These somewhat difficult ideas become easy to grasp, when one considers the Mass, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, for at once we meet the adorable Person of the Divine Redeemer, God made Man. All the sacrifices of the Old Law ordained by God had been the types of Him Whom at last men saw and heard in human form, in the towns and countryside of Palestine: they had been dim figures of the unique Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon Mount Calvary. Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ, constituted by God High Priest from all eternity, in shedding His Precious Blood on the Altar of the Cross, offered Himself to God, in sacrifice, as a victim for our salvation. By that single sacrifice of the Cross our redemption has been once for all accomplished, satisfaction has been fully made to God for sin all merit has been won completely. Christ died for all, that they also who live may not now live to themselves unregenerate in sin, but in holiness with Him Who died for them. We are sanctified by the oblation of the Body of Jesus Christ once. Offering one sacrifice for sins, He for ever sitteth on the right hand of God.
This, then, is the unique excellence of the Mass that, being a true and proper sacrifice, it represents and recalls the Sacrifice of the Cross. In substance the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice „of the Cross. The same Priest, Jesus Christ, continues to offer Himself to God the Father by the ministry of His lawful priests. The same Victim, Jesus Christ, is now truly present on our altars under the appearances of bread and wine. Only the manner of offering differs in the Mass from that in the Sacrifice of the Cross. In death upon the Cross, the Precious Blood was physically shed and separated from the Body. Today upon our altars, the Precious Blood is shed for us and separated from the Body, not indeed physically, but sacramentally, under a sign or symbol that expresses death: the separate consecration of the substance of the bread which now becomes His Body, apart from and previous to the consecration of the substance of the wine which now becomes His Blood.
THE PURPOSE OF THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
The purpose of the unbloody offering which Jesus Christ makes of Himself and of His Church to God in Holy Mass is not different from that which He made with the shedding of blood upon Mount Calvary. For this the Church teaches is the clean oblation of which the Prophet long ago made mention: "from the rising of the sun even to the
going down, my name is great among the Gentiles: and in every place there is offered to my name a clean oblation. Thus the Holy Sacrifice is an unceasing fount of adoration.
The Mass, too, is the endless thanksgiving, made Jesus Christ and His Church for all the benefits of God, our Creator and our Father. "He gave thanks, says the Sacred Scripture, referring to the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. The very name of Eucharist means thanksgiving. That the Mass is equally a sacrifice of appeasement to God is the constant teaching of the Church. Christ Himself has told us that in the sacrifice of the Eucharist His Body is given for us, that His Blood is shed for many, unto the remission of sins. And if Holy Mass is instituted for the pardon of sin, it must aim no less at obtaining from the mercy of God the other needs which follow upon our state of fallen creatures. The purposes, therefore, of the Holy Sacrifice are exactly similar to those for which Our Saviour offered Himself on the altar of the Cross.
THE EFFECTS OF HOLY MASS IN REGARD TO GOD
The effects of the Holy Sacrifice correspond without change to those of the Sacrifice of the Cross. If we consider those effects in regard to God, we cannot fail to gain fresh knowledge and esteem of Holy Mass. For the Mass is a never-ending Source of perfect adoration and thanksgiving and reparation and petition. In the Mass it is God made Man Who is Himself the Principal Offerer. In the Mass it is Jesus Christ Himself Who offers Himself to God, under the appearances of bread and wine. By reason of the infinite dignity of Him Who offers, because the Victim offered is of infinite worth, the Mass cannot fail to produce the effects for which it has been instituted. Unfailingly, independently of the holiness of human celebrant or assisting faithful, each Mass will always pay to the Blessed Trinity a limitless tribute of praise and thanks. Each Mass infallibly gives God a greater reparation than all the wrong that sin of men and Angels could inflict upon the Divine Majesty. Each Mass unerringly obtains remission of sins and grace of every kind that makes for man‟s salvation. Such is the glory and the worth of Jesus Christ, true God, true Man, Divine Redeemer of mankind. read...