Chapter XIII

Holy Mass is the Noblest Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Immeasurable indeed are the benefits which have been bestowed, and are daily bestowed, upon us by the divine liberality. For God the Father is our Creator; He has given us our five bodily senses and made us sound of limb; He has created our soul after His own image, cleansed it by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the laver of Baptism, purified it and chosen it for His spouse. He has appointed to each one of us an angel guardian for our protection; He sustains us as His children, forgives us our sins in confession, feeds us with His sacred body and blood in holy communion, bears patiently with us when we fall into sin, awaits with long-suffering our return to Him, gives us good inspirations, prevents us with His grace, teaches us by His divine word, delivers us from evil, grants our humble prayers, comforts us in tribulation, strengthens us in temptation, protects us from disgrace, graciously accepts our good works, and confers on us innumerable benefits.

Many and great as are these and other favors which God in His bounty has lavished on us, they are not all; for to these He adds this grace, that of adopting us for His children. St. John the Evangelist extols this inestimable benefit in the following words: “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be, the sons of God.” (i. St. John iii. i.) And St. Paul says: “And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with

Christ.“(Romans 8:17) Is not this an unspeakable favor, that Almighty God should call us poor beggars Hi& children, and make us rightful heirs to His kingdom ?

To all this He adds another, a stupendous, benefits When by reason of our sins we had come under the dominion of Satan, He ransomed us from that slavery by His own Son. Christ wished to impress upon us the magnitude of that benefit when He said: “God so loved, the world as to give His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16) not only to take upon Him our nature, but to suffer a cruel death for us. Nor was this infinite benefit conferred only on the friends of God: His enemies also were included in it, as St. Paul says: “God commendeth His charity towards us, because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8,9) For love so> surpassing as this we can never make an adequate return- If the great God and Lord of all had but once vouchsafed to look kindly upon us, poor worms of earth, we could never be grateful enough to Him. How, then, can we thank or requite Him for having endured a life of poverty and suffered a death of shame for our sakes?

Osorius says: “If any one has conferred a great boon upon thee, thou art bound to make ample returns, lest thou appear wanting in gratitude to thy benefactor.” Since we have received benefits so innumerable from the hand of God, we are bound to requite them fittingly. Wherefore let us say with the Royal Prophet: “What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered to me?” (Psalms 115:3) And with the prophet Micheas: “What shall I offer to the Lord that is worthy?” (Micheas 6:6) What these holy men said and did it is our duty to say and do. We are under the greatest obligations to our God; if we make Him no return, we are guilty of the basest ingratitude and incur a grievous sin.

What, then, wilt thou do, who art poor and destitute? How wilt thou defray thy heavy debt? Listen to the counsel David gives thee: “Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High.” (Psalms 49:14) Now the noblest offering of praise, as was shown in the preceding chapter, is the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Consequently thou canst find no better means of giving thanks to God, the greatest of all benefactors, than by frequently hearing Mass, and offering it to Him in return for all His mercies. St. Irenaeus says: “For this holy Mass was instituted, that we might not appear thankless towards our God.” That is to say: If it were not for the sacrifice of the Mass, we should have nothing in the whole world wherewith we could adequately render thanks to God for the benefits we have received from Him. Christ, therefore, had this object in view when He instituted the Mass, namely, to provide us with an efficacious act of thanksgiving whereby to express our gratitude towards God.

The words of the Mass are of themselves sufficient evidence that it is justly termed a sacrifice of thanksgiving. What is it but a hearty giving of thanks when the priest says in the Gloria in excelsis: “We praise Thee; we bless Thee; we adore Thee; we glorify Thee; we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty,” etc.? And in the preface he calls upon all present to give thanks, saying: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God; it is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should always and in all places give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God, through Christ Our Lord,” etc. No more sublime hymn of praise can be offered to God than the Church utters in the preface.

And when the priest comes to the consecration he says these words: “Who took bread into His holy and venerable hands, and with His eyes lifted up towards heaven, to God, His almighty Father, giving thanks.” How touching is this lifting up of the eyes of our dear Lord! How all-powerful His giving of thanks, transcending by far that of all angels and all men! Had we been able of ourselves to give God due thanks, it would not have been necessary for Christ to come to our assistance. What He did at the Last Supper He repeats daily upon our altars, where, raising His eyes to His Father, He gives Him hearty thanks for all His benefits. And since this thanksgiving is from the lips of One Who is divine, it cannot be otherwise than infinite; and since it is infinite, God can require nothing more; and since He can require nothing more, it must needs give Him infinite satisfaction.

Therefore, when thou hearest Mass, unite thy heart and thy will to the heart and the will of Christ, and give God thanks with all thy powers. And in order that this giving of thanks may be the more efficacious and acceptable, offer to the Eternal Father that superabundant thanksgiving which His divine Son, under the species of bread and wine, offers to Him, for all the benefits He has bestowed on thee.

If from thy earliest childhood up to this hour thou hadst thanked God upon thy knees for all His gifts and graces, if thou hadst called upon all devout persons to join with thee in thy life-long tribute of thanks, nay, if thou hadst invoked the company of angels and saints to come to thy aid, and they in union with thee and all good men had incessantly thanked and praised God, the tribute of gratitude paid to Him would be less than that rendered to Him by His Son in one single Mass.

We will now inquire into the reason of this. Philosophers tell us that the finite bears no relation to the infinite, for the infinite transcends the finite in an infinite degree. Now the thanksgiving of all creatures both in heaven and on earth is finite, and consequently finite in power and finite in value. But the thanksgiving of the Son of God, what He renders to His Father in holy Mass, is infinite, in virtue of His divinity, and therefore infinite in power and in value. Accordingly it is infinitely more pleasing to God the Father than the thanksgiving of all the finite beings in the universe. Christ offers this infinite thanksgiving to His Father for thee, if thou dost hear Mass devoutly: He gives it thee for thine own, and as such thou canst offer it to Almighty God. Do this, and the thanks thou wilt render to God will be no finite and human thanksgiving, it will be infinite and divine.

Would to God that we appreciated aright the immense treasure which we possess in holy Mass! How happy should we then be! How attentively we should hear Mass! To us may be applied the words of St. Paul: “I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus, that in all things you are made rich in Him,... so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace.” (i. Cor. i. 4, 5, 7.) Truly by the holy Mass ^we are made rich in Christ, and no grace is wanting to us; on the contrary, from it, as from a perennial fountain, we may draw abundant supplies of grace, for in it lies hid a wealth of celestial riches above all that the world could •ever contain.

Thus in holy Mass we have the noblest burnt-offering, the sublimest sacrifice of praise and of thanksgiving. It Is the believer’s greatest treasure, the devout Christian’s dearest joy. It is a salutary atonement for the sinner, a powerful support for the dying, the surest earnest of deliverance for the departed. We may truly say that in holy Mass we are made rich in Christ Jesus, so that no grace is wanting to us.

In conclusion I will recapitulate what has been said on this point by Segneri: “Consider, O Christian, how indebted we are to Our Saviour for the institution of holy Mass; for without it we could never thank God aright for His benefits. It was the plenteousness of His love that induced Him not only to load us with benefits, but to place within our reach the best means of giving Him thanks for those benefits. Would that we appreciated our privileges and turned them to good account! When we hear Mass, Christ, Who is immolated for us to God the Father, becomes our own, and with Him we become possessed of His infinite merits, and are able to offer them to God the Father, to lighten the heavy load which weighs us down to the ground.”

Let us lay these words to heart, and profit by them. They show clearly how deeply we are indebted to Christ, not for instituting the Mass alone, but for constituting it so excellent an act of thanksgiving, whereby we may give thanks to God abundantly for all the benefits He has conferred on us.

Praise and thanks be to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, from me and from all created things, because of Thy pure love to us Thou hast instituted holy Mass, and made it a channel of countless graces and mercies to us. As a fitting acknowledgment of Thy favors I offer to Thee, and through Thee to the Holy Trinity, all the praise and thanksgiving rendered to Thee in all Masses until the end of time. I beg the choirs of angels and the company of the redeemed to laud and magnify Thee with us to all eternity. Amen.

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