiam servitus quaedam; ad servitutem enim pertinet, quod aliquis patiatur quod non vult, cum liberi hominis sit uti se ipso ut vult. Quia igitur passio Christi fuit sufficieus et superabundans satisfactio pro peccato et reatu poenae generis humani, ejus passio fuit quasi quoddam pretium, per quod liberati sumus ab utraque obli- gatione. Nam ipsa satisfactio, qua quis satisfacit sive pro se sive pro alio, pretium quoddam dicitur, quo se ipsum vel alium redimit a peccato et a poena (Dan. 4, 24). Christus antem satisfecit non quidem pecuniam dando aut aliquid hujus modi, sed dando id quod fuit maximum, se ipsum sc. pro nobis. Et ideo passio Christi dici- tur esse nostra redemptio (S. Thomas 3, q. 48, a. 4).
8. The Fruits of the Sacrifice of the Cross. 65
death) (i John 3, 8), and to cast out the prince of this world (John 12, 30). By the Sacrifice of the Cross He vanquished and subjugat- ed the prince of darkness ; hence the apostle says: "Through death, He destroyed him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil," and by His death "delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to slavery" (Heb. 2, 14 — 15). "If, when the Israelites went out of Egypt, the blood of the lamb became the restoration of freedom, and the day upon which the im- molation of the victim disarmed the anger of the avenging Augel, became a great and holy feast, how much more should Christian nations rejoice, for whom the Almighty Father hath 'spared not even His own son, but delivered Him up for us alP (Rom. 8, 32), that in the death of Christ we might have the true Pasch and the sole and peculiar sacrifice (singular e sacrificium), by which not one nation alone was delivered from the bondage of Pharaoh, but the entire world was snatched from the captivity of Satan." 1 — Christ's dominion over Satan is beautifully expressed by the Church at the solemn Blessing of the Palms, wheu she prays as follows: "The Palms represent the coming triumph of the Lord over the prince of death ; and the olive branches proclaim the advent of a spiritual unction. For that pious multitude (which went forth to meet the Redeemer) knew even then, that these things signified, that the Saviour, compassionating the miseries of all mankind, was to com- bat with the prince of death, and to triumph over him by His own death. Hence it was, that they offered Him such gifts (palm and olive branches) as would declare both the triumph of His victory and the riches (pinguedo) of His mercy. Therefore, the multitude go out to meet the Redeemer with flowers and palms, and pay worthy homage to the triumphant conqueror ; the nations proclaim the Son of God with their tongues ; and their voices rend the skies in praise of Christ : Hosanna in the highest !"
As Jesus Christ, "the Lion of the tribe of Juda" (Apoc. 5, 5), has conquered the powers of death and hell, He has also obtained for us the grace "to be strong and to overcome the wicked one" (i John 2, 14), "and to be victorious over the dominion of death, so as to participate in the glorious resurrection with the Lord of life." 2 Hence we praise the Lord who has visited His people and wrought their redemption, that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, may serve Him without fear, in holiness and jus- tice all tile days of our life (Luke i, 68 — 75).
6. The whole work of redemption is an incomprehensible achievement of divine love and mercy. Do not the goodness and humanity of God shine most brightly therein ? The Eternal Son of God descended from the kingdom of imperishable glory to our earth, in order here amid brambles and stones to seek the lost, weary, wounded sheep and lead them back to eternal bliss. With
1 St. Leo, Ninth Discourse on the I/ord's Passion.
2 Orat. in bened. Palm.
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a heavenly self-sacrificing love He gave His life to refresh all that are weary and burdened, to soothe every sorrow, to pour oil and wine into every wound, to remove the sting of death and the terror of the grave — in a word, to free us from all evil and to bestow upon us every good. — This freedom from all suffering and this enjoyment of every happiness will not, of course, be granted to us here below, but in eternity, in the laud of the living, where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, and where death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow (Apoc. 21, 3 — 4); we shall fully partake of the blessing of redemption only beyond the grave. — By the Cross the Saviour redeemed us from sin and eternal misery, and with many hardships acquired for us all spiritual and heavenly blessings ; hence, according to the wise dispensation of God, the earthly way of the Cross alone will lead us to the etern- al full possession of all the gifts of redemption. Since it pleased God to perfect the Author of our salvation by His passion (Heb. 2, 10), and as Christ had to suffer and so to enter into His glory (Luke 24, 26), it is most proper and beneficial that we, too, — His ran- somed ones — should enter into the kingdom of heaven through many tribulations. Remove sin, and the bitter waters of earthly sufferings are changed into sweet fountains of grace. To them who love God, all earthly woes serve as means of salvation and sanc- tification.
Let us the Cross embrace with love and joy,
Of fear the curse shall mingle no alloy ;
A blooming Eden from it sprung
Of Precious Blood from Christ's Heart wrung ;
The thorn-crowned sorrows of this earth
Give place to rose-crowned joys of heavenly birth.
(Brunner. )
Christ's passion and death have transformed sufferings and have cast a mellow light over the darkness of death and the grave ; therefore, the Cross is the joy and sweetness of holy souls. In over- flowing love they pray: "To suffer or to die!" — "Not to die, but to suffer!" — "To suffer and to be despised for Thee, OLord!" Of those who willingly and cheerfully surfer, Blessed Henry Suso says: "I shall be silent on the consolations and heavenly inunda- tions wherewith God often, unknown to men, supports His suffering friends. These persons are, I know not in what manner, as it were already in heaven ; what happens or does not happen, What God does in all His creatures or does not do, is altogether to their advan- tage. Thus the man who knows well how to surfer, is partly re- compensed even in time for his sufferings ; for in all things he ex- periences peace and joy, and after death is rewarded with life eternal." l
Behold the treasures, the riches and the glory of the fruits of grace, which have ripened on the tree of the Cross, that you may
1 Denifle, Die Schriften des sel. H. Seuse.— Vol. 1, Part 1, p. 138.
9. Application and Conception of the Redemption accomplished on the Cross. 67
embrace and honor it with devotion and love as did the Blessed Henry Suso. "During the night of the eve of May, he usually, began by planting a spiritual May-pole, daily paying it honor for a considerable time. Among all the beautiful branches that ever grew, he could find none more like the lovely May-pole than the bough of the holy Cross, which is more blooming with graces and virtues and more finely adorned than all other May-poles. Beneath this May-pole he made six prostrations; each prostration, with its accompanying meditation, formed a desire to deck the spiritual May-pole with the most beautiful productions of summer. He re- cited and sung from his inmost heart, before the May-pole, the hymn, 'Salve, sancta crux1 ^ in this manner : Hail, heavenly May- pole of Eternal Wisdom, upon which grew the Fruit of Eternal Sal- vation ! At the first prostration, for Thy adornment, I offer red roses with my heart's love this day ; at the second, with tiny violets, I offer an humble bow ; at the third, with delicate lilies, I offer a pure embrace; at the fourth, with all kinds of beautifully colored and bright flowers that ever the meadows or the woods or the trees or the lowlands or the fertile plains produced during this beautiful month of May, or that ever were or shall be in time to come, my heart presents to Thee a spiritual kiss ; at the fifth, with all the gay, merry singing ever executed by the birds during a May-tour, my soul offers Thee unbounded praise ; at the sixth, for all the grandeur wherewith a May-pole was ever adorned, I this day raise my heart to Thee, in spiritual song, and I pray Thee, blessed May-pole, that Thou wouldst assist me, so that during this short time I may praise Thee, that I may enjoy Thee, the Fruit of Life, for evermore !"
9. Application and Conception of the Redemption accomplished on
the Cross.
i. That with the sacrificial death of the Divine Redeemer on the Cross the work of our redemption was effectually accomplished, is a fundamental truth of faith. l — Our Saviour, indeed, during His earthly pilgrimage, from the first moment of His existence until His last breath on the Cross, offered satisfaction and accumulated merits for us, that is, for our redemption. But why does Holy Scripture ascribe the redemption of the world to the death, the blood, the Cross of Christ ? Because in accordance with the good pleasure of God and the will of Christ, it was precisely the shedding of His blood and the offering of His life in the sacrifice of the Cross, that were to serve as the appropriate ransom and full price of re-
1 In His ignominious death the satisfactory and meritorious efficacy of Christ reached its full measure, and also accomplished its object : although the Resur- rection and Ascension, in a manifold sense, belong to the objective completion (integrity) of the redeeming act of salvation — in so far, namely, as these two glorious mysteries set the seal upon the redemption accomplished in a state of hu- miliation, and both guarantee and prefigure its eternal valid efficacy.
68 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
demption. — The preceding labors, sufferings and prayers, that is, the satisfactions and merits of the whole earthly career of Jesus, be- long indeed to the treasure of redemption ; but independently of His death they were not offered by Christ and accepted by the Father for the actual redemption, but only in so far as they were to find therein their completion and consummation. l "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground, die, itself remaineth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12, 24). These words of our Saviour were marvellously accomplished in His own person : by dying He produced fruits of life and grace in superabundance. His life of redemption reaches its zenith in His sacrificial death; therein the work of redemption was consummated. This the Lord Himself announced, in the presence of heaven and earth, when on the Cross He cried out in a loud voice : Consummatum est! "It is consum- mated!" (John 19, 30).
"All the riches that our Lord has lavished upon us by His holy Incarnation, are beyond the understanding of angels and of men. Hence no one can sufficiently praise and thank our Lord therefor. But, my God, how can we thank Thee as we should for the price- less good which Thou, by Thy wounds, by Thy sufferings, hast bestowed upon us in restoring and healing the breach, which all creatures together could never have remedied ? Even the slightest insult offered Thee would have been powerful enough fully to atone for all our indebtedness, yea, for millions of worlds — for innumer- able worlds. For the service rendered is measured by the dignity of the person. What shall we, therefore, give Thee in return, sweet Jesus, for the great goodness Thou hast shown us, that out of Thy boundless love and for our sake, Thou, during thirty-three years, didst not pass a single day without suffering, and, finally, Thou didst die a shameful death on the Cross ?" (Suso.)
It was by the death of Christ, that the redemption of the human race, the restoration of the supernatural kingdom of God upon earth, were accomplished. On the Cross "the handwriting of the decree that was against us" (Col. 2, 14) was blotted out and destroyed: then God was appeased and the rigor of His justice satisfied, so that the stream of His mercies could again flow without hindrance; then were sin and the curse of sin taken away, and grace and glory once more restored ; then was death swallowed up in victory and life re- suscitated ; then was the power of darkness broken and mankind
1 For an actual ransom it is not sufficient only, that there should be an equi- valent price paid, but it must also be destined for the object in question, that is, be offered by him who would redeem and be accepted by him who is to grant the release. Si loquamur de redemptione humani generis quantum ad quantitatem pretii, sic quaelibet passio Christi etiam sine morte suffecisset ad redemptionem humani generis propter infinitam dignitatem personae. Si autem loquamur quantum ad deputationem pretii, sic dicendum est, quod non sunt deputatae ad redemptionem humani generis a Deo Patre et Christo aliae passiones Christi abs- que morte. . . . Ideo humanum genus non est redemptum per aliam passionem absque morte (S. Thorn. Quodlib. II, a. 2).
9. Application and Conception of the Redemption accomplished on the Cross, 69
delivered from ignominious captivity ; then was the abyss of hell closed and the gates of paradise reopened ; then Heaven and earth were again united in peace. 1
With death came also for our Saviour "the night when He could no more work" (John 9, 4) in a meritorious manner. At the moment in which His divine Heart ceased to beat on the Cross, the acquisition of new merits and new atonements for our redemption also ceased : the ransom is neither susceptible nor in need of aug- mentation. — For our immense debt our divine and bountiful Re- deemer has atoned not only sufficiently, but in superabundant mea- sure, out of His overflowing love He paid infinitely more than was required. The treasure of our redemption is infinitely great and, consequently, inexhaustible ; it can neither be increased nor di- minished. Superabundant, infinitely rich, is the atonement and merit of the death of the Cross, not merely on account of the infinite dignity of the suffering and expiring Redeemer, but also because of the immensity of the love wherewith He suffered and died, as well as on account of the value of the divinely human life which He sacrificed ; finally, the extent, the number and the bitterness of the torments and ignominies which He endured, contributed thereto.
The satisfaction offered for us by Christ is, therefore, infinite, that is, far surpassing all sins conceivable: it is a satisfaction beyond which none more bountiful and complete can be thought of. "Far more than we owed has Christ paid for us ; in so far as the ocean exceeds a drop of water, does Christ's satisfaction outweigh our indebtedness." 2 The number and greatness of our sins should not, therefore, deprive us of confidence, they should not tempt us to des- pair : be they ever so great and numerous, — relying on the blood of Christ, WTC must always hope for mercy and pardon ; for Jesus Christ "is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (i John 2, i). All the sins and all the punishment of sin which God has remitted since the begin- ning of time or which He will continue to remit until the end of time — He has pardoned and will pardon only because the blood of the divine Lamb flowed in sacrifice on the Cross for their atonement.
The merit acquired for us by Christ is likewise infinite; that is, it is a merit beyond which none greater and more precious can be imagined. Therefore, in consideration of the infinite merits of Christ, we may and we should confidently expect and implore all that is conducive to our salvation; for no gifts and goods imaginable are equal to His merits. All the graces imparted to mortals from
1 Per passionem Christi liberati sumus non solum a peccato totius naturae humanae (from original sin), et quantum ad culpam et quantum ad reatum poenae, ipso solvente pretium pro nobis, sed etiam a peccatis propriis singulorum, qui communicant ejus passioni per fidem et caritatem et fidei sacramenta. Et ideo per passionem Christi aperta est nobis janua regni coelestis (Hebr. 9, 11). S. Thorn. 3,qu. 49, a. 5.
2 S. Chrysost., Homil. 10 in cap. 5 ad Rom. n. 2.
70 I. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
the beginning of the world, that is, since the fall of man, and that may still be imparted to them until the end of the world, — were and will be imparted only because Christ purchased them at the price of His precious blood. *
The numerous host of the blessed in heaven, whom no one can count, are glorious, ripe fruits of the Sacrifice of Christ ; because the Lamb was slain and has redeemed them to God, in His blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Apoc. 5, 9), and in the blood of the Lamb they have washed their robes, so that they are whiter than the newly fallen snow (Apoc. 7, 14). Therefore, they fall down before the Lamb and amid the harmony of celestial harps sing for all eternity the enchanting canticle of praise and thanksgiving : "The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and benediction" (Apoc. 5, 12.)
Incomprehensible and unfathomable are the riches of Christ : from His bleeding wounds and from His transpierced heart all blessings and salvation have come to us. His blood, poured out in sacrifice upon Golgotha, is a fountain of grace, flowing and atoning for, healing and sanctifying all the world, — ever new and ever abundant ; it does not diminish, it does not cease to flow, though millions upon millions draw from it grace upon grace, health and strength, light and life and the plenitude of life.
2. Thus the work of redemption is objectively fulfilled ; but it must also be subjectively accomplished and completed in the individual man. — On the Cross Christ merited for us all forgiveness of sin, the grace of sanctification and eternal beatitude ; this merit is to be applied to individuals, that by it they may be freed from sin, receive grace and sanctification. Now, what is requisite in order that salvation founded upon the Cross, and placed in the Church within the reach of and offered to all, may be realized in the individual man ? The Apostle tells it in these words : "Christ, being consummated, became to all that obey Him, the cause of etern- al salvation" (Heb. 5, 9). There is indeed "with the Lord mercy and plentiful redemption" (Ps. 129, 7); but to partake of it and to attain to the imperishable heirship of heaven, obedience to the Lord is demanded, that is, it is required to do all and to comply with all that He has ordained and prescribed. — The obedience requisite for obtaining salvation extends to two things : we must first dilig- ently employ the means of grace instituted and ordained by Christ ; and then faithfully co-operate unto the end with the graces received.
1 Those theologians, who are of opinion that the Son of God would have as- sumed human nature even if Adam had not sinned, refer, as a general thing, all graces, those of our first parents in Paradise (instatu justitiae originalis) and those of the Angels, to Christ as their meritorious cause ; consequently, they reject the known distinction of gratia Dei (grace imparted to our first parents before their fall and to the angels without regard to the merits of Christ) and gratia Christi (grace bestowed upon men since the fall in virtue of the merits of Christ). Cf. Mazzella, S. J., De gratia Christi, disp. I, art 1, 2. n. 12.
9. Application and Conception of the Redemption accomplished on the Cross. 71
From the precious blood of Jesus Christ is the heavenly medi- cine prepared for all : it depends upon us to receive it for the cure of our sickness and infirmities, and thus to be enabled to enjoy eternal health of soul and body. — The fountain of grace that sprang forth upon Golgotha, is open and available to all ; but we must approach it and drink therefrom "that living water," that it may become in us "a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting" (John 4, 14), and that we famish notuin this world's desert land, where there is no way and no water" (Ps. 62, 3). — In the sight of all is the wonderful tree of the Cross planted; but we must pluck and eat of its fruits, in order to live eternally and be able to walk in the strength of this food, unto the holy moun- tain of God (3 Kings 19, 8).
Christ has given to men the power to be made the sons of God (John i, 12) and thus to remain; but so long as we are in this land of probation, there is no infallible security and certainty of salvation. That we may not lose the grace of divine adoption and be excluded from the eternal inheritance of heaven, we should "not receive the grace of God in vain," but we must diligently employ "the acceptable time, the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6, i — aj, and by good works make sure our predestination. — We must use violence in order to secure the kingdom of heaven, and strive ear- nestly to enter by the narrow gate ; during the heat and burden of the day, we must cultivate the vineyard of our soul ; we must fight the good fight, keep the faith and win the race so as to gain the crown of justice ; we must suffer with Christ in order to be glori- fied with Him, and die with Christ in order to live with Him ; we must walk in a manner worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things, fruitful in good works, increasing in the knowledge of God ; by a holy and devout life we should be ready and hasten to the corning of the day of the Lord, so as to be found by Him spotless and without blame ; we should renounce all in order to purchase the hidden treasure, the precious pearl of the kingdom of heaven ; with burning lamps, filled with the oil of charity and good works, we should go forth to meet the Bridegroom, in order to be admitted into the heavenly nuptial chamber. 1
Therefore, we must watch, pray, labor, suffer and combat, in order to become holy and to secure our salvation. — Eternal life is not merely an inheritance, not merely a pure gift of divine mercy, but a reward also that we must deserve, and a crown of justice which we must win in lawful combat. The superabundant satisfactions and merits of Christ do not exempt us from the obligation that we are under of satisfying God for onr sins by performing works of satisfaction and accumulating merits for heaven ; but all our satis- factions have their root and source in Jesus Christ, from whom they draw their efficacy and value, by whom they are presented to
1 Cf. Matth. 2, 12. Luc. 13, 24. Matth. 28, 8. 2 Tim. 4, 8 ; 2, 11— 12. Col. 1, 10. 2 Petr. 3, 12—13. Matth. 13, 44—46 ; 25, 1.
72 /. Dogmatical and Ascetical Part.
the Father and through whose mediation they are accepted by the Father. l It is precisely in this that the glory and superabundance of the redemption are shown, that Christ our Chief has not only satisfied and merited for us, but has, moreover, acquired for us grace and efficacy, presenting them to us that we ourselves may also in Him, through Him and with Him be enabled to render satisfaction and to merit heaven. 2
Now, how in the course of time are the plentiful fruits of the redemption, the gifts and graces purchased on the Cross, to be ap- plied to and appropriated by individual man ? This is effected in various ways. Some graces God imparts to us without our co- operation ; others we obtain only by our co-operation, that is, by disposing ourselves for their reception and employing well the means of grace. Such means of grace are manifold and by God's dis- position are found in the Church : on the one hand, the principal ones are prayer and good works ; on the other, the Sacraments and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 3 All these means of grace are channels through which the graces merited by Christ flow to us in abundance and in a mysterious manner. Thus has Jesus Christ by the Sacrifice of the Cross won for us an "eternal redemption", and once for all accomplished the regeneration of the world, that is, atoned for all the sins of all men and merited for us every grace.
Consequently, by the Sacrifice of the Cross we expect and obtain full reconciliation and favor in time, as well as happiness and glory in eternity — "gratiam in praesenti et gloriam in futuro." Who- soever separates himself from this Sacrifice ; whosoever, through disobedience and unbelief, despises and rejects it, for him "there is left no (other) sacrifice for sins, but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of fire" (Heb. 10, 2,6). Therefore, with the Church, we joyfully and fervently unite in the hymn :
The Cross we hail, our only stay !
In holy hearts fresh grace implant,
And pardon to the sinner grant !
1 Trid. sess. 14, cap. 8.
8 Meritum Christ! sufficienter operatur ut quaedam causa universalis salutis hutnanae; sed oportet bane causam applicari singulis per sacramenta et per fidem formatam, quae per dilectionem operatur. Et ideo requiritur aliquid aliud ad sa- lutem nostram praeter meritum Christi, cujus tamen meritum Christ! est causa (S. Thorn., De verit., q. 29, a. 7 ad 8).
8 The holy Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, does not exclude such a sacrifice as is repeatedly and constantly offered, in order to impart to men the fruits of redemption acquired on the Cross. He therein proves and insists on the uniqueness and the complete adequateness of the bloody sacrifice of Christ only in the sense, that along with it and after it there is and can be no other sacrifice, whose object would be to express the acknowledgment of unatoned guilt, as was the case in the sacrifices of the Old Testament, — or to increase or supply the price of redemption, as though this had been insufficiently or not fully paid for by the Sacrifice of the Cross.
10. Jesus Christ "a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech." 73
10. Jesus Christ, "a Priest forever according to the order of
Melchisedech."
In a short, but magnificent and mystical psalm David propheti- cally announced that the Messiah would unite in His person both the regal and priestly dignity ; at the same time His priesthood is more distinctly characterized as eternal, according to the order of Melchisedech: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech' ' (Ps. 109, 4). St. Paul also ascribes to the Lord "an everlasting priesthood" (sempiternum sacerdotium — Heb. 7, 24). Now if it be asked in what manner we are to understand the perpetual duration of the priesthood of Christ, we must then consider the priestly dig- nity and the exercise of the priestly office.
1 . On the Cross Christ exercised His office of Highpriest, to which at the moment of Incarnation He had been destined and for which He had been sanctified. After having by the bloody sacrifice of His life taken away the sins of the world, He sitteth eternally at the right hand of the Father and dieth no more : thus He retains His priestly dignity which can never be lost. Of every sainted bishop the Church sings, God "made him to be a prince in order that the dignity of the priesthood might belong to him forever;" * for the priestly character is forever indelibly impressed upon the soul of him who has received ordination. — It must be added that the power and fruit of the Sacrifice of Christ remains and endures for- ever. As the Highpriest of the good things to come (Heb. 9, n), He has acquired and purchased for us by His bloody sacrifice not earthly and perishable treasures, but the new, imperishable life of grace and glory. The priestly dignity as well as the precious effects of His priestly office never cease, but continue unchanged for all eternity. These two characteristics are manifest in the eternal priesthood of Christ, but they do not exhaust it ; for it has a broader and richer capacity, as it, moreover, includes a certain continuance and permanence of the priestly activity of Jesus Christ.
2. Our glorified Saviour continues His priestly functions, His redeeming office as mediator for the salvation of mankind, chiefly in a twofold manner — in heaven by mediatory intercession, and upon earth by the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice : both will endure until the end of the world, that is, until the last elect soul shall have entered into the joys of