Chapter XXV

Great Merit is Gained by Offering Mass in a Right Manner

Let me counsel thee, pious reader, to read the following chapter attentively, and impress well upon thy memory the truths it contains; for they are of great importance, and will, if duly carried out, be of no slight profit to thy soul. Bear in mind that holy Mass is the true and supreme sacrifice of the Christian religion, and that all those who would assist at it aright should join in offering it to the most high God. The Mass is not to the Christian merely a form of prayer, it is an act of worship and a sacrifice; for all who hear Mass offer the divine oblation together with the priest First of all there is the great high priest, the chief sacrificer, Christ, Who Himself offers every Mass that is said to His heavenly Father. Then there is the officiating priest, who immolates the divine victim. Thirdly, there are the faithful, who, present at the holy sacrifice, have also the power of offering it, and in fact sometimes do so with greater profit than the priest himself. Fourthly, there are those who either pay for the Mass, or provide something necessary for celebrating it, such as the chalice or the vestment. Lastly those too must be in-eluded who, unable to assist in person, unite themselves in spirit to the priest, and join with him in his sacrificial act whilst remaining in their own homes. They also, since they participate in a certain measure in offering the holy sacrifice, participate in its fruits, and may, if they so will, assign to others the benefit of those fruits. Ponder well these truths, for they contain valuable instruction and comfort.

One of the greatest graces which are granted to the children of the Church is that the privilege of offering to the Divine Majesty the sacred and sublime sacrifice of the Mass is not the prerogative of priests alone, but belongs to the laity as well, to men, women, and children. This favor was not shown to the Jews; no one but the priest was permitted to offer the holocaust, or to kindle the incense in the temple. Any man presuming to do so would have been guilty of sacrilege. We read in Holy Scripture that when King Ozias desired to burn incense upon the altar of incense the priests withstood him, and said: “It doth not belong to thee, Ozias, to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priests, who are consecrated for this ministry; go out of the sanctuary, do not despise: for this thing shall not be accounted to thy glory by the Lord God.” (2 Paralipomenon 26:18) Ozias was very angry at this, and, still holding the censer in his hand, threatened to revenge himself on the priests. And presently the Lord smote him with leprosy in his forehead, which when the priests saw they hastened to thrust him out. The king remained a leper to the day of his death. Such was the terrible chastisement inflicted on him for his presumption in wishing to burn and offer incense to the Lord in the temple.

In the New Testament the case is very different; under this dispensation it is graciously permitted to ordinary people to offer, not incense only, but the precious blood of Christ in the holy Mass. St. Peter lays stress on this prerogative of the Christian in contradistinction to the Jew when he says to believers in general: “You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people. Be you also as living stones built up, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” (1. Peter ii. 9» S-)

In these words the apostle designs to teach us that all the faithful of either sex are members of a spiritual priesthood, and have received from God the power to« offer spiritual sacrifices. But when they offer the Mass; by the hands of the priest they do more, they offer what is better than a spiritual oblation, namely, a visible one,, even the self-same victim Whom the priest holds in his; hands. Happy indeed are the laity in being thus privileged, through the divine bounty, to purchase the inestimable treasure of the body and blood of Christ, and with a few words to offer it to God for their own immeasurable profit! Make frequent use, O pious Christian, of this thy glorious prerogative; it is the easiest way of acquiring eternal riches. This sacrificial act is the chief, the most important, part of hearing Mass, for without it thou wilt neither gain much profit to thyself nor give pleasure to God.

“Hearing Mass,” says a spiritual writer, “does not merely consist in being present in person when it is celebrated, but in offering it to God conjointly with the priest.” Remember this and act upon it if thou desirest to hear Mass well, and with profit to thy soul. “All the faithful are able to offer the holy sacrifice, not, indeed, of themselves, but through the instrumentality of the priest. In order that a layman or any secular person should offer the Mass he must either pay for it, serve it, or at any rate hear it. The faithful who are absent cannot be said, in virtue of being members of the Church, to partake in the oblation unless they cooperate with the priest in one of the ways above mentioned.”

All this is undeniably true. It is not enough to be present at Mass in order to share in the fruits of the Mass: we must make a definite offering of it to God ia anion with the officiating priest The Mass is a sacrifice, and it appertains to the nature of a sacrifice that it should be offered to the Deity. Therefore those persons who fail to do this, either with their lips or in their heart, do not derive half the benefit from the Mass that others do, although they fulfil the precept of the Church, whilst piously reciting other prayers that have nothing of the character of an offering.

To take an illustration: Suppose some one recites the Rosary several times with devotion, offering it up to God and His blessed Mother, he presents an acceptable gift, which will obtain a rich reward. But if, on the other hand, some other individual were to hear one single Mass, and fervently offer it to Almighty God, which of the two would present the nobler oblation and receive the greater recompense? The latter, undoubtedly; for the Rosary, although a most excellent form of prayer, ■consisting mainly of petitions sanctioned by God Himself, is at the best an earthly, imperfect oblation. Whereas holy Mass is purely supernatural; the most perfect, the noblest, the most divine oblation, for in it are offered the blood, the wounds, the tears, the death, and the merits of Christ. What other oblation is there as sacred, as perfect, as acceptable to God the Father?

It may, however, be said that whosoever offers the Rosary or other devotions offers something that is his very own, and has cost him some amount of trouble; while he who offers a Mass, or the merits of Christ, presents gifts not his own, but belonging to another, even to Christ, Who suffered for him. On the other hand, however, we may answer, he who offers the holy sacrifice, or the merits Christ earned by that sacrifice, presents no alien gift, but one that is essentially his own, because in the Mass Our Lord’s merits are bestowed upon us, and given us for our own. “All that Christ merited by

His passion, His death, the shedding of His blood, we appropriate to ourselves in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass,“says a pious divine. The Church lends her authority to this consoling doctrine when she says:” The fruits of that oblation, of that bloody one, to wit, are received most plentifully through this unbloody one.“(Coun. Trent, Sess. xxii. ch. 2.) In this decree the Church distinctly teaches that by hearing Mass the merits of Christ, the fruits of His passion, are freely communicated to and bestowed upon us. Wherefore, since what we receive as a gift is as completely our own as what we earn ourselves, we are able at the time of Mass to present the merits of Christ to God the Father as our own oblation, and thereby give infinite satisfaction to His divine majesty.

Ponder well the immense favor Christ bestows on thee in making thee a mystical priest, and empowering thee to offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, not for thyself alone, but also for others. Bishop Fornerus tells us: u It is not the priest alone who offers the Mass for himself and for others: every Christian who is present may do the same, for his own needs and those of his friends.’* This is expressed in the prayer following after the Sanctus: “Be mindful, O Lord, of thy servants N. and N.; and of all present, whose faith and devotion are known, for whom we offer, or who offer, up to Thee this sacrifice for themselves, their families and friends.” The meaning of these words is too obvious to be mistaken.

Moreover, when the priest says the Orate fratres, he turns towards the people and invites them to help him in offering the holy sacrifice: “Brethren, pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father Almighty.” As if he would say: I am about to perform a work of great importance, to offer an oblation which in my own strength I cannot do; I ask you to pray for me and assist me with your cooperation, for it concerns you nearly, the sacrifice is yours as well as mine, and for this reason you are bound to help me. -After the elevation of the chalice he says: “O Lord, we *Thy servants, as also Thy holy people, offer unto Thy most excellent majesty, of Thy gifts and grants, a pure host,” etc Here the priest says in so many words that not he alone, but all the holy people of God with him, coffer this pure holocaust. If the congregation do not respond to this appeal on the part of the priest either by word or in thought, they defraud him, but they injure -themselves far more, for they lose a great merit. “Think, O fools,” says Fornerus, “of how great a good you deprive yourselves by going to Mass so seldom, or by neglecting when you do go to offer it up for yourselves and for your friends.”

We shall all do well to lay this to heart, for not only those who absent themselves from Mass through indifference, but also those who hear it in a superficial ^manner, occupying themselves meanwhile with their daily ’prayers, lose a great deal that they might gain. We can ■do nothing better during Mass-time than make an act of •oblation; the more frequently and the more fervently we do this the more we please God, the more satisfaction *we make for our sins, the more reward we lay up in heaven. As often as we make this oblation to God it is as if we said to Him: I pay Thee this price for the remission of the temporal punishment due to my sins, for the purchase of celestial treasures, for the relief of the suffering souls in purgatory.

It is indeed at any time highly profitable for us to say: My God, I offer Thee Thy beloved Son; I offer Thee His passion and death; I offer Thee His virtues and His merits.“But this act has a twofold value when it is uttered during «the celebration of holy Mass. For at other times this oblation is only one of the lips and of the heart: during holy Mass the oblation is a real and actual one; for then Christ Himself is present in person with all His merits and virtues. On the altar He is mystically immolated, His passion and death are renewed. In holy Mass His merits are abundantly communicated to us; nay, He gives us Himself that we may present Him to His Father. If these words of oblation, uttered apart from the Mass, are so powerful, as we learn from these words of Christ spoken to a saint:” There is no sinner, however great, who may not hope to obtain forgiveness if he offers to God My undeserved sufferings,“what will not the effect be of the actual oblation of His passion in holy Mass when it is renewed upon the altar and participated in by all who are present at the time?

It is said that Our Lord said one day to St. Mechtilde: “Behold, I give thee My charity, My prayers, My bitter sufferings; I make them Mine that thou mayst give them back to Me. To each one who does this I return his gift in twofold measure; and as often as it is presented to me I will restore it thus increased. This is the hundredfold which is promised to men in this world and eternal life hereafter.” From this we learn that not to one privileged soul alone does Our Lord communicate His merits in holy Mass, but to all faithful Christians; and we also learn that we may offer Him His own gifts to our own incalculable profit.

The Infinite Value of the Victim Offered to God in Holy Mass

According to the learned Father Sanchez, there is no part of the Mass which imparts to us greater consolation and spiritual joy than the prayer said by the priest immediately after the elevation of the chalice, when he offers to God the spotless Lamb, Who takes away the sins of the world: 44 We Thy servants, as also Thy holy people^ offer unto Thy most excellent majesty a pure ho6t,“etc He speaks of the people as holy because they are sanctified by the holy sacrifice, conformably to Christ’s own words:”For them do I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.“(John 17:19) Those who are present are also sanctified by the sprinkling of His precious blood, shed upon them at the time of the elevation of the chalice, as St. Paul says:” That He might sanctify the people by His own blood.“(Hebrews 13:12)

Observe how impressive are the words wherewith the priest offers the holy sacrifice to God;n the name of the congregation: “O Lord, we Thy servants, as also Thy holy people, offer unto Thy most excellent majesty a pure host, a holy host, an immaculate host,” etc It is indeed a precious victim which the priest and all present with him offer unto the Divine Majesty; one in which Almighty God will rejoice and the company of heaven will exult This pure, holy, immaculate sacrifice is none other than the most pure body, the most holy soul, the immaculate blood of Jesus, Who is slain upon the altar, not. by an actual and painful, but by a supernatural and mystical, immolation. The sacred humanity of Christ is the true holocaust, which He in His divine nature offers at the same time as the priest, and each one of the faithful who, with his lips or in his heart, says: “My God, I offer Thee Thy beloved Son, by the hands of the minister, under the form in which He now lies upon the altar.”

If it be asked what it is that the priest, and the people with him, offer up when the above-named words are uttered, I reply: They present to God Almighty a gift so precious that it exceeds in value the wide world with all its treasures; so much so that were the whole earth ours to give it would be a gift far inferior to that which we offer to God in the person of His Son. Again be it asked: What is it we present to God when we offer Him the holy Mass? We present to Him a treasure so costly that it outweighs the vast heavens and all their infinite riches. Nor need we stop here; once more be it asked: What do we give to our God when we offer to Him Jesus Christ in the holy sacrifice of the Mass? We offer Him a gift of such unspeakable worth that nothing short of the almighty, infinite Deity and His boundless perfection and majesty can equal it. More cannot be said than this, for in the whole universe nothing exists, nothing can be conceived, greater than God Himself. Now reflect within thyself how priceless a treasure thou dost offer to the Most Holy Trinity in presenting the divinized humanity of Christ for its acceptance. How great is the honor done to God, how great the gratitude (if we may so speak) He owes thee for this precious jewel, will be made more evident by the following comparison.

Suppose the inhabitants of a vast realm were to unite together to have a costly and beautiful goblet fashioned out of the purest gold, exceeding in elegance and skilful workmanship anything that had ever been seen or designed, and were to send this goblet by the hand of a brilliant embassy to their ruler as a token of their loyal and affectionate fidelity, how great would be the gratification of the monarch on receiving this gift from his subjects, and how graciously he would thank them for it. But if they were to set in the gold of the goblet a diamond of such value that the whole wealth of the kingdom could not purchase it, what would not the country expect from its ruler in return for such a present?

Let us apply this to holy Mass. In it we present to the most high God the humanity of Christ, which is so noble, so sacred, that nothing equal to it has ever been, or ever will be, created by the hand of God. Every worshipper present at Mass offers this sacred humanity,

4his precious and beautiful goblet, if after the consecration he raises his heart to God and says: “My God, I •offer Thee Thy beloved Son, here present upon the altar.” And with this costly vessel we offer a priceless jewel, comparable only to the Godhead itself, the divinity;of Jesus Christ. For it is in the sacred humanity that His divine nature dwells, as St. Paul says: “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally.” »(Colossians 2:9) The humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ are both offered to God in holy Mass, for they are inseparably united. When, therefore, thou dost offer to God the costly jewel of Our Lord’s divinity, set in the pure gold of His sacred humanity, a gift surpassing in value all that is in heaven and on earth, dost thou not cause infinite gratification to thy heavenly Father? Thou presentest to Him the Son of Whom He said: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleaded.” (Matthew 3:17) For this thou wilt be richly rewarded, for He Whom thou honorest by this gift cannot be surpassed in liberality and in gratitude. By this means thou wilt cancel many a debt, since what thou givest is infinitely more than what thou owest; and it is not the property of another, it is thy very own, given to thee by Christ, as we have already seen. If Christ is ours, all that He has is ours also; how rich, therefore, we may be made by one single Mass, provided we hear it in the right manner!—richer than anything upon God’s <earth could make us. Take heed, therefore, to offer God the Son to His heavenly Father frequently in holy Mass; The more often thou dost make this offering the richer wilt thou be.

Make it thy habit always to offer thy oblation by the hands of the priest, saying: “My God, I offer Thee Thy well-beloved Son by the hands of the priest.” As much as to say: “My God, I am not worthy to ascend to Thy altar, and take the divine victim in my unconsecrated hands; therefore I do this in spirit; I place my hand in intention under the arm of the priest, and thus join with him in elevating the sacred host and the chalice.” It is recorded of Henry I., King of England, that he heard three Masses every day, kneeling on the altar steps. When the officiating priest elevated the sacred elements, he loved to place his hand under the priest’s arm, assisting him in the action. Thou canst not do the same except in intention; but God, Who reads the heart, will accept the will for the deed.

The precious blood of Christ must be offered to God as well as the sacred host; this is a meritorious work, about which too much cannot be said. We read in the life of St. Magdalen of Pazzi that she was supernaturally taught that the oblation of Christ’s blood was most efficacious in turning away the divine anger, provoked by the transgressions of mankind. In fact, God complained to her of the little done by man to appease His wrath, and exhorted her to do her utmost with this aim. She therefore was accustomed many times—no less than fifty times a day—to offer the sacred blood of Christ for the living and the dead. And repeatedly it was granted her to see souls whom she had been instrumental in converting, or of releasing from purgatory, by this oblation of the precious blood.

She used also to say that it was much to be feared that the impenitence of sinners is to be attributed to our apathy. For if we were more zealous in offering the blood of Christ to God on their behalf, He would doubtless, moved by our prayers, have preserved them from eternal reprobation; and she admonished all Christians constantly to make this oblation of Our Lord’s passion and His precious blood for the erring and the sinful. Let us remember this, for it places within our reach an easy means of appeasing the wrath of God, of converting sinners, relieving the suffering souls, expiating our own wrong-doing. At no time, as we have already said, can this oblation of the precious blood be made so opportunely, so effectually, as during the celebration of holy Mass. It is then offered not only by word, but in deed, for the sacred blood is truly and actually there in the chalice and is offered up by the priest not only in his own name, but in that of the whole Church, and more especially of those who are present Each one, therefore, who says: “O Lord, I offer Thee this sacred blood by the hands of the priest,” offers that which the priest elevates in the chalice, and merits far more than if he uttered the same words at some other time.

St. Magdalen of Pazzi also speaks of the incalculable value of such an oblation. “When the Christian/’ she says,”offers this precious blood to God the Father, he offers a gift beyond all recompense. It is a gift of such infinite worth that by it the Creator is laid under an obligation to His creature.“This sounds like an exaggeration, but it is not so, for what is there in heaven or on earth to compare with the precious blood of Christ? One single drop is worth more than oceans of the blood of martyrs. St. Thomas of Aquin tells us that one single drop would have been enough to redeem the whole world Hence it follows that if, for this oblation, God were to grant thee the remission of thy sins, it would be no adequate recompense, since by one drop the guilt of all the sinners on earth can be cleansed away, and even if for the sake of it He were to give thee heaven itself, this would still be no equivalent, since this sacred blood is able to purchase the eternal salvation of all mankind. Thus God would remain thy debtor.

If thou hadst been present upon Mount Calvary, and hadst caught some drops of the blood that flowed from the Saviour’s wounds, and offered them to God the Father with steadfast faith, fervent love, and heartfelt contrition, wouldst thou not have felt confident that thy sins would be forgiven, and the penalty due to them remitted? Well, that which took place on Calvary is enacted mystically in holy Mass; Christ exhibits Himself to His Father as He hung upon the cross, and the blood from His sacred wounds flows into the chalice. Do thou in spirit take this same blood in thy hand, and present it to God with the like fervor as thou wouldst have done on Calvary, and be assured thou wilt gain nothing less than thou wouldst then have gained. For what sin is so heinous that it cannot be forgiven, what stain so dark that it cannot be purged away, what debt so heavy but it cannot be remitted, for the sake and by the power of that precious blood? It is more than sufficient to blot out, to expiate, to cancel the iniquities, the debts of all mankind. Put thy trust, therefore, in this sacred blood, and offer it to thy God in holy Mass with all the fervor of thy heart. Call the holy angels to thy aid, and implore them to offer it on thy behalf before the throne of God, ind obtain for thee the remission of thy sins.

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