The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
“The Most Glorious Sacrifice"
By Rev. J. Fuhlrott
"Benediction and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to God, for ever and ever" - Apoc. viii. 12"
The relation is which we stand to God, is a relation of the most complete dependence. We have nothing, and cannot expect anything but from God. As the Apostle says: "What hast thou, O man, that thou hast not received?" What we have and what we are is a gift and work of God. As. therefore, God gave us everything, it is He, also, who preserves us. If for one moment He would withdraw His gentle, Almighty hand, we should fall back into nothingness, from whence we came. For this reason, it is right and proper that we should acknowledge and serve God as our highest Lord. In the same manner it is our duty to give Him thanks for the graces received. Now, because we are constantly in need of fresh graces and benefits, it is self-evident that we must implore the assistance of God in our necessities. We must pray to Him for new graces. While moreover, we continually neglect our duties toward God, and offend and exasperate Him by our faults, it is necessary that we should become reconciled to Him again.
The right worship of God has, therefore, the fulfilment of this four-fold indebtedness for its purport and its object. We must worship God as our supreme Lord, we must thank Him for His benefits, we must be reconciled with Him when we have offended Him, we must pray to Him for help in our necessities. The center of all worship of God is sacrifice, as God Himself prescribed for the chosen people of Israel, and, therefore, there were sacrifices of adoration, of propitiation, of thanksgiving, and of supplication. We stand exactly in the same relation of dependence to God, as the chosen people of Israel did, and we have exactly the same obligations toward Him. If, then, God abolished the prescribed sacrifice of the old law, we must have, in the sacrifice of the new law, just as perfectly a sacrifice of adoration, a perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving, a perfect sacrifice of propitiation, a perfect sacrifice of supplication. We shall understand this more clearly if we consider the Holy Sacrifice of the Mss as the most glorious sacrifice offered to God, as the most efficient sacrifice for man kind. To-day we will consider the Holy Sacrifice as the most glorious sacrifice offered to God, and we will contemplate:
I
- How, through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the adoration due to God is
rendered.
II - How the thanksgiving due to God is performed by the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.
I
We have often heard that we men must adore God as our supreme Lord; that we must praise and extol Him. As every other creature is upon earth to increase the honor and glory of God, so much the more must man give honor to God in the most perfect manner. The higher the dignity of the one whom we must honor, so much the more noble and precious must the gift be with which we avow our respect. I can honor a child by presenting it with a picture book or a plaything; the gift with which I wish to honor its parents or guardians must be more valuable. A prince must be honored with a princely gift; a king with a royal gift. What gift and reverence is due to God, who is exalted above all kings and princes? A Divine gift, a divine honor, a gift and veneration infinitely great, infinitely pure, infinitely precious. We must offer to God a gift and reverence which will give Him infinite satisfaction. But, my dear brethren, whence shall we attain this? If all the angels and the just were for thousands of years to praise and to extol God unceasingly with the most glorious songs of praise, if all men offered up their lives to adore and reverence God, this would still be far from being the adoration and reverence befitting God, and worthy of Him, for angels and men are only God's creatures, and as nothing in comparison with the infinite majesty of God. Besides, we men are poor sinners, who have offended God, and we must expect God's countenance to be turned away from us, and His arm uplifted in wrath against us, if we should dare to approach Him to adore Him. How, then, can we worship and praise God; with what can we honor Him? Indeed, we are still less able to do this, than the poor steward in the Gospel was to pay his lord the ten thousand talents. (Matt. xviii, 24) But, dear brethren, as poor as we are, we have become rich through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In Holy Mass, Jesus Christ has given us Himself, as the most exalted and the most perfect oblation, with all His merits. Therewith we can offer to God a reverence befitting Him. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we offer up to the heavenly Father "His only-begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased." (Matt. ni. 17) All the honor which Jesus Christ once rendered to His heavenly Father by His obedience, by His most pure life, by His fervent prayers, by His fasting, by His suffering and death upon the cross, He renders to Him anew, as often as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is, however, our own sacrifice. Jesus Christ became our brother through His incarnation: He belongs to our family. The praise and the veneration which He offers to His heavenly Father through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is our praise, His obedience is our obedience, His sacrifice of adoration is ours. O how happy we ought to be to have such a sacrifice with which to praise and extol God worthily, and to adore Him; a sacrifice with which, indeed, God is well pleased. Now we can approach God with confidence, and say to Him: Behold, O God, we are poor sinful men, we can not praise, extol, and adore Thee, as we ought to, and in a manner worthy of Thee; but we have Thy only-begotten Son; Thou lovest Him; we offer Him up to Thee: all His love, all His obedience, His prayers, His sufferings, His death. He has given us all these, and we offer them all up to Thee as a sacrifice; accept them as if they were our own.
This is what you can say, dear Christian, at every Mass which you hear devoutly. At every sacrifice of the Mass you can unite your prayers with the prayers of Jesus, your sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus, your work with the work of Jesus, and you can thus daily offer up to Almighty God in the worthiest and most perfect way, your adoration, your praise, and your obedience, and Almighty God will every time be well pleased with your veneration for the sake of Jesus Christ, His well-beloved Son, with whose sacrifice you unite your own, and who gives Himself as a sacrifice for you.
II
Gratitude is one of the most natural obligations. He who receives benefits must acknowledge the same, and strive as far as possible to return them, and make them good through love and high esteem for the benefactor. Who can enumerate the benefits which we have received from God? Where should we begin, and where leave off if we had to name all the gifts which God has given us for body and soul? Life, health, bodily strength, ability for our vocation, and all things, from the smallest to the greatest, which are necessary to preserve these gifts, are so many gifts and benefits from God. The endless number of spiritual graces and benefits, beginning with holy baptism, whereby we become children of God, and heirs of heaven, until the last helps of grace on our deathbed, are just so many presents from God, of which each separate one is infinitely more precious than all the possessions and wealth of this world. Verily, my dear brethren, we could sooner count the stars of heaven, and the drops of the ocean, than the benefits which God has conferred upon man. Without doubt, it is our duty to be grateful, to give befitting thanks; for not only does the duty of gratitude lie deeply grounded in our natural sentiments, but Holy Writ, both in the old and new Testaments, gives us numberless examples and exhorts us by the most touching admonitions to the fulfilment of this obligation. Already the first son of the first parents offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God (Gen. iv.e); the Patriarch Jacob made an altar to God, and offered up a sacrifice of thanks giving (Gen. xxxv. 3); Noe built an altar and offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for their preservation from the flood (Gen. viii. 20). there are n8mberless instances in Holy Scripture where thanks are returned to God for benefits received. "Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the most High" (Ps. lix. 14). "The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God." (Ps. xlix. 23.) "Give glory to the Lord, for he is good." (Ps. evi. 1; exvii, I; cxxxv. 1.) Giving thanks always for all things," exhorts the Apostle. (Eph. v. 20) "In all things, give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all." (I Thess. v. 18.) But how can we give proper thanks; with what shall we prove our gratitude? We are confused, and must cry out with the Psalmist: "What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things that he hath rendered to me?" (Ps. exv. 12.) When the young Tobias returned safely to his father's house, after having completed the difficult journey under the guidance of the stranger, he told his father of the numerous and great favors which the youth had rendered him. Then Tobias called his son, and said to him, "What can we give this holy man?" Tobias, the son, answered, and said to his father: "Father, what wages shall you give him? or what can be worthy of his benefits?" (Tob. xii. 1-3.) We are just as much embarrassed how to return thank, when we reflect upon all the benefits which we have received from God Almighty, and we ask ourselves: "What can we give Him as a deserving recompense for His benefits?" What can we give Him as a deserving recompense for His benefits?" What we have is very little, and what we have already belongs to Him. Here Jesus Christ comes to our assistance, as in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass He becomes our most perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving. When He instituted, it the evening before His passion, He raised His eyes to heaven, and gave thanks. (Matt xxvi. 27.) He instituted, therefore, this sacrifice as a sacrifice of thanksgiving; and as He gave thanks then, so does He give thanks through this sacrifice, and at every celebration of the Mass. We have, therefore, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, something which is of as much value as all the benefits of God to soul and body. We can say to the heavenly Father at every Mass at which we assist with devotion: "We have indeed nothing, O my God, that we can give Thee for all the good which Thou hast given us: We have nothing, and what we call our own belongs to Thee already; but behold here upon the altar Thy beloved son. He thanks Thee for us. He offers Thee a sacrifice of thanksgiving for us. All His merits, all His thanksgivings which He offered Thee during His entire life upon earth, and which He now offers Thee, we offer them all up to Thee. Accept them as our thanksgiving. With this exalted thanks we unite our insignificant thanks for all the good which Thou hast given us."
O how happy, as I said before, how happy are we Catholic Christians in possessing in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the most sublime sacrifice of adoration, and an all-sufficient sacrifice of thanksgiving, a sacrifice that in every respect is the most glorious sacrifice to God, and places us in the position of being able to offer to God what is befitting Him, what is worthy of Him!
Let us rejoice, dear brethren, at this, our treasure, and let us make the best possible use of it. We know that the angels in heaven sing unceasingly to God Almighty, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" and they praise, extol, and adore Him through all eternity. We can praise and adore Almighty God in a much worthier manner. The angels and saints are only creatures of God, but in the sacrifice of the Mass it is the Son of God Himself who adores with us, and for us. Daily and hourly we enjoy new benefits from God. Should we not, therefore, thank Almighty God for them, daily and hourly? O let us make a constant use of the infinitely rich treasure of the inexhaustible capital of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to the honor and glory of God! The slothful servant in the Gospel was severely punished for having hidden his talent in the earth, which the Lord had given him, and of letting it lie idle. (Matt. xxv. 24-28.) What punishment shall we receive if, through slothfulness, we let this infinitely precious treasure of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass remain unused? O no, dear brethren, as often as possible we will bear the angels company who surround the altar during Holy Mass. We will prostrate ourselves with them before the exalted throne, and adore the Son of God present, and with them will sing this song of praise: "Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor and power and strength to God, for ever and ever." Amen.