The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

“The Most Efficient Sacrifice For Mankind"
By Rev. J. Fuhlrott

"For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins" - Matt xxvi 28

We have learned that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the glorious oblation offered to God, and we found that we were happy in possessing in the Holy Mass a sacrifice through which we could offer daily to Almighty God the most sublime sacrifice of adoration, and an all-sufficient sacrifice of thanksgiving. Let us consider the same to-day as the most efficient sacrifice for mankind, and let us meditate for our edification:

I - How through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the justice of God is propitiated.
II - How through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass our supplications are granted.

We have repeatedly mentioned in the course of these considerations that we carry within us the conviction, which we can not deny, that we are sinners. We come into the world sin-laden, as the Psalmist openly confesses: "For behold, I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me." (Ps. I. 7.) For this reason it is that we all, without exception, have sinned, and frequently offend God by sin, which is proven by Holy Writ, should any one be bold enough not to admit it. "For all have sinned," says the Apostle Paul, "and do need the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) "If we say that we have no sin," the Apostle John teaches, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (I John i. 8.) "For there is no just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not," it says in the book of Ecclesiastes. (Eccles. vii 21) "Who can say," says the wise man, "my heart is clean, I am pure from sin?" (Prov. xx. 9.) If, the, we are sinners, we must take care to become reconciled with the wrathful God; we must make satisfaction to the justice of God, or we shall be lost. "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish." (Luke xiii. 3.) But wherewith shall we propitiate God in His wrath; wherewith shall we make satisfaction to His justice? Sin is an infinitely great evil. It is a disobedience against God, and draws down upon itself the anger and hatred of God. "For their God hateth iniquity" (Judith v. 21): "The sinner hath provoked the Lord" (Ps. ix. 4); "A perverse heart is abominable to the Lord" (Prov xi. 20); "For the Highest also hateth sinners" (Eccles. xii. 7). These are so many expressions of Holy Scripture which make known the awful guilt of sin, and its abomination in the sight of God. Sin is, at the same time, the basest ingratitude toward God. An offense, an insult, is the more serious according to the exalted position of the one offended. God is the infinitely perfect being, He is the highest good, our greatest benefactor, and most loving Father. We have offended Him and grieved Him, we have despised and provoked Him by our sins. Without doubt, then, our guild is infinitely great. Wherewith can we efface it? Wherewith appease the anger of God? All that we have and can offer to God as a propitiation, is only transient, and of little value. Our guilt is infinite; what we can do in expiation is only insignificant.

God Himself, then, must give us the means of expiation, if we are to be saved. This means is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which Jesus Christ offers Himself to the heavenly Father, as the most perfect sacrifice of expiation. Alphonsus, a certain prominent man, was with others on board a ship when a terrific storm arose, and they all feared that the ship would surely go down. Then Alphonsus took an innocent child, lifted it up on high, and besought God: "O may God, we indeed are all sinners, and have deserved Thy wrath, and to die. But look upon this child. It is innocent, and Thou lovest it. For the sake of this child, be merciful unto us, and save us." The storm eased immediately, and all were saved. Dear brethren, in the Holy Mass Jesus Christ Himself is lifted up by the hands of His priest, His flesh and blood cries ut to His heavenly Father: "Heavenly Father! man has indeed grievously offended Thee, and has deserved Thy wrath and Thy chastisement, but for My sake, spare him and forgive him. Man has indeed been disobedient, but look upon My obedience unto death, and be appeased. They have merited chastisement, but look on My sufferings, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, My cross, My agonizing death, and for the sake of thes3e, My sufferings, remit to them the punishment." Could the heavenly Father, at this supplication of His Son, at the sight of His passion, which He endured for us, at the sight of the blood which He shed for us, punish us till, be angry with us? O no, His anger is appeased, His right hand, which was uplifted to punish us, is lowered. He is propitiated, and forgives us our sins, and remits the guilt of our sins for the sake of the blood of His son, which is offered up in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says: "For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, by the Holy Ghost, offered Himself unspotted to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?" (Heb. ix. 13). That this cleansing, sin-effacing blood of Christ is present upon the Altar at every Holy Mss, and is offered up for our sins, we know from the words of our Lord at its institution: "This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt. xxvi. 28). Our Savior fulfills here the pray of the high priest which He made before His passion: "And for them I do sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (John xvii 19.) Surely the heavenly Father can not remain unmoved at this touching suppl8cation of His Son's. He can no longer hurl the lighting of His wrath against those who are marked with the blood of His only-begotten Son! When the Lord led His well-beloved people out of the servitude of the Egyptians, He slew, the night before, every first-born son of the Egyptians, and commanded the Israelites to kill a lamb and to eat it, and ordered that they should smear the posts and the threshold of the doors with its blood. "And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt." (II. Mos. xii. 13) The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the true Paschal lamb, slaughtered for our deliverance from the thraldom of Satan. If our souls are marked with the blood of this lamb of God, then the destructive plague of eternal chastisement for sin will not overtake us. Dear brethren, "there is at Jerusalem a pond called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, or lame, of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond, and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond, after the motion of the water, was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under." (John v. 2-4) Behold, here in the Holy Mass is that supernatural well of salvation in the blood of the Lamb of God. anyone can plunge h8mself into this salutary pool at all times of the day, and in every place this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered up, and a singly drop of the well of salvation, the precious blood of Jesus, is sufficient to cleanse and to cure all the sickness and imperfections of our soul. O miraculous sacrifice of the new law, O expiatory blood of the Lamb of God, which takes away our sins, how can we adequately praise Thee, how can we celebrate Thee worthily enough, or can we assist at the same with sufficient joy and humility? O let us never assist at Holy Mass without acknowledging our guilt; without the most profound humility; without the most sincere repentance for our sins, for which it is offered up as a sacrifice of expiation. Let us imagine to ourselves at every Holy Mass which we assist at, that we are standing under the cross of the ding Savior, and let us strike our breast with those who stand there. (Luke xxiii. 48) Let us, at every Mass which we hear, behave as the publican in the Temple at Jerusalem did, and strike our breast, saying: "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke xviii. 13.)

We have, in the course of these considerations, been reminded that we are dependent upon the goodness and mercy of God, every day, every hour, and every moment. It is not sufficient that God has given us life, health, strength of mind and of body; He must preserve them. Every day - hourly, we have fresh wants. We could not live; we should sink into nothing, if God in His goodness did not assist us every moment. Now, God is not obliged to dispense to us His gifts, to help us in our need. It is pure love and pity on His part when He gives us anything. It is our duty and obligation, therefore, to beseech God for His assistance and His gifts, through which we acknowledge and venerate Him as the giver of all good. We can, indeed, call upon God, and ask Him for His gifts, in every place, and at all times; and His vouchsafes to hear our prayer as He has promised us by His Psalmist: "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." (Ps. xlix, 15) But what are our petitions to the Infinite One, the petitions of poor sinners to a provoked and offended God? Ought we not be afraid that in most cases our petitions do not penetrate to the throne of the Almighty, that our prayers will remain unnoticed. Here again, Jesus Christ comes to the assistance of our poverty and weakness. In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, He presents Himself to us with all His merits, and gives to His heavenly Father a sacrifice of supplication, infinitely holy and exalted. He Himself, the well-beloved Son, petitions His heavenly Father for us. He prays with the same obedience and with the same abasement and humiliation as He prayed once in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays for us with the same intense fervor with which He supplicated the Father, when He was dying upon the cross. He prays with the voice of His five sacred wounds, which He has preserved for our consolation. He prays with the voice of His precious blood which He shed for us. He prays with the voice of His infinite merits, which He acquired by the work of His redemption. Do you think, dear brethren, that the heavenly Father will be deaf and inattentive to the supplicating voice of His well-beloved Son? No, indeed; the voice of the precious blood of Jesus, the voice of His five sacred wounds, the voice of His infinite merits, pierces the Father's heart, and inclines it to listen to the prayers, to regard the petitions which are represented to Him by such a voice. At every Holy Mass at which we assist devoutly, Jesus Christ speaks to His heavenly Father: "Behold, Father, these people ask for Thy grace. Although they are not worthy to be heard, I beg of Thee grant them that which they ask for, for My sake, on account of My passion, My obedience, My wounds, and My blood." At every Holy Mass at which you assist devoutly, dear Christian, you can speak thus to the heavenly Father, "Behold here, O God, Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He is mine, He is my brother. I present Him to Thee. I offer Him up to Thee as an acceptable sacrifice, with all His infinite merits. Hear my prayer, and grant me Thy grace." Surely, dear brethren, we now understand the truth, the meaning and the consoling purport of those words of our Savior's: "Amen, amen, I say to you. If you ask the Father anything in My name, he will give it you." (John xvi. 23). No, we need have no fear now, that our prayers will remain unheard, if we come with such a gift, such an infinitely valuable and pleasing present; if we offer to the eternal Father His well-beloved son, the most dear to Him, as a present, and pray to Him thus. No, He can not refuse us. If the only-begotten Son Himself prays for us to His Father, He who has promised that all things will be accorded to us that we ask for in His name, then we are sure and certain that all our prayers will be heard.

O come, therefore, come all, come daily to this living well of salvation, and let each one draw therefrom according to his wants. In every Church this well is to be fund, it is open to us every day, it contains always living waters in abundance. Come, then, and draw therefrom! If you are sick, or have a sick one at home, this is the sacred pool of Bethsaida. Are you fearful on account of your sins, here is the pool of Silo, in which souls are washed and cleansed from their leprosy. If you are poor, and are in want of many things, here is the source of wealth and every good; here is sacrificed that One who has said: "Ask, and it shall be given you" (Matt. vii. 7) If you are afraid of death, here is the source of life, and "whosoever drinketh of this water, shall lie forever." (John iv. 14) Amen.