The Unbloody Sacrifice of the Altar

24. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—The School and the Source Whence Catholic Life Receives Its Spirit of Sacrifice

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the soul and the heart of the liturgy of the Church; it is the mystical chalice which presents to p. 209our lips the sweet fruit of the passion of the God-Man—that is, grace. Hence we may conclude what influence the Mass must and will have upon true Christian life, and upon all striving after perfection. The impious world, estranged from God, seated in wickedness (1 John 5, 19), has a desolate aspect; it resembles a sterile, barren wilderness, “devoid of fruit and divested of flowers.” But in the midst of this desert stands the Church like unto a blooming, fruitful oasis, like a paradise of God, wherein dwell joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the ringing hymn of praise (Isa. 51, 3). To the delight of God and of the angels, this garden of the Church, planted by the Lord, shines with the most beautiful and the most fragrant variety of flowers, with the abundance of heavenly blossoms and fruits. Ravishingly beautiful is this garden, where “bloom the violets of humility, the lilies of purity shine brightly, and the roses of martyrdom glow.” But whence do these noble, heavenly plants draw their life’s sap, their nourishment, their growth, their perfume and their bright colors? Chiefly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice and fountain of grace. The fountains of the Saviour which in the garden of the Church unceasingly flow on thousands of altars, irrigate and fructify the soil, refresh and strengthen the tender shoots, and cause the seed of virtue to blossom and ripen. If the just man flourishes like the palm and is likened unto a tree planted near the running waters, and producing fruit in due season, all this is to be attributed principally to the stream of grace issuing from the Sacrifice of the Mass. Where, on the contrary, the altar has been buried under ruins, and the Eucharistic source of grace has been obstructed, there all growth of higher virtue and heroic perfection languishes, withers and dies. — That Christ’s Sacrifice, celebrated day after day, is the deep mystical source of all fulness of virtue in the Church, will appear evident, when we show that Christian perfection must be acquired and be preserved by the spirit of sacrifice—and that the supernatural, heroic spirit of sacrifice can be drawn only from the fountain of the perennial Sacrifice of the Mass.

a) Christ’s doctrine and example prove that every true Christian life must be a life of perpetual sacrifice, a life of self-denial and mortification. To live in a Christian manner is to follow the teaching of Jesus—and what else is this teaching than the Word from the Cross? (1 Cor. 1, 17.) “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9, 23)—in this saying the Lord included all His Commandments and encouraged us to imitate Him; for the Christian life is a copy and imitation of the life of Jesus on earth, which in its whole course from the crib to the Cross was one great, uninterrupted sacrifice. This life of sacrifice of Christ Christians must imitate and imprint on their own lives; for He has given us an example that we may follow in His footsteps (1 Peter 2, 21), and as He walked, must we also follow (1 John 2, 6), that we may be conformed to His image p. 210(Rom. 8, 9) and bear in ourselves His heavenly likeness (1 Cor. 15, 49). — That the life of the Christian must be a life of perpetual sacrifice is evident from its very nature. The Christian life consists essentially in loving God and the neighbor. Now, this mode of life can endure, be developed and attain the mastery, only when the inordinate love of the world and of self is destroyed in our hearts, that is, unremittingly sacrificed under the immolating knife of interior and exterior mortification. This latter demands a constant renunciation in the use of earthly goods and in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures, as well as a courageous endurance of temporal hardships and privations. In order that heavenly flames of everlasting love may burn brightly and purely and transform the life of the soul with supernatural beauty and holiness, all earthly love must be extinguished, nature prone to evil must be overcome, selfishness must be uprooted, and every worldly attachment must be sacrificed. — But this is not yet sufficient. To become perfect we must do and suffer much for God, we must by interior recollection of mind walk continually in the presence of God, in all confidence communing with Him, following as much as possible on every occasion the inspirations and suggestions of divine grace. All this is hard, very hard indeed, for the natural man; it costs combat, self-denial and exertion. It is only by dint of labor and energy that the reign of sin and sensuality is destroyed in the heart—and in its place the kingdom of grace and of the love of God is established and developed. The spirit of sacrifice is, therefore, the chief element, the touchstone of all true virtue and holiness. Self-sacrifice is absolutely necessary for solid asceticism, for the perfection of the love of God and of the neighbor. Ever true is the golden axiom: Tantum proficies, quantum tibi vim intuleris—“The greater the violence thou offerest to thyself, the greater the progress thou wilt make.”²⁴⁵245De imit. Christi l. 1, c. 25. In order to ascend from a lower to a higher degree of the love of God, it is not merely sufficient to pray and to nourish devout affections, but much painstaking and self-renunciation are requisite. Whether you are a beginner in the way of purification, or have made some progress in the illuminate way, or are a proficient in the unitive way, always and everywhere you must offer in sacrifice yourself and whatever you possess; you cannot stand still for a moment on the road of self-immolation. “Lord, how often shall I resign myself, and in what things shall I leave myself?” — thus the faithful soul inquires, and the Lord replies to her that the sacrifice of self must be uninterrupted and universal: “Always and at all times; as in little things, so also in great. I make no exception, but will have thee to be found in all things divested of thyself.”²⁴⁶246Ibid. l. 3, c. 37. If you would truly live as a disciple of the Crucified, you must be crucified to the world and the world must be crucified to you (Gal. 6, 14), you must die daily to the world and to yourself, your life must be a perpetual death—p. 211scias pro certo, quia morientem te oportet ducere vitam.²⁴⁷247Ibid. l. 2, c. 12. “The life of man upon earth is a warfare”—Militia est vita hominis super terram (Job. 7, 1). In this Christian warfare many a hard and fearful battle must be fought against visible and invisible enemies; you will have much to dispense with and in many things to deny yourself, much to bear and much to undergo. “Thou must be willing, for the love of God, to suffer all things, viz., labors and sorrows, temptations and vexations, anxieties, necessities, infirmities, injustices, contradictions, censure, manifold humiliations, confusions, corrections and contempts. These sufferings help to acquire virtue; these prove the soldier of Christ, these prepare a heavenly crown.”²⁴⁸248De imit. Christi l. 3, c. 35. This combat against sensuality, pride and the concupiscence of the eyes, against the temptations of the world and the assaults of the devil lasts during our whole life: it is a warfare for all time—from the beginning to the end.

b) The daily carrying of the cross, the holy hatred of self and the Christian renunciation of the world, in short, the constant life of sacrifice, which makes the Christian perfect and produces saints, is something so far removed from earth, so far surpassing all natural understanding and strength, that it is only from the heart, wounds and sacrifice of Jesus that we can receive the light, power and strength requisite for such a life. Such superhuman love of the cross, such a spirit and power of sacrifice, is a plant which not corrupt nature, but only the soil of grace can produce and cause to fructify. It needs ever to be refreshed with the dew of Heaven and the water of life, that it may not unhappily wither and die. The inspirations and helps of grace for constant self-sacrifice issue, therefore, principally from the altar, where Christ every day and at every hour gives Himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice (Eph. 5, 2). Day after day the Church offers the Body and Blood of Christ, and in union with this Divine Sacrifice she also immolates herself; the faithful assisting at Mass offer themselves likewise “in the spirit of humility and with a contrite heart.” This spiritual self-sacrifice of the Church and of her children, which at the altar is made by the will, must then be realized in life “by the burden and heat of the day,” by deeds. The Christian life is formed and developed according to the model and by the power of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the altar. The Eucharistic Sacrifice trains and forms, gives strength and urges to the life of sacrifice; for it is the school and the source of the disposition and courage necessary to lead such a life.

1. The worthy celebration of Mass, as well as the devout attendance thereat, independently of the graces to be obtained, belongs to the chief means of virtue; for the liturgy of the Mass is by its nature calculated to impress and to move deeply all those who take part in it with faith and attention, to excite and awaken in the celebrant and the faithful present pious thoughts and feelings, wholesome affections and resolutions and acts acceptable to God of the different virtues. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is so constituted as to be a school, in which the most manifold virtues are awakened and nourished, strengthened and purified. From the altar proceeds the impulse to all striving after the higher virtues, after a life of perfection.

a) We must make progress in the way of salvation, we must grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; but where else shall we find more incitement to piety, where purer, healthier and more strengthening food of soul for a virtuous, for a religious life than in the Sacrifice of the Mass? Faith, hope and charity, humility and meekness, obedience and patience, gratitude and resignation, self-denial and renunciation, in a word—all the virtues bloom in the heavenly atmosphere which surrounds the altar during Mass. For in the Mass, our Lord mystically accomplishes, in the presence of the faithful, the entire work of redemption—offers His life of sacrifice and His sacrificial death—and He thus appears in the closest proximity to us as the brightest and the most affecting Model of all virtue and holiness.²⁴⁹249Agnoscite quod agitis. Imitamini quod tractatis: quatenus mortis dominicae mysterium celebrantes, mortificare membra vestra a vitiis et concupiscentiis omnibus procuretis (Pontif. Rom., De ordinatione Presbyteri). Could the God-Man practise and reveal His ardent and cheerful love of sacrifice, His humility and His obedience, His love of poverty, mortification and obscurity in a more striking manner than He does in the Eucharistic Sacrifice? Our Lord once showed St. Mechtilde a large ring which surrounded Himself and her own soul; this ring contained seven precious stones, signifying the sevenfold manner in which the Lord is present in the Holy Sacrifice for our salvation. He comes, namely, upon the altar in so great humility that no one is so lowly, that the Lord will not stoop down to him, if the man only desire Him; with so much patience that there is no sinner or enemy, with whom He does not bear, and to whom He will not grant full discharge of his sins, if he only seeks to be reconciled with Him;—with such love, that no one is so cold or hardened, whose heart He will not inflame and soften, if he but will it;—with such boundless generosity, that no one is so poor whom He will not immensely enrich; as a food so sweet and so pleasant, that no one is so sick or famished as not to be invigorated and fully satiated thereby;—with such brightness, that no heart is so blinded and obscured, as not to be enlightened and purified by His presence; finally, with such plenitude of holiness and grace, that there is no one so slothful and so distracted, as not to be aroused and inspired to devotion by His love.²⁵⁰250Liber specialis gratiae p. 3, cap. 18.

b) The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the most glorious crown of the great work of salvation and, at the same time, the living memorial of all the mysteries of Christ. All that is mysterious and divine, majestic and sublime, affecting and moving, blissful and consoling, p. 214instructive and edifying, in religion, in the Incarnation, in the Catholic Church and her holy year, all this is combined and enclosed in the liturgy of the Mass as in a focus. Whosoever considers this devoutly in the spirit of a lively faith cannot fail to grow strong and increase in virtue and merit.

Above all, the Eucharistic Sacrifice brings vividly before the mind the passion and death of Christ, the God-Man.²⁵¹251Quia consacramentales et concorporales sumus Christo, licet non vera, sed imaginaria passione in seipso immoletur, vera tamen et non imaginaria passione in membris suis immolatur, quando nos, qui in memoriam passionis suae sacramentum tantae suae pietatis agimus sacrificando ipsum, flendo et cor nostrum vera compunctione atterendo, mortem tam pii et dilecti Domini et Patris annuntiamus (Alger. De sacrament. corp. et sang. domin., lib. 1, c. 16, n. 115). Amidst the joys of Christmas and the triumph of Easter, Mount Calvary with its eternal seriousness remains the central point of all sacrificial celebration; the Confiteor and the Kyrie eleison are never suppressed from the Mass by the chant of the Alleluja. Hence it follows that the faithful when hearing Mass should, above all, devoutly dwell upon and revere the passion and death of Jesus. No time is more proper for this devout meditation than the sacred time of Mass, when the Lamb of God is mystically immolated before our eyes. Assuredly it is not difficult during the celebration of Mass to place one’s self beneath the Cross and embrace it; for the vestments of the priest, the crucifix on the altar, the many signs of the Cross, the mingling of the water and wine, the separate elements of bread and wine, the elevating of the sacrificial offerings, the breaking of the Host, the different goings to and fro and movements of the celebrant at the altar, in short, the entire rite of the Mass represents the various mysteries of the passion, reminding us what numerous and bitter sufferings Christ endured for us, giving His life and dying the most cruel death for us. At every Mass place yourself in spirit at the foot of the Cross with the sorrowful Mother of God, with the virginal disciple St. John and the penitent St. Magdalen, and there represent to yourself the precious Blood of Jesus trickling down upon you, think of the pains and wounds of Jesus, of the vinegar and gall, the nails and the lance; and how can you remain cold and unconcerned? Should not your soul, at the thought of such awful mysteries as were accomplished on Mount Calvary—even for your sake—and which are mystically renewed upon the altar, tremble with holy fear, and your heart be inflamed with love, contrition and gratitude?²⁵²252In sacrificio altaris magnus ignis devotionis et dilectionis exigitur, quia ibi est tota nostra salus. Certe indevotissimus est sacerdos, qui ibi non conteritur, ubi Filius Altissimi ante Patris oculos immolatur. Sane sacerdos devotus et prudens, dum mensae divinae assistit, nihil cogitat, nisi Christum Jesum et hunc crucifixum. Ponit ante oculos cordis sui Christi humilitatem et patientiam, Christi angustias et dolores; Christi opprobria, sputa, flagella, lanceam, crucem, mortem devote et sollicite recolit, et se in ipsa memoria passionis dominicae crucifigit (Petr. Blesens. Serm. 56). In the wounds and pains of Jesus there is a countless p. 215number of reproaches to us for our cowardice and sloth in the service of God, for the inconstancy of our will, for our aversion to trials, privations and humiliations. “Daily the Holy Mass displays before our eyes the tree of the Cross with its arms raised heavenward, its withered branches bearing the sweet fruit of the Body of Christ. Mount Calvary spreads itself out above the altar before our eyes, and the cup of the chalice receives anew the Blood of Jesus Christ. But then few witnessed the bloody Mass which Jesus Christ, the High Priest, celebrated Himself visibly on the altar of Calvary; ah, fewer still stood there to partake of the blessings that proceed from the Cross. At that time when men were wanting, nature herself performed the funeral rites for Him. The earth quaked, as if moved with compassion, the rocks were rent. The cracking of the rocks tolled His knell. The brightness of day veiled itself in universal darkness, dark curtains hung in front of the bright temple of creation, and the sun, concealing his countenance, joined the funeral procession. This mourning throughout the vast temple of inanimate creation is indeed sublime in its grandeur and most awfully impressive in its beauty. More beautiful still, viewed with the eyes of the soul, are the obsequies which take place in the Sacrifice of Holy Mass. By the institution of Holy Mass, that sacrifice which is offered in all times, and which traces its course with the sun around the earth from East to West, every Christian is privileged to look upon this Sacrifice of the Lord, to join in His funeral procession, and to be overwhelmed at the foot of the Cross with sentiments of contrition, gratitude and love. Now it is that the Lord rends the hearts of stone, now it is that sorrow for sins fills the souls and clothes them in mourning, now man’s interior revives in the meditation on the nameless sufferings and death of Christ. Thus is Christ’s death daily placed before the hearts and eyes of Catholics. They gaze upon the open Book of His wounds and His death; Holy Mass itself proclaims His death. And this language is understood by all Christians who have not wholly given up the practice of their faith. This the peasantry understand; when they join their hands, hardened by toil, and lean them on the pews, and when they recite the rosary, they represent to themselves in their prayers the mysteries of Christ’s presentation, passion and death. The fervent were wont at all times, even in the early ages of the Church, to meditate profoundly on the passion of Christ. Thus the amiable Dominican, Henry Suso, relates of his simple mother, that she once told him, that for thirty years she had never assisted at Mass without dwelling upon the Passion of Christ and without being moved to tears by its consideration. But we are not to imagine that the Sacrifice of the Mass, which leads us deeply into the mysteries and places us beneath the Cross of Christ, is an obstacle to the ordinary active life, that it engenders only sentiments appertaining to the contemplative life, that it enervates the will and mind for the daily life, and causes us to underrate and to neglect the duties of our state of life. Not at all, p. 216the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass refers us unceasingly to the hard, prosaic, practical life. It invites the Christian to bring with him to the holy sacrifice the burdens and trials of life, to offer himself to God together with his cross in union with Christ. It inspires and persuades us to exemplify in our own conduct the spirit of sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so that our entire life may be animated with the resolution of making every necessary sacrifice. Such is the greatness and the grandeur of the Holy Mass. It leads us in its mysteries up to the very gates of heaven and, at the same time, embraces the humblest duties and hardships of daily life.”²⁵³253Eberhard, Kanzelvorträge I, 338. “As often as thou sayest or hearest Mass, it ought to appear to thee as great and as new and as delightful, as if Christ had that very same day for the first time descended into the Virgin’s womb and become man, or, hanging on the Cross, was suffering and dying for the salvation of mankind.”²⁵⁴254De imit. Christi l. 4, c. 2.

Thus the frequent and devout participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a school spurring us on to the practice of every virtue and perfection. In this school shall we be instructed in the science of salvation and of the Saints, only when the liturgy of the Mass is not for us a closed book sealed with seven seals, but when we penetrate through the shell into the kernel, and understand what mysteries are therein concealed, and what is the meaning of the rite of the sacrifice and of its prayers and ceremonies.

2. The Holy Mass is not only a school which directs us and incites us to the practice of the different virtues, it is also an inexhaustible fountain from which gushes forth grace and strength necessary to lead the life of sacrifice enjoined on the Church militant and her children unto the end of the earthly pilgrimage, when all sorrow shall be changed into joy, and the brief combat be followed by an eternal triumph in heaven.

a) Unto the end of time, as St. Augustine says,²⁵⁵255De civit. Dei l. 18, c. 51. the history of the Church will oscillate between the “persecution of the world and the consolations of God;” during all time the Church continues here below on her pilgrimage, rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation (Rom. 12, 12)—until the miseries of this life are over. She ever lives a life of sacrifice, from the beginning she shines in the color of sacrifice; for her apparel is red, and her garments like those worn by them that tread in the wine-press (Isa. 63, 2). — The life of sacrifice of the Church is mainly revealed in a two-fold aspect—the sacrifice of love and the sacrifice of suffering. When Jesus was asleep in death on the Cross, the Church came forth from the open wound of His transpierced Heart: she then inherited from her Divine Spouse, as her most beautiful bridal ornament, that excess of love and of suffering, which animated and flooded the divine Heart of Jesus at His death. On the day of her espousals with the Crucified Son of God, she was adorned on Calvary with a bridal crown of thorns, and veiled in the festal garment of sacrifice. These her bridal ornaments she will not lay aside, until she has finished her course of sacrifice through gloomy and dreary time, and has reached the bright, happy eternity, where at last the heavenly wedding-feast shall forever be celebrated in imperishable glory and endless hymns of victory.

a) “Jesus went about doing good and healing” (Acts 10, 38)—these words comprise the entire earthly life of our Lord; they also express the action and operation of the Church, which is nothing else than Christ continuing to live and operate through His representative organ. Like the Redeemer, the Church is also “an image of the divine goodness” (Wisdom 7, 26), of the merciful and communicative love of God. That great canticle of love—of the purest, most noble-minded and most generous self-sacrificing love—, which was entoned on the Cross by the Saviour, resounds in His Church throughout all times and countries. The spirit of the Lord continues to hover over the Church; He has anointed and sent her to announce glad tidings to the poor and to heal the contrite of heart (Luke 4, 18). As it is natural for the sun to give forth light and heat, so it is the peculiar mission of the Catholic Church to give refreshment to and to make happy “all that labor and are heavily burdened.” Always and everywhere she is occupied in alleviating sorrow, pouring oil and wine into wounds, drying up tears, consoling the afflicted, succoring the abandoned, bringing to all peace and salvation. With maternal solicitude she is intent on relieving the corporal wants, the earthly miseries and the many troubles of mankind; she seeks to comfort and to gladden with the gifts and services of corporal mercy the poor and the sick, the feeble and the infirm. “Where was there ever a corporal misery to which the Church did not lend a nursing and a healing hand? Where has she not lovingly devoted herself to raise up the mourning and withering plants? Where was ever the plague of infection too great for the Church to encounter, capable of driving her from the scene in order to leave the field to the enemy of life? To relieve the distress of the most fearful epidemics she has ever offered her best and noblest forces. The Church has ever taken under her care the whole life of the body, from birth to death, with all its wants and miseries. The whole course of the life of man, of which Holy Scripture says, ‘great labor is created for men, until the day of their burial’ (Ecclus. 40, 1), she has comforted under the wings of her charity.” (Eberhard.) — But far more intent is the Church in relieving spiritual misery, in awakening to a life of grace those who are spiritually dead, in healing the wounds and infirmities of the soul, in withdrawing man from eternal woe and perdition, in nourishing hearts desirous of salvation with the pure, the strong and the heavenly food of divine truth and grace.²⁵⁶256Non sicut secularis beneficentia, corporales dumtaxat necessitates sublevat Ecclesia; verum, ad exemplum benignissimi Salvatoris, omnem semper curam et operam contulit, ut duplicis substantiae totum cibaret hominem (Collect. Lacens. IV, p. 355).

The entire history of the Church is one of inexhaustible mercy and charity.²⁵⁷257Cf. Bauer, Die Kirche als Mutter der leiblichen und geistlichen Barmherzigkeit. Donauwörth 1876. Who could enumerate them all—the grand institutions of Christian charity, the Orders, the Congregations and Societies of Christian love and mercy, which age after age have sprung up in the soil of the Church of God, and flourished unto the boundless blessing and comfort of poor, suffering humanity? There is no kind of suffering, no form of bodily or spiritual misery that has not found and does not find alleviation and relief through these religious associations which, according to the wants of the times, have sprung up like blossoms on the ever green tree of life of the Church under the inspiration of the spirit of God. The Church sends forth her missionaries to deliver the poor heathen from the darkness and the shadows of death; by instruction and education she leads the youth to Christ; to orphaned and abandoned children she is a tender, loving and solicitous mother; she strives to bring back the erring to the way of truth and the fallen to the way of virtue; to the sick and to the imprisoned, the suffering, the distressed and the unhappy, she is an angel of love and consolation. — Along with the supernatural and overflowing good of the redemption, the Church has also brought temporal blessings, true civilization and genuine love of mankind. She has broken the chains of the slave, restored womanhood and childhood to their rightful dignity, and purified, ennobled and consecrated with the blessings of heaven all the circumstances of man’s temporal life. “The Church, which sows broadcast the spiritual seed of the Word of God, and ploughs up the soil of souls with the plough of the Cross of Christ, took up also the material hoe and spade, and drove the plough over the fields. She has cleared forests, drained marshes, brought cheerfulness into desolate places, and changed earthly deserts into blooming gardens. And where the earth produced nothing, she by her mercy sheared the poverty of the wilderness of its terrors. Upon the eternal snow-capped Alpine summits flourish her works of charity. There in a desert of snow stand her monasteries, like plants of Heaven, to refresh with generous shelter and nourishment the traveller journeying through the dreary waste” (Eberhard).

Thus has the Church renewed and changed the face of the earth. But this she could effect only because she is the focus of the heavenly fire of love, which Christ brought and kindled upon the dark, cold and dreary world. Truly, such heroic deeds of corporal and spiritual mercy, with which the Church has at all times filled the earth, could have been performed only by a charity that is patient and kind, that seeketh not itself, that endureth all things, hopeth all things, believeth all things, expecteth all things (1 Cor. 13, 7), and sacrifices all it possesses and its own self besides (2 Cor. 12, 15). Who can enumerate the sacrifices which the Church has had to make in order to accomplish the mission of peace confided to p. 219her by Christ! “Unless the grain of seed fall into the ground and die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12, 24)—these words apply no less to the Church than to our Lord. For the Church is the most munificent benefactress of humanity; but the blessings she dispenses and the works of mercy she exercises cost her most noble children the greatest sacrifices; it costs them the sacrifice of their worldly goods, of honors and pleasures, of their liberty and health, of their will and the affections of the heart, of the pleasures and comforts of life, yea, even of life itself. It is only through a virginal priesthood freed from family ties, and only through poor, chaste and obedient religious, that the Church is enabled to bring and to disseminate throughout the world the spiritual and temporal blessings of Christianity. Those, indeed, who are called to labor and to accomplish much in the world, to preserve many from its corruption and to rescue them from it, must in their sentiments be raised above the world and in heart be sincerely detached from it; they must be dead to it and to all its vain and transient show; while, on the other hand, they must by a lively faith and continual devotion commune with God, walk in holy recollection and solitude of heart, and by persevering prayer and meditation keep united with God, that they may lead an unworldly, heavenly life, a life of uninterrupted penance and prayer, a life of perfect sacrifice.

This heroism, this fulness of a love that renounces the world and sacrifices itself, is to be found only within the bosom of the Catholic Church, since it is only within her pale that these fountains of the Saviour flow, whence streams forth that energy of life and love into weak human hearts, in order to strengthen and animate them to a life of superhuman sacrifice. The manifold societies and institutions of Christian charity and good works, which the spirit of sacrifice has at all times founded in the Church, are precious fruits of the Eucharistic Tree of Life. Wherever the sacrificial altar has been destroyed or broken down, such institutions are no longer seen, or at least they do not thrive, but merely eke out a scanty and miserable existence.²⁵⁸258Cf. Allies, Formation and development of Christianity. For only where such works and services of benevolence are undertaken out of love of God and permeated with the sweet spirit of sacrifice, will they bear the impress of a higher motive, receive the benediction of Heaven, and attract and win the hearts of men. Where, on the contrary, society independently of religion fosters similar works and “without God and without Christ,” they degenerate into secular or social institutions, and are regarded merely as means for obtaining subsistence, emolument, wealth, temporal rewards or advantages. Wherever religious faith, Christian hope and a holy spirit of self-sacrifice no longer exist in a community to inflame and enlarge the heart, there base, chilling egotism spreads its baneful blight throughout all ranks and conditions of life.²⁵⁹259Multa sane videre est a secularibus viris ad miserorum levamen tentata, sed quae parum prospere successerunt; nam sola charitas, quam non gignit et inspirat nisi Christi fides, intelligit super egenum et pauperem (Concil. Avenion. a. 1848 l. c.).

b) Although the Catholic Church by such grand creations of love for mankind, by such glorious proofs and results of her Christian charity, which fill every unprejudiced observer with astonishment, lavishes blessings on the world, still she has to endure in the world and from the world scorn and affliction, imprisonment and chains, contumely and death (Heb. 11), to tread the thorny path of suffering and drink the bitter chalice of suffering and sacrifice. At the very time she becomes for the world a holocaust of love, the same world makes her the victim of its persecution,—in this respect also she follows, step by step, in the blood-stained footprints of her Divine Spouse. Men, devoid of all gratitude and feeling, pierced the hands, the feet and the Heart of Jesus: those hands dripping with nought but graces and mercies; those feet that were weary and sore in seeking the lost sheep; that Heart wholly inflamed with heavenly charity, on fire with love and consuming itself in sacrifice for sinners. The Saviour led His people out of Egypt, sustained them with bread from heaven, refreshed them with sweet waters from the rock and gave them a royal sceptre;—and in return what did His people do to Him? They made a cross for their Saviour, with a lance they pierced His side, they loaded Him with blows and stripes, they drenched Him with vinegar and gall, they implanted a crown of thorns on His head.²⁶⁰260Cf. The Improperia of the liturgy of Good Friday. The Church is treated in the same manner. Our Lord bequeathed to her the heritage of His sufferings; yea, it is He Himself who continues to suffer in His Church, it is He Himself who is persecuted in His Church (Acts. 9, 4). She is the Spouse of Jesus Christ—the Crucified One; but as the true Spouse of a thorn-crowned King, she appears only in the ornaments of sufferings, inasmuch as likewise ladened with the cross and with brow encircled with a crown of thorns, she too journeys through many tribulations to the glory of heaven. The passion of the Lord is continually repeated and renewed throughout the life and history of the Church: at all times there are to be found dishonorable traitors, false accusers, unjust judges, cruel tormentors, bloody executioners; and whenever the warfare is against the Church, Herod and Pilate become fast friends. The Church must here below pass through her Holy Week, must endure a bloody sweat on the Mount of Olives, and upon Calvary she must abide the torment of the Cross; she must struggle and combat, labor and suffer, endure and bleed, in a word, she must constantly lead a life of more or less painful sacrifices. It is the same mystery of the Cross, which operates and manifests itself in the life of Christ as in the life of the Church. The bloody and unbloody martyrdom is a prominent feature and a special characteristic of the Catholic Church, by which she resembles her Divine Master and Founder, and is distinguished from all religious sects. p. 221The Lord Himself frequently and emphatically predicted this martyrdom to His Church and all true Christians, and prepared them for it, by prophetically announcing that, “for His sake” and “in His name”, they would suffer from the world hatred, persecution, accusations, chains and imprisonment, torments and tortures, and every manner of death. “They will lay hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, dragging you before kings and governors for My name’s sake . . . and it shall happen unto you for a testimony” (Luke 21, 12).

Let the world rage and nations threaten, let people devise vain things, let the princes of the earth rise and come together against Christ and His Church (Ps. 2, 1–3), the Church, however, always looks with confidence to the future; for the roaring of the waters does not terrify her (Ps. 45, 4–5) and the powers of hell do not prevail against her.²⁶¹261Cfr. S. Bern. in Cant. serm. 79, n. 4. Per crucem ad lucem—the way of the Cross leads to the joys of victory; through want and death triumph is reached. As in the earthly life of Christ, so in the life of the Church warfare and toil, sorrow and pain predominate; but just as Christ, even in the days of His humiliation and the abasement of His divinity under the form of a servant, revealed His power and divine glory, so also in the history of the Church militant brilliant victories and glorious triumphs are not wanting. Since judgment has been passed upon the world and the prince of the world has been cast out (John 12, 31), the Church is and remains, even in chains and amid oppression, the moral ruling power of the world. But as the Church is not a kingdom of this world, so also her combats, her victories and triumphs are not of an earthly character. She combats and conquers, as did Christ, by the apparent folly and weakness of the Cross; by apparent defeats she attains triumph,²⁶²262Ecclesiam tuam inter adversa crescere tribuisti, ut cum putaretur oppressa, tunc potius praevaleret exaltata, dum simul et experientiam fidei declarat afflictio, et victoriosissima semper perseverat te adjuvante devotio (Sacrament. Gregor.).—and, as often as the world would chant her funeral dirge, she raises anew her head, triumphant in the joyful consciousness of her imperishable life, and looking down on her enemies and persecutors mouldering in the dust, she each time exultingly entones her canticle of thanksgiving: “Let us sing to the Lord; for He is gloriously magnified: the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15, 1.) — The glory of the victories of the Church consists here on earth principally in her indestructible duration in spite of the assaults and persecutions of all epochs, in her interior inexhaustible plenitude of life and power of sanctification, in her external growth and development, in her sovereignty over hearts, in the bestowal of spiritual blessings and heavenly consolations, in the promotion of the temporal welfare and the true happiness of mankind. The complete victory, the eternal triumph, the fulness of glory will, according to divine promise, be the lot of the Church only beyond this world, in the next life, in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Here below the Church glories only in the Cross of her Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6, 14), and she will know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2, 2). But because she adores and preaches, sacrifices and dispenses Jesus Christ crucified, it behooves her in her own life and operation also to copy, portray and represent Him Crucified. The glorious history of the martyrdom of the Church testifies that the Christians, with heavenly peace and meekness, with quiet resignation and cheerful countenance, with great unflinching courage, yea, often even amid exquisite torture and frightful torments, broke out into hymns of praise and thanksgiving, esteeming themselves happy to be permitted to suffer outrages and persecution for the name of Jesus. This heroism, this cheerfulness in their sacrifice they drew mainly from the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist; for the Church says, that on the altar is offered that Sacrifice in which all martyrdom has its origin and source,²⁶³263In tuorum, Domine, pretiosa morte justorum sacrificium illud offerimus, de quo martyrium sumpsit omne principium (Secret. fer. V. p. Dom. III. Quadrag.). — Quatenus martyres pro fratribus sanguinem suum fuderunt, hactenus talia exhibuerunt, qualia de mensa dominica perceperunt (S. Aug. in Joann. tr. 84, n. 2). and that the Lord by His wonderful mysteries imparted to the martyrs that invincible strength and grace, by which they in their bloody combat triumphed over the pains and terrors of a violent death.²⁶⁴264Pro sanctorum tuorum Basilidis... sanguine venerando hostias tibi, Domine, solemniter immolamus: tua mirabilia pertractantes; per quem talis est perfecta victoria (Secret. in festo ss. Martyr. Basilidis, Cyrini... 12. Jun.). The Codex Rhemensis of the liber Sacramentorum of St. Gregory the Great has instead of “per quem” sc. Dominum the reading “per quae” sc. mirabilia. Cf. the Remarks of Hugo Menardus on the above sermon in Migne tom. 78, 393. The intimate and striking connection between Christian martyrdom and the Eucharistic Sacrifice is symbolically expressed by the enclosing of the relics of the martyrs in the altar on which Mass is celebrated.

Thus the Catholic Church, as a whole, leads a life of constant sacrifice,—a life spent in deeds of mercy and in acts of charity, as well as a life full of combats and sufferings—in loving her enemies, doing good to those who hate her, blessing those who curse her, and praying for those who calumniate her (Luke 6, 27–28). The heavenly strength needed to accomplish this she draws from “the divine mysteries of the altar, by which she is continually fed and nourished.”²⁶⁵265Sacrificia, Domine, immolamus, quibus Ecclesia tua mirabiliter et pascitur et nutritur (Secret. fer. IV. p. Pascha). As long as the Church wanders upon the earth,—this abode of sorrow, tribulation and misery,—Christ wills to remain with her as a Victim of sacrifice to be daily immolated in her midst in a mysterious manner, in order to imbue her continually with the spirit of martyrdom, with the spirit of cheerful endurance and privation. Inasmuch as the Church offers herself in the Mass with Christ, “she takes along with her from the Holy Sacrifice a two-fold resolution and a two-fold strength: the resolution and strength to bear and practise in patience and ready obedience whatever God may decree in her regard, to be content in every state, in every circumstance of life, to be content in suffering, patient in death, to offer life and death to God; then the resolution and the strength freely and lovingly to offer sacrifices, and to sacrifice herself for the brethren. Blessed be that Divine service which puts into practice this two-fold offering of obedience and of a willing love, and with it turns even our own wretched life into a divine service. Blessed be our altars, upon which Heaven itself descends in obedience and love, in order then to pour itself out over the discontented, complaining and selfish world. The world accepts all these benefits and sacrifices without inquiring where grows the tree that furnishes this heavenly fruit. The world idly suffers itself to be fairly inundated with blessings, without asking where the fountain of these blessings is, just like the Egyptians who allow the Nile to irrigate their lands, without inquiring for its source. Where is the source of all this self-sacrifice? In our churches, on our altars, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There day after day the boundless sacrificing love of Christ reveals itself. Thence gushes forth the strength into the poor human nature to sacrifice itself also. Therefore also the higher and nobler souls thirst after this Holy Sacrifice. The living fountain of blessings would be closed, were the Holy Sacrifice abolished from among the faithful. Where the Holy Sacrifice no longer exists, there also has disappeared the grand Catholic spirit of self-sacrifice and love. To us has come down the Sacrifice of the Cross and along with it, as our heritage, the mystery of our own sacrifice, the mystery and the strength of patience and obedience as also of the freely self-sacrificing love. Let us, therefore, go to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, daily offering as a sacrifice to Jesus, who offers Himself therein for us, ourselves, our thoughts, words and actions, our joys and our sufferings” (Eberhard).

b) The sacrificial life of the Church can assume form and manifest itself only in its members, the individual faithful. But the life and actions of the children of God will bear the character of sacrifice in a degree so much the higher, the more they are filled and penetrated with the spirit of Christ and of His Church, that is, the better, the more virtuous, the more perfect, the more holy they are. Holiness essentially consists in the intention and will to sacrifice one’s self, in actual sacrifice and suffering. Without the spirit of sacrifice perfection and holiness can neither be attained, nor preserved, nor increased. However varied the interior and exterior life of the Saints of God, all agree in this that their whole life and their deeds bear the character of sacrifice, the stamp of self-sacrifice.

The immense multitude of the Saints is composed of martyrs and confessors.²⁶⁶266In toto mundo lilia pacis pullulare coeperunt, et Ecclesia mater jam martyrum purpura decorata, confessorum quoque candore adornari gaudebat. Non enim in uno tantum loco fulsit gratia, sed ad finem usque orbis terrarum vernantia spectacula ager plenus benedictione pandebat. Nam et deserta in ubertatem versa infusionem pinguedinis supernae dum acciperent, in jucunditate floruerunt (Hugo de s. Victor., De vanit. mundi l. 4). The martyrs sacrificed themselves once, inasmuch “as they imitated Christ in their death, shedding their blood for Him;” the confessors sacrificed themselves in an unbloody manner, but countless times, by the heroic practice of all virtues and by the constant discharge of all the duties of their state and calling, until they peacefully slept in the Lord. Both—martyrs and confessors—were, therefore, for Christ’s sake prepared to die daily, and were accounted as sheep for the slaughter (Rom. 8, 36). They are all children of Holy Church; wherefore Venerable Bede exclaims: “O Mother truly blessed, who adorns the glorious blood of the victorious martyrs and clothes the immaculate purity of the pure confessors!” “To her crown are wanting neither roses nor lilies.”²⁶⁷267O beatam Ecclesiam nostram, quam sic honor divinae dignationis illuminat, quam temporibus nostris gloriosus martyrum sanguis illustrat. Erat ante in operibus fratrum candida; nunc facta est in martyrum cruore purpurea; floribus ejus nec lilia nec rosae desunt. Certent nunc singuli ad utriusque honoris amplissimam dignitatem. Accipiant coronas vel de opere candidas, vel de passione purpureas. In coelestibus castris et pax et acies habent flores suos, quibus miles Christi ob gloriam coronetur (S. Cyprian. Epist. 8 [10]. Ad martyres et confessores).

Self-sacrifice²⁶⁸268Cf. Laurent, Christol. Predigten II, 111 etc. was the vocation and the office, the life and the death of the Apostles: they left all to become all to all and to gain all to Christ; like their Divine Master, they gave their life for the brethren and planted the Church in their blood.

The host of the martyrs shines in the blood of the Lamb and in their own—Martyrum candidatus exercitus. The martyrs triumphed over all human weakness and over all human and diabolical malice and cruelty, inasmuch as they passed through great tribulation and confessed Christ in life and in death, and sacrificed themselves for the name of Jesus, that from their blood might spring forth abundant Christian seed, and a plenteous harvest ripen for the granaries of the Heavenly Father.

The confessors who belonged to all ranks of life,—were they not all copies of the Divine Victim, even though they were not permitted to shed their blood? Their whole life was a “cross and a martyrdom;”²⁶⁹269Of St. Martin the Church sings: O sanctissima anima, quam etsi gladius persecutoris non abstulit, palmam tamen martyrii non amisit. — Genus martyrii est spiritu facta carnis mortificare, illo nimirum, quo membra caeduntur ferro, horrore quidem mitius, sed diuturnitate molestius (S. Bernard. in Cantica serm. 30, n. 11). for they “of whom the world was not worthy,” were “crucified to the world, and the world was crucified to them.” Their life was spent in serving God in uninterrupted devotion and severe penance, in great poverty and in arduous labors; as the fruit of their life of sacrifice, they left to their fellow-men the good odor of their sanctity, the lustre of their example and the efficacy of their prayers.

And the holy virgins renounced all earthly love, in order to p. 225consecrate themselves entirely to the heavenly love of their Divine Spouse and “to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth;” they kept themselves pure in body and soul, to serve undisturbed the Lord of heaven and earth, the King of their heart, and to please Him alone. With St. Agnes they joyfully exclaimed: “To Him am I espoused, whose beauty the sun and moon admire,”—and on their lips was incessantly the favorite saying of St. Cecilia: “My heart and my body shall remain undefiled, that I may not be put to shame!” The heavenly flower of virginity and purity, consecrated to God, they were able to preserve fresh and unsullied only by watering it with the dew of never-ceasing prayer, and hedging it around with the thorns of constant mortification, that is, by a life of unceasing sacrifice.

These great and honored Saints, who shine in the celestial firmament of the Church as numerous as the stars of heaven, by their light and brilliancy proclaim the glory of God, who “is wonderful in His Saints,” and the fame of the Catholic Church, in whose bosom they became saints. They are the ripest, the most precious fruit of the precious Blood which sparkles in the chalice on the altar. No saint would be possible, if the Church did not possess the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Banquet; for from the living, heavenly fountain of sacrifice alone flow the power, the courage, the inspiration and the endurance necessary for the sacrifices required for a life of holiness.²⁷⁰270Sacrosancta mysteria, in quibus omnis sanctitatis fontem constituisti, nos quoque in veritate sanctificent (Secret. festi s. Ignatii Confessoris, 31. Jul.). For such a plenitude of heroic virtue, such a zeal for self-renunciation, such an unreserved devotedness in the service of God and our neighbor, such a universal and uninterrupted self-sacrifice, as is comprised in Christian sanctity, can develop and thrive only in the fertile, well-watered soil of the Church, where the waters of salvation and grace flow unceasingly from the altar into open and willing hearts, to enliven and refresh them, to inure and to strengthen them in a life and death of cheerful sacrifice.

Besides these eminent saints the Church at all times possesses a countless number of other noble and perfect souls, whose lives are stamped with a spirit of sacrifice, far beyond what is required by the Divine Commandments. God alone knows and counts the number of magnanimous and noble souls,²⁷¹271Animae sublimiores (Pontif. Roman.). who in the sanctuary of the cloister or in the world have led and lead lives detached from the world; consecrated to God, and full of sacrifices incomprehensible to the natural man. At no period in her existence did the Catholic Church ever cease to oppose to the prevailing passions of avarice, inordinate enjoyment, effeminacy and sensuality, the example of generous renunciation of the world, of voluntary mortification of the flesh, of a self-sacrificing love of God and of the neighbor. Hence we find within her pale, ever springing up and flourishing, religious Orders and Congregations whose members, by their own free choice p. 226and with a holy emulation, break off and cast aside all worldly ties, in order that they may follow unimpeded the suffering, persecuted, crucified Jesus, and in perfect obedience, in holy poverty, in virginal purity, may climb the heights of sanctity, and raise themselves to an intimate union with God, the Supreme Good. Some lead in the retirement and seclusion of the cloister lives of devout contemplation, of angelic purity and heroic austerities, in order to make atonement to the Divine Majesty for a world steeped in sin, and to invoke upon guilty man the mercies of Heaven. Others, along with the endeavor to sanctify themselves by renouncing the world, by prayer, labor and penance, engage in diverse kinds of exterior works for the salvation of their fellow-men. The contemplative as well as the active religious Orders can blossom and flourish on the Tree of Life of the Church, only because it is watered and made fruitful by the fountain of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

The human heart, left to itself and to its inclinations, does not attain to such heroic sacrifices. The mysterious Sacrifice of the Eucharist alone creates and illumines the mystery of the Catholic life of sacrifice.²⁷²272Our spiritual or metaphoric sacrifices, prayers, thanksgivings, alms, sacred chants, preachings, obedience, humility, martyrdom, good works, are only a dependence, an appendix, an extension, a consequence, an echo of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which combines all their varieties as well as the varieties of the material sacrifices (Blot, Marie Réparatrice et l’Eucharistie p. 207. Paris 1863). The Sacrifice of the Altar with its sacramental food furnishes us with the key wherewith to explain all the heroism, all the sanctity in the Church: by this we can understand the martyr and the confessor, the apostle and the missionary, the Carmelite, the Trappist and the Sister of Charity. On this altar, “that source of holy love, grow the lilies of virginity, which unreservedly and forever espouse the Lord; here hearts derive the courage to become poor with Jesus poor in the manger; here they learn to love the brethren as He has loved them, and draw the strength that enables them to sacrifice themselves in the service of the poor and the sick. Where the Blessed Sacrament is wanting, there also is wanting the inspiring power of the love that creates saints, and stoops even to the most degraded outcast, to raise him up again. Here all wounds are healed, all noble resolutions mature; from this proceed all the deeds of a holy heroism, overcoming the world. The faithful soul will never depart thence without hearing mysterious voices, without obtaining supernatural strength, without carrying away an ardent longing for the place of her rest, which constantly attracts her thither, where her God, her Supreme Good is” (Hettinger). It is at the altar-steps that there awakens in the heart of the young man the generous resolution to bid adieu to the world and home with its pleasures and charms, to travel to foreign lands, among savage nations and amid untold hardships, privations and dangers, in order to carry to poor heathens the glad tidings of salvation. — At the sight p. 227of the Lamb of God immolated on the altar, thousands of virgins²⁷³273St. Ambrose relates that a noble virgin, when urged by her parents and relatives to marry, fled to the altar. Where could the virgin find a better place than the one in which the Sacrifice of Virginity is offered (ubi sacrificium virginitatis offertur)? She stood at the altar of God—a sacrifice of virginal chastity (stabat ad aram Dei pudoris hostia, victima castitatis)—and begged that the priest might with the altar-cloth as with a holy bridal veil envelope her head and consecrate her a spouse of Christ. “This is the most beautiful bridal veil”—she exclaimed—“upon which Christ is daily offered” (plus tale decet flammeum, in quo caput omnium Christus quotidie consecratur). Cfr. S. Ambr. De virgin. l. 1, c. 11, n. 65. derive courage and energy to tread under foot the world and its allurements, to sacrifice to the Lord wealth, beauty and the charms of youth, to choose a life of self-denial and of the Cross. They do indeed love parents, brothers and sisters, but Jesus, whom they love more than father and mother, has called them, and cheerfully responding to his call, they lay hold of the veil and the crown of thorns, saying: “I will renounce all things for the love of Christ, to serve Him in the person of the poor and the sick.” In the hospitals, in the prisons, in the insane asylums, we behold what treasures of patient charity and of cheerful devotedness are bestowed for the relief and consolation of poor, oppressed and afflicted humanity. Charity in the garb of religion, which from voluntary choice visits such dwellings of misery and suffering, not merely transitorily, but chooses them as its constant place of abode, even choosing such a life among the poor and miserable as its own—such a charity gives more than bread, more than gold: it sacrifices liberty, health and life to serve Christ whom it beholds with the eye of faith concealed beneath the rags of the poor stretched on the bed of sickness. To the altar, to the wedding-feast of the Lamb does the Church lead “her chosen virginal souls, who out of voluntary, devoted love, have sacrificed themselves wholly to Him, who here daily celebrate anew their espousals with the Divine Bridegroom, and who ask nothing else of Him than this, as the greatest of His favors, to be permitted to sacrifice themselves as He did for the brethren. There the sublime and holy love of sacrifice is daily enkindled anew, for sacrifice is love and in sacrifice does love prove itself. This holy love of sacrifice has not only erected hospitals for the poor and the abandoned, it has imprisoned itself with captives in their infected abodes, it has, like Sandoval and Blessed Peter Claver, become forever a slave of the slaves. Where was there ever a creature so unfortunate, so miserable and lamentable, so forsaken and such an outcast, into whose wretched hovel this holy love of sacrifice would not enter, in order to embrace him and kiss his ulcers, at whose wretched couch it would not kneel as a cheerful, helping servant, in order to wash his feet? Such a charity has gone begging for the love of God at the doors of the wealthy, and bestowed the alms received upon the famishing. It is this love of sacrifice, which becomes a child with the child, in order to lead the hearts of p. 229children to their Saviour, which, forgetting its learning, becomes weak with the weak, mourns with those who are in sorrow, becomes all things to all, in order to gain all to Christ” (Hettinger).

3. No pen is able to describe the ardent zeal, the generosity, the energy, the purity of heart and greatness of soul, the magnanimity and meekness, the patience and self-denial—in short, the spirit and love of sacrifice which have flowed forth from the altar for more than eighteen centuries, and made of millions of the children of the Church living holy sacrifices, pleasing unto God (Rom. 12, 1). We too should aspire to be of the number of these her good children, who constitute her crown and joy (Phil. 4, 1); we should make ourselves a sacrifice unto God and for our fellow-men by leading a pure and chaste, an active and patient, a devout and charitable life—a life of sacrifice. Can the life of the true children of God and of the Church in an anti-Christian age and in a world estranged from God be anything than a life of continual sacrifice? “All that will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3, 12). Only in the glow of fire does incense exhale its sweet odors, only in the crucible does gold acquire all its purity and lustre; thus also must we be tested, purified and proved in the crucible of suffering and tribulation, that the fruitful seeds of virtue may blossom in us, and that we may attain eternal joy and glory. “A faithful saying: for, if we be dead with Christ, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2, 11–12). Above all, persevering courage and patient love are necessary to enable us to support the many sacrifices, little and great, that all go to make up the cross placed on our shoulders and to be borne during our pilgrimage through life. We should not painfully drag along our daily cross, but we ought to embrace it with courage and cheerfulness, for it then loses its weight, severity and bitterness—and turns out to be for us a source of blessed peace and undisturbed joy. Since we are the children of God, a chosen generation, a holy and kingly priesthood (1 Peter 2, 9), our aim and conduct in life should glow and shine with a courageous, active, patient love of sacrifice, until we have offered in the service of God and of the neighbor all our strength and goods, and the sacrifice of our own self shall be consummated. Such a life of sacrifice is, indeed, hard and painful to nature, but by the grace of God it becomes sweet and pleasing. The Sacrifice of Christ fortifies and strengthens unto patient endurance; from the altar peace and joy, comfort and refreshment daily flow to us.

The way of sacrifice is the royal road which leads to true life and whose outcome is glorious; yea, even amidst the hardships, difficulties and tribulations of this way, the Lord replenishes and refreshes the generous soul with hidden sweetness, with heavenly consolation and peace, so that she, under the vivifying breath of grace, daily renews her strength, takes flight as that of the eagle, runs and grows not weary, flies and needs no rest (Isa. 40, 31). Man “still combats, strives, suffers here on earth; therefore is he p. 230drawn to his Redeemer, who appears to him not in the splendor of His glory, but in unspeakable humiliation, who is present to him in sacrifice, whose descent upon the altar is an objective, a real memorial of His passion. Thus the sinful, guilty human heart, having its God near it, requires that He should not appear as the just God avenging sin, but as the Victim who hath borne our infirmities and taken away our sorrows, upon whom the Father hath laid the iniquity of us all! (Isa. 53, 6.) Thus the weak, sorrow-stricken human heart requires it, that, as long as trial and mourning, sin and temptation are our portion in this life, we may be able to look to the Highpriest who, tried in all things, ‘hath compassion on our frailty.’

“Again it is not all humiliation without prospect, nor all sorrow without hope, for it is the glorified Christ whom we behold present in His sanctuary, and therefore we behold in His glory the pledge of our transfiguration in good season. As in the life of the Church the gloom of Good Friday and the joys of Easter, as in the life of every individual sorrow and hope of salvation, the daily need and confidence of redemption, follow upon and blend with each other, so Christ is here present poor and humble, as He was once in the manger, and again He is here on the throne of His majesty and glory; for it is He that hath overcome the world, who, elevated upon the Cross, draws all hearts to Himself, before whom all creatures bow down in adoration. Here is our Golgotha, where we grieve beneath the Cross, and our Thabor, where we build tabernacles to receive the peace of Heaven, dread Gethsemani and Easter morn, mystical death and the fountain of life. Thus our Saviour is here, invisible and yet visible, a hidden God and yet evident to our eyes. For in this Sacrament there has appeared for us all the goodness and kindness of our God (Tit. 3, 4). Thus the human heart needs not mere humiliation, not mere grief, and again not mere exaltation, not all joy. For this earthly life is neither the one nor the other. But in Him, the Friend and Spouse of souls, who suffered all that man endures and yet much more, who in grief silently and yet so audibly speaks words of encouragement to us, in the glorified Redeemer, who cries out to us: ‘Have confidence, I have overcome the world’ (John 16, 33), in Him the soul learns to understand the real meaning of life, and from Him she receives resolution and strength to immolate herself also with the Sacrifice offered on the altar. Now she comprehends the Holy Sacrifice as the root and crown of all that is great, noble-minded and sacred in mankind; now she takes pleasure in returning love for love, life for life, in giving herself in sacrifice unto Him who first offered Himself and all things in sacrifice for her. Thus the altar becomes the sanctuary of the Church, the fountain of living water from which flows all that is grand and sublime, all that is glorious and divine over the wide world. Upon the altar where the First-Born among His brethren dwells on His Cross and on His throne, mankind beholds its model, its future, its whole history; p. 231here mankind understands all its sufferings, lays them on the altar, where the Man of Sorrows blesses them and turns them into benefits; here mankind understands all its joys, for His exaltation is man’s exaltation, His victory man’s victory; in the beauty of His body, once wearied of struggle and torn by torments, mankind beholds the image of its own glory” (Hettinger).

The joyful, the sorrowful and the glorious mysteries, which are represented and celebrated on the altar in the Eucharist, become so many figures of our own life, as it begins and as it passes upon earth and as it projects into eternity. For life is made up of joy and sorrow, which lead on to eternal glory. Alternate joys and sorrows, consolations and trials, hopes and visitations make up our life, until all earthly joy and sorrow cease, until what is mortal is absorbed by what is immortal and transfigured in the glory of Heaven. — At the same time we find at the altar powerful assistance and support always to preserve humility and gratitude amid joys and sorrows, and never to lose patience and endurance in the midst of pains and trials. — “The love of Christ urgeth us,” inflames and animates us to make every sacrifice; hence with the Apostle we exclaim in all confidence: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? In all these things we overcome (ὑπερνικῶμεν, supervincimus) because of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that . . . no creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8, 35–39).