The Unbloody Sacrifice of the Altar

A. The Fathers of the East

Among these proofs we may also reckon the beautiful words said to have been addressed by St. Andrew, Apostle, to the proconsul who ordered him to offer sacrifice to the heathen gods. The Acts of the Martyrdom of this Apostle give them as follows: “Every day I present to God Almighty a living sacrifice.... daily I offer to God the Immaculate Lamb upon the Altar of the Cross (that is, upon what takes the place of the Cross). After the faithful have eaten the Flesh of this Immaculate Lamb and drunk of His Blood, He remains whole and living.... Although He has been sacrificed and eaten, this Lamb remains uninjured and lives immaculate in His kingdom.”³⁸38Omnipotenti Deo ego omni die vivum sacrificium offero.... Agnum immaculatum quotidie in altari crucis (= quod est loco crucis) Deo offero, cujus carnes postquam fidelis populus manducavit et ejus bibit sanguinem, Agnus immaculatus integer manet et vivus.... Postquam immolatus et manducatus est, Agnus integer manet et immaculatus vivit in regno suo (S. Andr. Apost. in epist. Presbyt. Achaiae c. 6). — The authenticity of these Acts is indeed disputed; they are, however, an undeniably ancient and venerable written memorial that reaches back to the third century.

St. Irenaeus († 202) distinctly calls the Eucharist the clean oblation predicted by the Prophet Malachias. “Christ,” he writes, “acknowledged (at the Last Supper) the chalice as His Blood and taught the new Sacrifice of the New Covenant, which the Church has received from the Apostles and offers to God throughout the entire world (et novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem, quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo).” “The Jews have not received the Word (Verbum, λόγος), which is sacrificed.” This Sacrifice, which our Lord commanded to be offered, is accepted by God as a “clean oblation and well pleasing to Him” (sacrificium purum et acceptum).³⁹39Adv. haeres. l. 4, c. 17–18.

St. Ephrem († 379)—the greatest and most learned Father of the Syrian Church—filled with enthusiasm, extols the inconceivable dignity of the priesthood of the New Law. “O astounding miracle, O unspeakable power, O dread mystery of the priesthood! Spiritual p. 97and holy, sublime and immeasurable office, which Christ, after His coming into this world, gave to us without our meriting it! On bended knees, with tears and sighs, I beg to consider this treasure of the priesthood; I repeat, a treasure for those who preserve it worthily and holily. Yet, shall I attempt to extol the dignity of the priesthood? It exceeds all comprehension and all conception. It was, I believe, in consideration of the priesthood that St. Paul exclaimed: ‘O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!’” With respect to the Eucharist, we find in his writings the following passage: “Fire once fell upon the sacrifices of Elias and consumed them. For us the fire⁴⁰40The Syrians love to designate the Divinity and especially the Eucharistic presence of the God-Man by the word “Fire”. of mercy became the sacrifice of life. Fire at one time consumed the sacrifice; but Thy fire, O Lord, we eat at Thy Sacrifice.”⁴¹41St. Ephrem, The Incomprehensibility of the Son, chap. 4.

Cyrillonas,⁴²42Cf. Bickell concerning him in the “Bibliothek der Kirchenväter”, Kempten, 1872. after Ephrem the most famous of the Syrian poets, repeatedly evidences in a powerful and original manner the Eucharist as a Sacrifice and Sacrament. In his first homily on the Pasch of Christ, he writes: “The Lord prepared a new banquet, inviting to it those of His household. A feast He prepared for His Spouse to satisfy her hunger. He Himself first offered His own Body, and afterward He was slain by man. He pressed it out in the chalice of redemption, and later on the people also pressed it out on the Cross. Upon His head He placed the crown of glorious prophecy. He sharpened the sacrificial knife of the Law, therewith to immolate His own Body as the paschal Lamb. He brought the nations to His banquet and called the tribes to His feast. He clothed Himself with the true priesthood and with the perfect celebration of sacrifice. He stood there and supported Himself through love and held His own Body high up in His hands. His right hand was a holy altar, His uplifted hand a table of mercy. His omnipotence exercised the true priesthood. He consecrated and blessed Himself, He prayed and gave thanks over His own Body. He sacrificed and slew His own self, He bestowed and pressed out His life-giving Blood. — Come, My disciples, thus cries out the Lord, receive Me, I will place Myself in your hands! Behold, here truly do I stand, but at the same time you really and indeed consume Me. Come, My beloved ones, drink also of My Blood, which is the Blood of the New Testament! Drink of the cup of fire, the Blood which inflames all that partake of it, but in order that you may not forget this evening, more precious to you than the day, that you may not forget this hour, in which you have tasted the Divinity, I command you also, My beloved ones, confidants of My mysteries, to do this: the remembrance of this is not to cease among you until the end of the world! Thus, My brethren, shall you do at all times and be p. 98mindful of Me! In My Church let this be My sublime memorial and upon the face of the earth this shall be My Pasch!” — In a Syrian poem “On Wheat”, which in all probability emanated from the same Cyrillonas, we read the words: “Without wheat (which forms the element of the Eucharistic Sacrifice) the altar would be empty, without it the Holy Ghost could not descend (to the consecration of the Eucharist), without it the priest could not offer the Sacrifice of propitiation, without it, indeed, no man would be able to appease the Deity.”

In a poem on the dedication of a new church, composed by the Syrian Bishop (chorepiscopus) Balaeus⁴³43Cf. Bickell on all the other quotations. (prior to 431), we read: “Enthroned in His house is the Lord, awaiting us that we may enter and implore His mercy. It is not an ordinary dwelling, but a heaven upon earth, because the Lord of heaven resides therein. Instead of angels, holy priests who therein serve the Deity are seen there. The altar is prepared, enveloped in truth; before it stands the priest and enkindles the fire. Bread he takes, but the Body He gives; wine he receives, but Blood he distributes. The altar of stone supports our Hope, the pure priest invokes the Holy Ghost, the assembled faithful unite in the Sanctus, the King hears it and allows His mercy to pour down. Upon the earth stands the altar which bears His Body, and in His heavenly kingdom He imparts eternal life and glory.”

Isaac of Antioch († between 459 and 461) sings in a poem “On Faith”: “I saw the mixed vessel of faith, which was filled with blood instead of wine; and instead of bread the slain body was placed upon the table. I saw the blood and shuddered; the sacrificed body and terror seized me.”

According to Didymus “the Blind” of Alexandria († about 395), the Eucharist is that unbloody Sacrifice daily celebrated throughout the world. “Of that which the Lord Himself has given and daily gives to each (bread and wine), each one receives the unbloody Sacrifice offered devoutly and holily (προσφερομένην δέχεται ἀναίμακτον θυσίαν).” “Why do we with faith and reverence celebrate the so-much-longed-for and carefully prepared Pasch each year, yea, every day, or rather at every hour, in which we partake of His Body and Blood? They who have been favored with this sublime and eternal mystery know what I say.”⁴⁴44De Trinit. II, c. 7; III, c. 21.

Many beautiful and explicit passages relative to the Eucharist are found in the writings of St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem († 386).⁴⁵45Cf. on this subject Becker in the “Katholik” of 1872 (first half)—pp. 422–449; 641–661. In the Fifth Mystagogical Lecture, he treats of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In it he instructs the newly baptized (νεοφώτιστοι) and explains to them its principal points according to the Rite of the Mass of the Church of Jerusalem, that is, the Liturgy of the Apostle St. James. p. 99He calls the time of Sacrifice “a sublimely dread hour,” in which, above all, our hearts should be elevated to God. The Mass is “a holy and tremendous Sacrifice,” “a holy mystery,” “a Sacrifice of reconciliation”—a Sacrifice offered for our sins and for all our wants, for the living and for the dead. “After this spiritual (= mystical, sacramental) Sacrifice, this unbloody worship of God is accomplished (= after the real sacrificial action, the Consecration), over this Sacrifice of reconciliation we implore God⁴⁶46Ἐπὶ τῆς θυσίας ἐκείνης τοῦ ἱλασμοῦ παρακαλοῦμεν τὸν θεόν. to grant universal peace to the churches.... and in unison we pray for all who are in need and offer this Sacrifice. For all among us (= in the Communion of the Church), who have already departed this life, we pray, believing that these petitions will be of the greatest benefit to those souls for whom they are offered, while this holy and most sublime Sacrifice is presented on the altar. For the departed, we offer Christ slain for our sins, inasmuch as we reconcile this beneficent God with them as well as with ourselves.”⁴⁷47Mystag. Catechism, Chap. 8–10.

Gregory of Nazianzum († about 390) carefully draws a distinction between Sacrifice in a strict sense, which the priest alone can offer, and sacrifice in a wider sense, which all the faithful can and should present. The interior sacrifice, self-denial, the spirit of self-immolation, is a necessary requisite for the priest, in order worthily to offer the Sacrifice of the Altar. “As I was not ignorant”—thus he speaks—“that no one is worthy of the great God, our Sacrifice and Highpriest, if he has not beforehand presented himself a living and holy sacrifice to the Lord, and rendered to Him a reasonable, acceptable service, if he has not previously offered to God a sacrifice of praise and a contrite heart, the only gifts required of us by the Giver of all good gifts; how could I have dared to offer to Him the visible Sacrifice, the figure of great mysteries?⁴⁸48The external, that is, the real Sacrifice of the Eucharist, which St. Gregory in this place more minutely characterizes as the unbloody representation of the great Sacrifice of the Cross. How could I have ventured to bear the name and dignity of a priest, before sanctifying my hands with good works, before accustoming my eyes to regard created things in the proper manner,—in admiration of the Creator and not to the ruin of the creature?”⁴⁹49Discourse on His Flight, Chap. 95.

In the writings of St. Chrysostom († 407), we find many important explanations pertaining to the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. With astonishment he praises the dignity of the Christian priesthood, which “not a man, not an angel, nor an archangel, nor any other created power than the Holy Ghost Himself instituted;” he shows what purity and fear of God are required in order that the priest may worthily celebrate the holy and tremendous Sacrifice. “When you behold how the Lord is sacrificed and laid there, and how the priest stands and prays during the Sacrifice: do you still imagine yourself p. 100to be among men and on this earth?”⁵⁰50De sacerdot. l. 6, c. 4. Those who do not remain for the conclusion of this holy action, but who irreverently and with distraction to others leave the church at the time of Communion, are severely censured by the Saint. He admonishes them in this wise: “What art thou doing, O man? When the priest stands before the altar, his hands raised to heaven, invoking the Holy Ghost, that He come and touch (i. e. change) the gifts lying there, then there reigns perfect stillness, deep silence; but when the Spirit has granted the grace, when He has come, when He has touched the gifts on the altar, when thou perceivest the Lamb immolated and prepared, then thou makest a noise and disturbance, then thou contendest and quarrelest.”⁵¹51De coemeter. et cruce n. 3. He teaches that on the Cross and on every altar the sacrificial offering is one and the same—the Divine Lamb Jesus Christ. “We always offer the same Victim, and not one lamb to-day and another to-morrow, but always the same one, so that the Sacrifice is but one. Now, since the Sacrifice is offered everywhere, are there not also many Christs? By no means, for Christ is only one and the same in all places, perfect here and perfect everywhere,—one body. Now, as everywhere, He that is sacrificed is one body and not many bodies, so also there is but one Sacrifice. Our Highpriest is He who offered the Sacrifice that cleanses us. That which was then offered, is now still offered; for it is inexhaustible.”⁵²52In Hebr. hom. 17, n. 3. St. Chrysostom dates the custom of offering the Sacrifice of the Mass for the dead back to the Apostles. “It was not in vain,” he says, “that the Apostles ordained that at the tremendous mysteries the departed should be remembered. They knew that therefrom these would derive great profit and advantage. For if all the congregation and the assembly of priests unite, while the dread Sacrifice is going on at the altar,—why should we not propitiate God by praying in their behalf? This is to be understood only of those who have died in the faith.”⁵³53In Philipp. hom. 3, n. 4. — “Do you desire blood,”—says Christ—“then offer not the blood of animals, but redden My altar with My blood! What is more awe-inspiring,—but at the same time more loving? Thus do lovers act.... But lovers manifest their liberality by bestowing money and gifts and articles of clothing; never yet has any one given his blood: but Christ in this manner proved to us His care and intense love for us. In the Old Law, while men were yet imperfect, He did indeed accept even the blood, that men used to offer to idols, in order to detach them from the idols—and this was indeed a proof of His unutterable love. But in the New Law He would have this holy action performed in a more tremendous and magnificent manner, inasmuch as He changed the sacrifice itself, commanding that He Himself should be sacrificed in place of irrational animals.”⁵⁴5424. Homily on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (10, 17).

B. The Fathers of the West

St. Cyprian († 258) in various places develops glorious sentiments concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He requires the priests to be blameless, devoting themselves by day and by night to things heavenly and spiritual. — According to his teaching, the right to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice constitutes the most beautiful adornment and garland of honor of the Catholic priesthood, and for this reason the deprivation of this privilege was regarded as the most severe and most painful of punishments.⁵⁵55Cfr. Epist. 16. 64. 65. 67. The altar is the place in which those members of the Church who are temporarily separated by distance, the living and the dead, remain in constant and most intimate communication with one another. — When the martyr had consummated his testimony for Christ and gained the heavenly crown of victory, the assembly of the faithful had no better offering to make in gratitude to the triune God than that whereby the bloody victory had been obtained,—namely, the Eucharistic Sacrifice. On the anniversary of the martyrdom, the Holy Sacrifice was always repeated. For the other departed the Holy Sacrifice was offered for another intention—to obtain repose for their souls.⁵⁶56Epist. 12. 39. 66. — The most copious testimonies for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are contained in the letter of St. Cyprian to Caecilius. This letter, called by St. Augustine “liber de sacramento calicis,” is a classic work in proof of the doctrine of sacrifice. In it the Saint combats the abuse and disorder that had obtained in various parts of Africa of using mere water only in the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice instead of wine mixed with water. At the very beginning of the letter, Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is called “the Author and Teacher of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.” The principal passage (No. 14) is as follows: “If Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is Himself the Highpriest of God the Father, and if He first offered Himself to the Father as a sacrifice, commanding the same to be done in commemoration of Him, then, in fact, that priest really takes the place of Christ (vice Christi vere fungitur), who imitates what Christ has done, and then offers to God the Father a true and perfect sacrifice (verum et plenum sacrificium), only when he offers the Sacrifice in such a manner as he sees that Christ Himself offered it.”

St. Ambrose († 397), that strenuous promoter of the dignity and beauty of divine service, expressed himself in a concise and forcible manner with regard to the Sacrifice of the Altar. “If only an angel would stand at our side and render himself visible, when we are burning incense at the altar, when we are celebrating the Sacrifice (sacrificium deferentibus)! For you may not doubt that angels are present, when Christ is there, when Christ is being sacrificed (immolatur)”⁵⁷57In Luc. lib. 1, n. 28. “We saw the Prince of Priests (Christ) coming to us; we saw and heard in what manner He offered His p. 103Blood for us. We priests imitate Him, as is our right, by offering the Sacrifice for the faithful. Although we are poor in merits, we become worthy of veneration by the Sacrifice. Although at present we do not behold (with our bodily eyes) Christ celebrating, it is still He Himself who is being sacrificed upon earth, when Christ’s Body is offered up. Yes, He offers Himself visibly by us, His servants, since His word sanctifies the Sacrifice that is being offered.”⁵⁸58Vidimus principem sacerdotum ad nos venientem, vidimus et audivimus offerentem pro nobis sanguinem suum. Sequimur, ut possumus, sacerdotes, ut offeramus pro populo sacrificium, etsi infirmi merito, tamen honorabiles sacrificio; quia etsi nunc Christus non videtur offerre, tamen ipse offertur in terris, quando Christi corpus offertur; imo ipse offerre manifestatur in nobis, cujus sermo sanctificat sacrificium, quod offertur (In Ps. 38, n. 25). Here it is plainly stated that upon the altar Christ is not only the Sacrificial Gift, but, moreover, the chief Sacrificer, who through the ministrations of the visible priest performs the Eucharistic Sacrificial action (ipse offerre manifestatur in nobis).

Rich in profound instruction on the Sacrifice of the Eucharist are the writings of St. Augustine († 430).⁵⁹59Cf. Wilden, Die Lehre des hl. Augustin über das Opfer der Eucharistie. “Abraham was then, in truth, blessed by Melchisedech, who was a priest of the Most High God. Of the latter many remarkable things are written in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Then appeared for the first time (figuratively) the Sacrifice which is at present offered by Christians throughout the whole world (sacrificium quod nunc a Christianis offertur toto orbe terrarum), and by which is accomplished that which long after this event was said by the Prophet to Christ, who had not yet appeared in the flesh: ‘Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.’ Can any one still doubt of whom this was said, now when there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice according to the order of Aaron, and when everywhere sacrifice is offered through the Highpriest Christ, prefigured by Melchisedech?”⁶⁰60De civit. Dei, l. 16, c. 22; l. 18, c. 7. — “To what else do these words refer: ‘It is not good for a man but to eat and drink’ (Eccl. 8, 15), than to the participation at that table which the Priest and Mediator of the New Law, according to the order of Melchisedech, prepares Himself of His Body and Blood? For this Sacrifice took the place of all the sacrifices of the Old Law, which were offered as shadows of the future Sacrifice. Hence we recognize in the words of Psalm 39 the voice of the Mediator speaking prophetically: ‘Burnt offering and sin-offering Thou didst not require, but a body Thou hast formed unto Me.’ For instead of all those sacrifices and oblations, His Body is sacrificed and administered to the participants (pro illis omnibus sacrificiis et oblationibus corpus ejus offertur et participantibus ministratur).”⁶¹61De civit. Dei, l. 17, c. 20.

St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia, († about 410), has left us several clear testimonies concerning the sacrificial character of the p. 104Mass. In the Old Law many figurative lambs were immolated; but in the New Law “One died for all, and the same One in every house of God imparts renewed vigor, inasmuch as He is offered under the appearances of bread and wine,—He imparts life to them that believe, sanctifies them that consecrate, inasmuch as He is consecrated (in mysterio panis ac vini reficit immolatus, vivificat creditus, consecrantes sanctificat consecratus).” God purifies and enlightens our hearts for the knowledge of divine mysteries, so that “we comprehend the cause and reason of the heavenly Sacrifice instituted by Christ, in order to return thanks to Him for His ineffable gift (a Christo instituti sacrificii coelestis causam rationemque noscamus, inenarrabili dono ejus sine fine gratias relaturi).”⁶²62Second Sermon.

Pope St. Leo the Great († 461) draws an accurate distinction between the general (not the real) and the special (real) priesthood. “The sign of the Cross makes kings of all those who are born again to Christ, but the unction of the Holy Ghost dedicates them as priests, so that all who in spirit and in truth are Christians, independently of the special service of our priestly office (praeter istam specialem nostri ministerii servitutem), participate in a royal race and in a priestly dignity. For what is so regal as the spirit which has subjected the body to the dominion of God? And what so priestly as to dedicate to the Lord a clean conscience, and present to Him upon the altar of the heart pure sacrifices of devotion (vovere Domino conscientiam puram et immaculatas pietatis hostias de altari cordis offerre)?”⁶³63Third (fourth) Sermon; Anniversary of Consecration. He says that Christ at the Last Supper instituted the Sacrifice of the New Testament: “Jesus firmly persevering in His decree, and undaunted in the execution of the will of His Father, brought to an end the Old Testament and founded the new Easter. For as the disciples sat with Him at table, to partake of the mystical supper (ad edendam mysticam coenam), while the Jews were deliberating in the Court of Caiphas, in what manner to kill Him, Christ instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, and instructed them as to what kind of victim should be offered to God (corporis et sanguinis sui ordinans sacramentum docebat, qualis Deo hostia deberet offerri).”⁶⁴64Seventh Sermon on the Lord’s Passion. — He also proves that in Christ’s Sacrifice the figures of the Old Law found their fulfilment and consummation. “Thou hast drawn all to Thyself, O Lord, for, by the rending of the veil of the temple, the Holy of Holies was taken away from the unworthy highpriests, the figure passed over into the reality, the prophecy into its fulfilment, and the law into the Gospel. All hast Thou drawn to Thyself, O Lord, so that at present when the mystery is accomplished and disclosed (pleno apertoque Sacramento), the piety of all nations celebrates what formerly in the one temple of Judea was solemnized in figurative symbols (obumbratis significationibus). For now the estate of deacons (ordo p. 105levitarum) is more splendid, the dignity of priests (seniorum) is greater and the anointing of bishops (sacerdotum) is holier, because Thy Cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces; by it the faithful receive strength instead of weakness, honor instead of ignominy, and life instead of death. Now when the manifold animal sacrifices have ceased, the one Sacrifice of Thy Body and Blood supplies the place of all other sacrifices (omnes differentias hostiarum una corporis et sanguinis tui implet oblatio); for Thou art the true Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, Thou hast accomplished in Thyself all mysteries, so that in place of all sacrifices there is one Sacrifice (sicut unum est pro omni victima sacrificium), thus all nations form but one kingdom (the Church).”⁶⁵65Eighth Sermon on the Lord’s Passion. — Cf. the Secreta of the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost: Deus, qui legalium differentiam hostiarum unius sacrificii perfectione sanxisti, accipe sacrificium a devotis tibi famulis....

2. The foregoing passages from the Fathers are a sufficiently valid proof of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist. Annexed to these is another proof, which, if possible, is still more clear and more convincing. We allude to the proofs from the venerable ancient documents and monuments of ecclesiastical liturgy. — They contain a rich treasure of the truths of salvation; they are veritable mines of gold with respect to Catholic dogma. Doctrine constitutes the root and the soul of both ecclesiastical life and its worship. There is no point of external life in which the truths of faith are more directly and more distinctly revealed than in the liturgy of the Church. Hence these truths can often with certainty be known and recognized therefrom according to the maxim of Pope Celestine I.: Legem credendi lex statuit supplicandi⁶⁶66Epist. ad Gall. Episc. n. 11.—“The liturgical form of prayer becomes the standard of faith.” — With special reference to our subject, there are a vast number of both Eastern and Western liturgies and directions for the Mass. By these are meant collections of formulas of the prayers and rites,⁶⁷67Liturgiarum nomine intellegi debent Officia seu Rituales libri auctoritate publica Ecclesiarum scripti, earumque usu comprobati, quibus preces et ritus ad consecrandam et administrandam Eucharistiam continentur (Renaudot. Liturg. orient. collect. I, 152). according to which the Eucharistic Sacrifice has always been celebrated. These liturgies are in their essence and substance decidedly of Apostolic origin. They are composed in different languages, and they were for centuries in daily and public use in various places and among diverse nations—and, consequently, they denote the universal and constant belief of Christendom. Now, however variously they may otherwise be framed, all these liturgical formulas agree perfectly in essentials, so that they represent in their whole contents the Eucharistic celebration as the true Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb, Jesus Christ.

In these liturgical formulas of prayer the Eucharist is designated a sacrifice, a perpetual sacrifice, a holy sacrifice, a heavenly sacrifice, a divine sacrifice, a tremendous sacrifice, a sacrifice deserving of p. 106honor, a reasonable and unbloody sacrifice, a sacrifice for the living and the dead, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; and especially a sacrifice of propitiation and petition. In the Eucharist are offered gifts that are holy, precious, unspeakable, glorious and without blemish; and mysteries are celebrated that are divine, profoundly hidden and full of awful majesty. Christ is styled the Lamb living and as yet slain upon the altar. He is glorified as the Sacrificing Priest and Sacrificial Gift, as well as the Founder of this Sacrifice. They mention a holy altar, which the priest approaches only with a pure conscience, in fear and trembling.

In the liturgy of St. James, for instance, it is said: “Let all mortal flesh be silent, standing there in fear and trembling, let all things of earth vanish from our thoughts; for the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Christ our God, is about to be sacrificed and to be given as food to the faithful. Before Him choirs of angels go, clothed with power and dominion, with faces veiled, chanting the hymn, Alleluia.” The Coptic liturgy of St. Cyril directs the priest to say: “Make us worthy, O Lord, to present to Thee this holy, reasonable, spiritual and unbloody Sacrifice for the remission of our sins and for the pardon of the faults of Thy people.” To this may be added a passage for the consecration of bishops, found in the Apostolic Constitution (l. VIII, c. 5), which runs thus: “Grant to him, Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, participation in the Holy Ghost, that he may have the power to appoint clerics and to loosen all bonds, and that he may please Thee by a heart meek and pure, steadfast, guileless and blameless, offering to Thee the immaculate and unbloody Sacrifice, which Thou, through Christ, hast instituted as the mystery of the New Law as an agreeable odor to Thee.” In a letter to the clergy of Neo-Caesarea, St. Basil assures them that the following prayer was used in all the churches of the East: “Strengthen me, Almighty God, with the power of Thy holy Spirit, and grant that I, invested with the grace of the priesthood, may present myself at Thy holy table to offer to Thee Thy Holy and immaculate Body and Thy precious Blood. I humbly beseech Thee not to turn Thy face from me, but graciously permit these gifts to be offered to Thee by Thy unworthy servant and sinner, as I am. For it is Thou who offerest and who art offered; it is Thou who acceptest this Sacrifice and who art distributed.”

3. Thus in the first ages faith the sacrificial character of the Eucharist was expressed in the most striking and unequivocal manner both by the doctrine and practice of the entire Church; but such universal and unchangeable belief of Christianity can rest only on divine revelation, that is, it must proceed from Christ and the Apostles. Our faith, therefore, is that of the first Christians, the faith of Christian antiquity. This fact invariably imparts to the Catholic heart untold satisfaction, in finding the most sacred truths and the treasures of religion sustained by so great an array of witnesses from ecclesiastical antiquity.

4. In conclusion, we will cast a rapid glance upon the Roman Catacombs, in which the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, proved from the Fathers and liturgies, rises up to view in picturesque representations and symbolical illustrations.⁶⁸68Cf. Kraus, Roma Sotterranea. — P. Wolter, Die Römischen Katakomben. — De Richemont, Die neuesten Studien über die Katakomben. — Ott, Die ersten Christen über und unter der Erde. The Catacombs, according to their original plan and destination, were burial places in which the remains of Christians were deposited. In times of persecution they served also as places of refuge, especially for the clergy, and at the same time they were used for divine worship. On the walls and ceilings of these subterranean mortuary chapels, the persecuted Christians inscribed in symbolic pictures, as simple as they were touching, their superhuman faith, hope and charity. In the mysterious language of the Catacombs we may, therefore, read many of the doctrines of faith, emblematically represented as in a pictorial catechism; this is the case also with the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The most ancient and, at the same time, most prominent representation of the Eucharistic service dates from the beginning of the second century, and is found in the so-called “Greek Chapel” in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla. It consists of a continuous fresco cycle, the centre of which exhibits the breaking of the bread (fractio panis, ἡ κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου). As the artist placed this portion of the picture right over the altar, it must be considered as an altar-piece. It represents the liturgical fraction of the consecrated bread, which precedes holy Communion, by the hands of the bishop. — On a semicircular sopha are six persons in a lying position, five men and one woman. At the right of the sopha, i. e., in the place of honor, on a low stool is seated a man, who must be the principal personage, for he alone wears a beard. He is certainly the one who presides, the “chief among the brethren” (ὁ προεστὼς τῶν ἀδελφῶν), the one who offers the sacrifice, for he holds the bread in his hands, and by his whole demeanor shows that he is about to break it for his companions. Near by at his feet stands a chalice, having the form of a pretty large two-handled goblet; a little further off are two dishes containing two fishes and five loaves, and at both extremities of the scene are baskets filled to the brim with bread. These five loaves, two fishes and seven filled baskets are, doubtless, an allusion to the wonderful multiplication of the loaves and the feeding of the multitude by our divine Saviour, for in this miracle all Christian antiquity recognized a figure of the eucharistic banquet. Near the altar-piece is depicted the typical sacrifice of Abraham, which reminds us of the eucharistic sacrifice. The other scenes surrounding that of the breaking of the bread are symbolical and throw light on the various aspects and effects of the Eucharist as a sacrifice and as holy Communion. It is worthy of remark that it is only in the “Greek Chapel” and in Lucina’s crypt that both eucharistic species are p. 108represented, and that in later paintings the wine is wanting, and in the miracle of the loaves the bread alone appears. The aforesaid highly significant fresco represents that moment of the eucharistic service, when the celebrant divides the consecrated bread, in order to distribute it with the blood of Christ in the chalice to the faithful present.⁶⁹69Cfr. Wilpert, Fractio panis. Freiburg, Herder, 1895.

In the larger chapels there is usually placed on or by the side of a martyr’s grave an altar, upon which the Eucharistic Sacrifice was celebrated. The credence-table, on which to place bread and wine, was a niche arranged in the wall or a projecting slab. In addition, many liturgical representations are found. Let us enter the Catacombs of St. Callistus and there consider more closely two Eucharistic paintings.

Upon a three-legged table are depicted three loaves and a fish; near by on the floor are seven baskets filled with bread. What does this mystical representation illustrate? The table can be but the table of the Lord, the table (altar) of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The fish lying on it is an ancient Christian emblem of “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour.” As the artist has placed the fish on the table with the loaves of bread, it is natural to imagine his idea was, that Jesus Christ the Divine Fish, under the appearance of bread is truly present and offered on the altar. The seven baskets filled with bread, that surround the table, are doubtless intended to insinuate that it is, at the same time, a dining-table, a table from which the faithful, as St. Paulinus of Nola († 431) says, receive the “true bread and the fish of living waters.”

The sacrificial character of the Mass is still more emphatically symbolized in a painting found in the so-called “chapel of the sacrament” of the same cemetery. On the main wall, adjacent to the martyr’s grave or the altar, there is painted a three-legged table upon which are represented bread and a fish; along-side of the table stands a man to one side, his right hand extended in blessing above the offerings (fish and bread), while on the opposite side there is seen a female with hands uplifted, praying (Orans). Who can fail to see in this picture the representation of the Eucharistic Sacrifice? The man vested in the reddish ascetic-cloak, extending his right hand over the paten, is evidently a priest who blesses, i. e. consecrates the bread, that is, who changes it into the living and divine Fish, into the Body of Jesus Christ, and in this manner offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice. — The figure of the woman in prayer is a common symbol of the virginally pure and maternally fruitful Church, in whose name the priest at the altar celebrates and prays.⁷⁰70According to Wilpert’s latest explanation, it is not the act or moment of the eucharistic consecration that is depicted in this famous picture, but a realistic appendix to the adjoining scene of the Last Supper; the priest puts forth his hand not to bless or consecrate, but is about to take up the eucharistic food in order to distribute it to the faithful; and the standing figure Orans at the right is the representation of a soul thinking to be in heaven, by which an allusion is made to the effects of holy Communion. See Fractio panis, p. 81 and 82.p. 109 — In order to show the meaning and object of this picture in a still clearer light, the figurative sacrifice of Abraham is represented on the opposite wall; here this is, as is usually the case, the special type of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, not of the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross. Abraham did indeed sacrifice his son. But in reality the blood of Isaac was not shed; he was only “as if slain” (tanquam occisus, Apoc. 5, 6). Abraham “received him for a parable (ἐν παραβολῇ)” from death, that is, as though he had been resuscitated (Heb. 11, 19). By this the unbloody Sacrifice of the altar is prefigured: for here Christ is the Lamb that dieth no more, but liveth eternally, although He is forever mystically immolated (Agnus, qui numquam moritur immolatus, sed semper vivit occisus).

These glorious testimonials of the Eucharistic Sacrifice are so much the more precious, because they originated at times in which the situation of Christians was painful and oppressive, as is described in the inscription on the grave of the martyr Alexander in the Catacombs of St. Callistus: “Alexander is not dead, but above the stars, and his body reposes in this grave. Kneeling in order to sacrifice to the true God, he was led to death. O deplorable times, in which we cannot even offer the holy mysteries and safely say our prayers in caves! What is more miserable than life!” — In the quiet enclosure of this city of death, the mysterious sounds of the sublime psalmody of the faithful resounded; here at the graves of the martyrs the Holy Sacrifice was celebrated; here the faithful received the Bread of the strong, and, strong in faith, they hastened to the battle-field of martyrdom, to shed their blood and to die for Christ. To this day the odor of sanctity, the perfume of sacrifice, the spirit of martyrdom emanate from these silent caves and chambers of the Catacombs, in which the venerated traces of the faith and life of the early Christians, throughout the centuries to our own epoch, have been preserved for our joy and consolation. — “Holy Church has received and faithfully retained the blessed inheritance (of the Eucharistic Sacrifice) transmitted to her, mindful of the Divine commission: ‘Do this in commemoration of Me!’ When the storm of persecution was at its height, she went down into the subterranean Catacombs; she retired into lonely vales and sequestered mountain caves. Amid the silence of night and deep under the ground on rude altars, she performed the mysterious service of the sacrifice of the Lord’s Supper, and sent forth her confessors fortified thereby, to give testimony for the Lord in the world before their persecutors, under the sword, on the rack, among wild beasts, into the billows and every kind of torture, and, after His example, to seal their testimony with their blood. The death of the Christian became continually the seed of new confessors to the Cross. And as the Lord had been three days in the grave, and afterward had risen in power and gloriously ascended into heaven; so the Church also, after years of persecution, arose from the bosom of the earth, from the Catacombs and caves, and triumphed over all the powers of the p. 110world and hell. Thus risen, the Church went into the cities, villages and valleys and far up mountainous heights, entering into the basilicas, marble temples, grand cathedrals, numberless churches and chapels, built therein altars, and celebrated, as formerly in the stillness of the night, but now in the light of open day, in the presence of the assembled congregations, the heritage of the Lord, the mystery of His Last Supper, the perpetual Sacrifice of His death on the Cross. From this time on, she fulfilled for all ages her mission of carrying to all countries of the world her most holy inheritance. She gathered nation after nation around her altar, celebrated with them, generation after generation, the sacrificial death of the Redeemer, distributed to them the Body of the Lord (and the chalice of His Blood), and thereby accomplished the new and eternal covenant: ‘Do this in commemoration of Me,’ and fulfilled the testament of the Lord: ‘It is consummated!’ As the Prophet had predicted, she offered the new and clean, the true and perfect Sacrifice of the New Law everywhere, thus glorifying the name of the Lord in all parts of the globe, from the rising of the sun until the setting thereof” (Geissel).