Chapter IX

In the Holy Mass Christ Renews His Death

The evangelist St. John tells us that Christ once said: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) There is nothing dearer or more precious to a man than his soul or his life; therefore in giving this up for a friend he gives up what is most valuable to him. But Christ went further than this; in His love for mankind he gave His life, not only for His friends, but also for His most inveterate enemies. Therefore His was no ordinary soul, but one which was holy and noble beyond compare. In the Gospel of St. John Our Lord says: “I lay down My life for My sheep.” {Ibid. x. 15.) These words have apparently a special meaning; for Our Lord does not say: “I will lay down My life for My sheep,” nor, “I have laid it down,” but, “I lay down My life for My sheep”; that is to say, “I continue constantly to give My life for believers.” This He does daily in holy Mass, wherein His death is renewed. The manner in which this is effected will now be explained.

In old times it was customary in Lent to act a passion-play, to place before the minds of the people more vividly the sufferings of Christ. A young man used to be fastened to a cross, and after hanging there for some time he used to feign the outward signs of approaching dissolution, as if expiring of agony, so that the spectators were moved to tears. Now in holy Mass no one plays the part of the Saviour; He offers Himself, He expires in person. He does not commission an angel or a saint to act for Him, for they could not da what He does as He does it. Day after day He reenacts His passion in the sight of heaven and earth, that it may always be had in remembrance by God in holy Mass as it was enacted on Calvary. We will give an anecdote in illustration of this, and then confirm it by the teaching of theologians.

Cesar of Heisterbach relates that in his monastery there was a father named Gottschalk who, whilst saying the midnight Mass at Christmas at a side-altar, with much devotion and tears, beheld after the consecration a child of wondrous beauty in his hands instead of the sacred host. He clasped the child in his arms and kissed it, his soul meanwhile being filled with ineffable sweetness. In a few moments the child vanished, and the priest ended his Mass. Before his death, which occurred shortly after, he related to the bishop what he had seen. The bishop was much struck with it, and gave an account of the apparition to one of his priests who thought rather lightly of the sacerdotal office. This priest listened to it attentively, and at the end said with a sigh: “Alas! why does God reveal these things to saints and men who are perfect in faith? He ought rather to permit unhappy sinners like myself, who are apt to doubt the reality of His presence in the Blessed Sacrament, thus to see behind the veil.” Not long after, while he was one day standing at the altar, it was given to this same priest to see what good Father Gottschalk saw. As he was in the act of breaking the sacred host before the Agnus Dei he beheld a child of striking loveliness in his hands. Covered with confusion at the sight, he turned the sacred host, and lo! there was Christ upon the cross, His head bowed down, apparently at the point of death. The priest was deeply touched; he nearly fainted; tears streamed from his eyes as he gazed on the figure of the dying Saviour, and he knew not whether to proceed with the Mass. But the vision quickly vanished, the host regained its former shape, and the Mass was concluded amid many tears. The congregation in the interim were anxious to know what had befallen their pastor, why he had been such a long time over the Mass, and why he had wept so freely. Conscious of this, he immediately went up into the pulpit and told them of the vision he had had of the infant Christ and of the dying Saviour. The impression he had received was deep and permanent; he amended his life, did penance for his former negligence, and to the day of his death was in every respect a model for the imitation of his parishioners.

This vision shows us to a certain extent how our Redeemer, in holy Mass, places His cruel death before God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, besides the whole company of heavenly spirits, in such a manner as not to give them grief, but to acquaint them with the immensity of the love which led Him thus to suffer for the redemption of the world. Could we for once be privileged to see as that priest did our expiring Lord in the sacred host, how willingly, how attentively, should we hear

Mass! how profoundly should we compassionate Our Saviour in His agony! We may behold this if we will, not with our bodily eyes, it is true, but with the eyes of faith. As often as we kindle within us such faith we please Our Lord and earn a rich recompense for ourselves. For the purpose of enabling us to believe more firmly Christ gives us some clear and plain signs of His death in the Mass, which are thus expounded to us by those who are learned in the divine science:

When, at the Last Supper, Jesus converted bread and wine into His sacred body and blood, He did not change both at the same time, nor under one form, but changed each separately, and under two distinct forms. He might have said the words: “This is My body and My blood,” over the bread; had He done so, the bread would have been truly His living body and blood, but He would not thus have manifested His death to us in so clear a manner. He chose, therefore, first to change the bread only, by virtue of the words of consecration, into His sacred body and give it to His disciples to eat, and afterwards the wine into His sacred blood, and give it also separately to His disciples. And by the guidance of the Holy Spirit He has taught His Church to ordain that the priest should first change the bread into His sacred body, and elevate it, and then proceed to change the wine into His blood, and elevate that also separately, to bring His death more definitely before the minds of the people.

On this subject Lancicius says: “Because, in the order of nature, dissolution follows upon the total separation of the blood from the body, this being the immediate cause of Christ’s death upon the cross, the manner in which He chose to accomplish the sacrifice of Himself, therefore in the holy sacrifice of the Mass His death is likewise set forth by the separation of His blood from His body. Thus by the words of consecration His body becomes present under the form of the bread, His blood beneath that of the wine, each distinct and apart from the other.” This is a true immolation of Christ, wherein the substances of bread and wine are changed and annihilated.

In explanation of this Gervase says: “The victim offered in holy Mass is Christ; not, indeed, under the form He wears in heaven, but as He is under the form of the bread and of the wine, as it were dead: for He is in a condition of immobility and inaction, as far as all the powers of the body are concerned. But at the same time He can exercise all the powers of the soul, the understanding, the will, etc.”

The mind of man cannot fully conceive, nor the tongue of man adequately express, how acceptable to Almighty God is this representation and reproduction of Christ’s passion. Yet we must endeavor to form some idea of it. When Christ thus places His death before God the Father in the Mass, He renders Him the same perfect obedience which He formerly rendered to Him. In every respect His obedience was perfect, but never did it cost His human nature so dear as when He submitted to the death upon the cross. St. Paul thus speaks of this act: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.” And that we might know how pleasing to God the Father this obedience, so difficult to flesh and blood, was, and how richly it was recompensed, he adds: “For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names.” (Philippians 2:8,9) This perfect obedience Christ offers to His Father in holy Mass, and with it He offers the heroic virtues that marked His passion and death: His spotless innocence, His profound humility, His invincible patience, the ardent charity He displayed not only towards His Father, but towards His executioners, His enemies, and towards us, ungrateful sinners that we are.

Furthermore, He places before Him the pain He suffered, the blows His tender heart received, the fear of death that disquieted Him, the dislocation of all His bones, finally, the thrust of the lance that pierced His sacred side. All these He places before Him as vividly as if all were happening over again at the present time, thus awakening anew the satisfaction God the Father experienced at the death of His beloved Son, when He saw how willingly He endured the bitterness of death out of love to Him and for His greater glory. And as Christ then appeased His Father s anger, obtained pardon for transgressors, and reconciled the world to God, so He does now in every Mass, procuring for us blessings for which we can never be grateful enough.

Let us now hear what pious and learned men say respecting the immense benefits which come to us by this renewal of Christ’s death. First of all let us listen to Pope St. Gregory: “This victim preserves souls from eternal perdition in a special manner, for it represents the death of the only-begotten Son of God.” What consolation do not these words convey to the heart of those who on account of their sins are apprehensive concerning their eternal salvation. For St. Gregory, whose writings were inspired by the Holy Ghost, expressly states that because the Mass reproduces mystically the death of Christ it thereby possesses in an especial manner the power of preserving souls from everlasting death. Let us, therefore, be diligent in hearing Mass, let us venerate the death of Christ, and offer it as an oblation to God the Father, that we may escape eternal perdition.

The learned Mansi expresses himself in the following instructive and encouraging manner: “Since the only-begotten Son of God, Who offered Himself as a victim upon the altar of the cross, is sacrificed afresh in the Mass, it follows of necessity that the sacrifice of the Mass is of as great value as the sacrifice of the cross.” We shall proceed to show the truth of this saying, and how it is to be rightly understood.

No less reassuring is what Cardinal Hosius says: “Although in holy Mass we do not crucify Christ afresh, yet we make ourselves partakers in His death as much as if this were the case. In the sacrifice of the cross His death was with shedding of blood; in the sacrifice of the Mass His death is bloodless and mystical, yet it produces the same fruit as the sacrifice of blood, just as if the latter were now being carried on.M Does it not seem strange, this that we are taught, that the reproduction of Christ’s death in an invisible manner should produce the same effects as His actual and visible death? Yet so the cardinal declares, for he adds:” For we are made to participate in the Mass in the fruits of Christ’s death just as if He were expiring before our eyes.“As this is so, who can estimate the power and efficacy of holy Mass, the blessings it contains for those who piously assist at it? Hadst thou stood, O reader, upon Calvary beside thy dying Saviour, how great the graces, the spiritual treasures, thou wouldst have carried away with thee thence! Thou wilt find no less rich a store, which thou canst make thine own, in holy Mass, if thou hearest it in the same spirit as if thou wert in the presence of thy dying Redeemer.

Concerning this the Abbot Rupert remarks: M Just as Christ when hanging upon the cross granted forgiveness of sins to all who came to Him, even so when present under the form of bread and wine He grants the same forgiveness of sins to all the faithful“These words encourage us to hope that by hearing Mass piously we may work off a good portion of the penalty due to our sins.

In the writings of Father Segneri this forcible passage occurs: “The sacrifice of the cross wrought the remission of sin in general; in holy Mass the virtue of Christ’s blood is applied to this and that person individually. By His death and passion Christ collected the riches which in the Mass are dealt out to us. His death is a treasury, Mass the key that unlocks it.” Hence, when we go to Mass, Christ puts, as it were, into our hand the key of His well-stored treasury, and allows us to enter and carry away graces in proportion to the devotion of our heart.

The same writer says further: “Observe, therefore, what it really means to say or to hear Mass. To do so is equivalent to causing God, Who once died for all mankind, to die over again, in a mystical manner, for me, and thee, and each one present, just as if He suffered death for the sake of each one individually/’ Lay these words to heart, O Christian reader; consider the love wherewith Christ requites thee when thou nearest Mass for love of Him. He repays thy service so liberally that He is ready to give His life for thee, and to bestow on thee the merits of His death. He does in fact die for thee spiritually, and would die again for thee corporally, and with the same suffering as of yore, were this possible and necessary.

Our Lady once spoke thus to an eminent servant of God: “So great is the charity of my Son towards those who assist at holy Mass that He would, if needful, die for each one as many times as that individual had heard Mass; but this is not necessary, because His merits are infinite.” So astonishing is this statement that one seems hardly able to believe it; yet it is in harmony with the infinite charity of Christ, which urges Him daily to sacrifice Himself, not once, but many thousand times, in a spiritual manner for hapless sinners. Let us resolve, therefore, to hear Mass daily with devout attention, to go in spirit with Christ to Calvary, to stand by him during His passion and at His death. The author of the Imitation bids us do this in the passage already quoted: “As often as thou sayest or hearest Mass it ought to seem to thee as great, as new, and as delightful as if Christ, that same day first hanging on the cross, was suffering and dying for the salvation of men/’ (Bk. iv. ch. 2.). Yes, He truly suffers and dies in a mystical manner for each one who hears Mass, and that with the same charity wherewith He sacrificed Himself in His body upon the cross for all the human race.

What unfathomable charity, what boundless grace, is this that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, should die in a mystic manner for those who hear Mass, as He once died visibly for the whole world! How profitable, how salutary, is this for us! How great are the merits we may gain! Hadst thou been present on Calvary, and hadst thou there offered to God the Father the sufferings of His Son in His last agony, thinkest thou not that thou wouldst have obtained the pardon of all thy sins? The loving Father would doubtless have granted thee, a repentant sinner, full remission of thy guilt and its penalties for the sake of His dear Son Who died for thee. Well, then, thou canst ask this forgiveness in holy Mass, because Jesus is truly present there, in the same sacred humanity in which He suffered and died.

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