Sublime Importance of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

Unless a priest esteems the holy Sacrifice as it deserves, he can never celebrate it with suitable devotion. Assuredly there is no action which man can perform so sublime, so sacred, as the celebration of Mass. “We must needs confess,” says the Council of Trent, “that no other work can be performed by the faithful so holy and divine as this tremendous mystery itself.” God himself could not enable man to perform anything greater than the celebration of Mass.

 

All the ancient sacrifices, by which God was so much honored, were but shadows and figures of our sacrifice of the altar. All the honor that angels by their adorations, and men by their good works, austerities, and even martyrdoms, have ever rendered or will ever render to God, never could, and never will, give him so much glory as one single Mass; for, while the honor of all creatures is only finite, that which accrues to God from the holy Sacrifice of the altar is infinite, inasmuch as the victim which is offered is of infinite value. 

 

The Mass, therefore, offers to God the greatest honor that can be given him, subdues most triumphantly the powers of hell, affords the greatest relief to the suffering souls in purgatory, appeases most efficaciously the wrath of God against sinners, and brings down the greatest blessings on mankind.

 

If, as it is promised, we may confidently hope to obtain from God whatever we ask in the name of Jesus: If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you [John 16:23], how much more confidently may we hope to obtain what we ask for, when we immolate to the Father Jesus himself? Our loving Redeemer is continually making intercession for us in heaven: Who also maketh intercession for us [Romans 8:34]. But this he does more especially in the sacrifice of the Mass, in which, by the hands of the priest, he presents himself to his eternal Father, to obtain graces for us. 

 

Were we assured that all the saints and the blessed Mother of Christ were praying for us, with what great confidence should we expect to receive all graces necessary for us? But it is certain that one prayer of Jesus Christ will avail infinitely more than all the prayers of the saints. Poor, wretched sinners, what would become of us without this sacrifice to appease the Lord “For the Lord, appeased by the oblation thereof, and granting the grace and gift of penitence, forgives even heinous crimes and sins,” says the Council of Trent.

 

In a word, as the Passion of Jesus Christ was sufficient to save the whole world, so is a single Mass sufficient to save it. Hence, at the offertory of the chalice the priest says: “We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, . . . for our salvation, and for that of the whole world.” The Mass is the good thing and the beautiful thing of the Church, according to the prediction of the prophet: For what is the good thing of Him, and what is His beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins? [Zach.19:17.] In the Mass, the Word incarnate offers himself in sacrifice to his eternal Father, and gives himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the end and aim of almost all the other sacraments, as the angelic Doctor teaches.

 

Hence St. Bonaventure says, that in the Mass God manifests to us all the love that he has borne us, and includes in it, as in a compendium, all his benefits. On this account the devil has always endeavored to abolish the Mass throughout the world by means of heretics, making them the precursors of Antichrist, who before all things will endeavor to abolish, and in fact will, in punishment of the sins of men, succeed in abolishing the holy sacrifice of the altar, according to the prediction of Daniel: And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice because of sins [Daniel 8:12]

 

Here is the full quote from Daniel, which, according to St. Alphonsus, refers to the power of the Antichrist [Daniel 8:10-12]:

 

“10 And it was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them. 11 And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength: and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary. 12 And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.”

 

The same St. Bonaventure says, that the Son of God in every Mass confers a benefit on the world not less than that which he conferred in taking upon himself our human nature. So that, as the learned teach, if Jesus Christ had never appeared in the world, a priest, by pronouncing the words of consecration, would bring him down from heaven upon the earth, according to that celebrated sentence of St. Augustine: “O venerable dignity of the priests in whose hands as in the womb of the Virgin the Son of God became incarnate!” 

 

Moreover, as the sacrifice of the altar is the application and renewal of the sacrifice of the cross, the angelic Doctor teaches, that the Mass procures for man the same benefits and salvation that the sacrifice of the cross procured for him. St. John Chrysostom says the same: “The celebration of Mass is of as much value as the death of Christ on the cross.” And of this the Church still further assures us, saying: “As many times as this commemorative sacrifice is celebrated, so often is the work of our redemption performed.” 

 

As the same Saviour, who offered himself for us on the cross, offers himself in sacrifice on the altar by the hands of the priest, as the Council of Trent teaches: “For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different;” so the sacrifice of the cross is applied to our souls by the sacrifice of the altar. The Passion of Jesus Christ rendered us capable of redemption; the Mass puts us in possession of it, and enables us to enjoy its merits.

 

From The Holy Mass, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, beginning of the chapter entitled ‘The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Hurriedly Said.’ 

 

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