Until Luther’s time, all the nations of the Earth held and lived up to this truth. And when the so-called Reformers excluded Sacrifice from religion, they took away its very basis.
Let us adore Christ, the King, who ruleth the nations; who giveth fatness of spirit to them that eat him.
The Desired of all nations (Haggai 2:8), the Angel of the testament whom Israel longs for (Malachi 3:1), has come down from Heaven. Wisdom is come among us. Who, asks the Prophet, will go up into Heaven, to take Wisdom, and bring Him down from the clouds? Who will pass over the sea, and bring Him from distant lands, Him, the treasure more precious than the purest gold? Israel has forsaken the fountain of Wisdom. He has not even been heard of in the land of Canaan. He has not been seen in Idumea. The children of Agar, the princes of the nations, the philosophers of earthly wisdom, the ingenious inventors, the searchers after science, the hoarders of riches, and makers of strength and beauty, which do but cheat the beholder: all these have not known the ways of Wisdom, they have not understood His paths (Baruch 3:12-38).
But, lo! the Son promised to David has sat upon His throne of glory. He is the source of Wisdom. The four rivers of Paradise have derived all their waters from Him. His thoughts are more vast than the sea, and his counsels more deep than the great ocean (Ecclesiasticus 24:34-39). He is come to fulfill the mysterious design of the divine and sovereign will — that is, to re-establish, by uniting all things in Himself, all that are in Heaven and on Earth (Ephesians 1:10). He is truly Mediator, for He is Himself both God and Man. And being also High Priest, He is the bond of that holy religion which fastens on all things to the Creator in the unity of one same homage. His Sacrifice is the masterpiece of the divine Wisdom: it is by that Sacrifice that, embracing all created beings in the immensity of the love whose impatient ardor has been the subject of our past considerations, He makes the whole world become one sublime holocaust to His Father’s glory. Let us then proceed to consider Him in this immolation of His victim. Let us reverently watch Him setting forth His table (Proverbs 9:2). The Eucharist has been instituted for the very purpose of ceaselessly applying, here on Earth, the reality of Christ’s Sacrifice. Today, therefore, we will turn our thoughts upon this Sacrifice, as it is in its own self. This will enable us the better to understand how it is continued in the Church.
God has a right to his creature’s homage. If earthly kings and lords may claim from their vassals this recognition of their sovereignty,—the sovereign dominion of the great and first Being, the first cause and last end of all things, demands it, on an infinitely just title, from beings called forth from nothing by his almighty goodness. And just as by the rent or service which accompanies it, the homage of vassals implies, together with the avowal of their submission, the real, the effective declaration that it is from their liege-lord that they hold their property and rights; so the act, whereby the creature, as such, subjects himself to his Creator, should adequately manifest, by and of itself, that he acknowledges him as the Lord of all things and the author of life. Moreover, if, by the infringement of his commands, he has deserved death, and only lives because of the infinite mercy of this his sovereign Lord,—then his act of homage or fealty will not be complete unless it also express an avowal of his guilt and the justice of the punishment. Such is the true notion of Sacrifice, so called because it sets apart from the rest of similar beings, and makes sacred the offering whereby it is expressed: for spirits purely immaterial, the offering or oblation will be interior and exclusively spiritual; but as regards man, this oblation must be spiritual, and at the same time, material, for, being composed of a soul and a body, he owes homage to his God for both.
Sacrifice may not be offered but to the one true God, for it is the effective acknowledgement of the Creator’s sovereign dominion, and of that glory which belongs to Him, and which He will not make over to another (Isaias 48:11). It is essential to religion, be the state that of innocence or of fall; for religion, the queen of moral virtues, whose object is the worship due to God, necessarily demands Sacrifice, as its own adequate exercise and expression. Eden would have witnessed this Sacrifice offered by unfallen man; it would have been one of adoration and thanksgiving; its material portion would have been that garden’s richest fruits, those symbols of the divine fruit promised by the tree of life; sin would not have put its own sad stamp on such Sacrifice, and blood would not have been required. But man fell; and then, Sacrifice became the only means of propitiation, and the necessary center of religion in this land of exile. Until Luther’s time, all the nations of the earth held and lived up to this truth; and when the so-called Reformers excluded Sacrifice from religion, they took away its very basis. Nor is the duty of Sacrifice limited to man’s earthly existence; no, the creature when in heaven, and in the state of glory, must still offer Sacrifice to his Creator; for he has as much, and even more, obligation when he is in the brightness of the Vision, as when he lived amid the shadows of Faith, to offer to the God who has crowned him, the homage of those gifts received.
It is by Sacrifice that God attains the end He had in view by creation, that is, His own glory (Proverbs 16:4). But in order that there should go up from this universe an homage in keeping with the magnificence of its Maker, there was needed some one leader or head who should represent all creation in his one person; and then, using it as his own property, should offer it in all its integrity, together with himself, to the Lord God. There was something better than this; and it is just what God has done: by giving his own Son, clad in our nature, to be the Head of creation, he obtains an infinite return of glory; for the homage of this inferior nature assumes the dignity of the Person offering it; and the honor thus paid becomes truly worthy of the supreme Majesty. And as a banker knows how to draw golden interest from even the least sum entrusted to his keeping, so our God has, from a world made out of nothing, produced a fruit of infinite worth.
Yes, truly marvelous finish to his work of creation! The immense glory rendered to the Father by the Word Incarnate has brought God and the creature nearer to each other; it tells upon the world, by filling up its hateful depths of misery with grace, grace abundant and rich; and thereby the distance between God and us does not exclude the union for which he first made us. The Sacrifice of the Son of Man becomes the basis and cause of the supernatural order both in heaven and on earth. Christ was the first and chief object of the decree of creation; and therefore, it was for him and upon him as type, and in harmony with the qualities of the nature, that he was at a given future time to assume to himself,—that, at the Father’s bidding, there came forth out of nothing the various grades of being, spiritual and material, all of which were intended to form the palace and court of the future God-Man. It was the same also in the order of grace,—this God-Man, who is to be the most Beautiful among the children of men, is, in all truth, the Well-Beloved. The Spirit of love, as a precious and fragrant ointment, will flow from this one Well Beloved, from this dear Head, upon all His Members, yes, and even to the lowest skirt of His garment (Psalm 132:2), generously communicating true life, supernatural being, to those whom Christ shall have graciously called to a participation of his own divine substance, in the banquet of love. For the Head will lead on his Members; these will unite to his, their own homage, which, being in itself too poor to be offered to God’s infinite Majesty, will,—by their incorporation with the Incarnate Word, in the act of his Sacrifice,—put on the dignity of Christ himself.
It is on this account, as we have already noticed and cannot too strongly urge, that one should inveigh against the narrow-minded individualism which is now so much the fashion, of attaching more importance to the practices of private devotion than to the solemnity of those great acts of the Liturgy, which form the very essence of religion. Thus, as we were just saying, it is by the sacrifice of the God-Man that the entire creation is consummated in unity, and that true social life is founded upon God. God is one in his essence; the ineffable harmony of the Three Divine Persons does but bring out more clearly, by its sublime fecundity, this infinite Unity. The creature, on the contrary, is multiplicity; and the division, resulting from Adam’s fall, has strongly emphasized this mark of finite and borrowed being. And yet, having come forth from God’s hands, it must return thither, it must, that is, procure his glory; and this it cannot do, save on the condition of there being removed that unhappy division which separates it from both God and its fellow creatures; its very multiplicity must reproduce, as it tends towards its Maker, an image of the fruitful harmony of the Three Divine Persons, That they, also, may be one in us, as we also are ONE: (John 17:21-22) there is the grand revelation of God’s intentions, when he produced creatures; and the revelation is made to us by the Angel of the great Counsel, who is come upon this earth, that he might carry out the divine plan. Now, what is it that brings all the several elements of the social body into oneness, by bringing them back to their Creator? It is religion. And what is the fundamental act of religion? Sacrifice. Sacrifice is both the means and scope of this magnificent unification in Christ; its perfect realization will mark the consummation of the eternal kingdom of the Father, who will have become, through His Christ, all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)
But this royalty of endless ages which is to be procured for the Father by Christ’s reign here below (1 Corinthians 15:24-25) has enemies, and they must be subdued. The principalities, and powers, and virtues of Satan’s kingdom are leagued against it. They were jealous of Man, the image of God’s own likeness; and that envy made them turn their attacks on man: they led him to disobedience, and disobedience brought death into the world. By man, now become its slave, sin took occasion by every one of God’s commandments to insult that God. (Wisdom 2:23-24) Far from studying how to offer to its Maker the homage due to Him, the human race seemed bent on intensifying the poverty of its original nothingness by adding to it the baseness of every sort of defilement. So that, before being capable of acceptableness with the Father, the future members of Christ have need of a Sacrifice of propitiation and acquittance. Their Christ will Himself have to live the expiatory life which comports a sinner. He will have to suffer their sufferings, and die the death. (Genesis 2:17) Yes, death was the penalty threatened from the very commencement as sanction of God’s commandment. It was the severest penalty the transgressor could possibly pay, and yet was not adequate to the offence offered by the transgression to the infinite Majesty of God unless a Divine Person, taking upon Himself the terrible responsibility of this infinite debt, were to undergo Himself the punishment due upon man and, by so, doing restore man to innocence.
Oh then let our High Priest come forth. Let the divine Head of our human race and world show Himself! Because He has loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore has God anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows, (Psalm 44:8) His brethren. He was Christ by the priesthood destined to be His from the very bosom of His Father, and confirmed by a solemn oath. (Psalms 109:4) He is Jesus, too, for the sacrifice He is about to offer will save His people from their sin. (Matthew 1:21) Jesus Christ, then, is to be forever the name of the eternal Priest. What power and what love are there not in His Sacrifice! Priest and Victim at one and the same time, He swallows death in order to destroy it, and by that very act crushes sin by His own innocent flesh suffering its penalty. He satisfies, even to the last farthing, yes, and far beyond it, the justice of His Father. He takes the decree that was against us, nails it to the Cross, and blots out the handwriting. And then, despoiling the principalities and powers of their tyrant sway, He triumphs over them in Himself. (Colossians 2:14-15) Our old man was crucified together with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed; renovated by the Blood of his Redeemer, he can rise together with Him from the tomb and begin a new life (Romans 6:4-10). Ye are dead, says the Apostle, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ will appear, who is your Life, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:3) For it is as our Head that Christ suffered. His Sacrifice includes the whole body, of which He is the Head, and He transforms it by uniting it to Himself for an eternal holocaust, the sweet fragrance of which is to fill Heaven itself.
“The word comes forward,” says Saint Ambrose, “in the robes of the High Priest, which Moses described (Exodus 28). He is clad with the world in its magnificence that He may fill all with the fullness of God. He is the Head which rules the body, and He unites it closely to Himself. (De fuga sæculi, xvi) Speaking of Himself, He said: And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, still draw all things to myself. (John 12:32) David had sung all this in the Psalm in which he said: All flesh shall come unto thee (Psalm 64:3). How so? “Because,” answers Saint Augustine, “He took flesh; and that flesh which He took will draw all flesh. He took its first-fruits when He took flesh from the Virgin’s womb; the rest will follow, and the holocaust will be complete;” the holocaust of which this same Psalm says that the vow shall be paid in Jerusalem. (Enarrat. in Ps. lxiv), For what is this vow made by Christ, our Head, but the vow which He Himself describes so fully in the next Psalm? I will go into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, which my lips have uttered. And my mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble: I will offer up to you holocausts full of marrow, with the incense of rams; I will offer to you bullocks, with goats. (Psalm 65:13-15).
What is this day on which our High Priest was in trouble? It is that of which the Apostle speaks when he tells us that with a strong cry and tears, He offered up prayers and supplications to Him (His Father), who was able to save Him from death (Hebrews 5:7). But why does this Jesus mention rams and bullocks and goats — those offerings become useless and rejected of God? Did He not Himself say when He came into our world: Sacrifice and oblation you would not; but a body you have fitted to me? (Hebrews 10:5-6) Yea, truly, and it is this Body of Christ, says Saint Augustine, which is here shown to us in this Psalm. He presents His Body as the offering He vows to His Father: the rams are the leaders of the Church. (Enarrat in Ps. lxv) Hear my prayer, continues the Psalmist, prophesying of our High Priest, — O hear my prayer: all Flesh will come unto thee. Princes and people of all nations, children, young men and old, Jews and Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians — all are on the Wood, and are the victim vowed to the Father. It is with all these, and in their name, and for their sakes, in the entirety and unity of His Body, that Christ said to His Father: “I will go into your house with burnt offerings; send thy Fire, the fire of thy Spirit, the divine flame of me, Eternal Wisdom. Let it burn and wholly burn this Body which I have taken to myself. Let it be a holocaust, that is, let it be all thine, O Father!” (St. Augustine. passim in Psalmos)
Come, then, O ye children of God! Bring to the Lord the offspring of rams. (Psalm 28:1) The voice of the Lord has been heard in its power; he bids the flame of Fire come down upon the mount; the Holocaust is already burning, and from Calvary the fire will spread throughout the world. The divine Fire pursues its work, each succeeding generation; it absorbs into itself each of the members of the great Victim, that is, each one of the Faithful; it devours sin; it burns out the dross of vice; it purifies, even in the dust of the grave, the flesh that has once been sanctified by the touch of Christ, in the sacred Mystery. It is a true fire of Heaven; it is the uncreated flame; it destroys nought but evil; it sends, indeed, suffering and death among men, but it is only that it may deliver them from the wreck and ruin of the Fall, and, by expiation, remake the whole human race. The day will come when this Fire of the great Sacrifice, having drawn into itself the last member of Christ’s mystical body, the very flesh itself of the elect will reappear all spiritual and glorified; and this wonderful transformation of the victim will make it a sacrifice truly worthy of the Lord God, and an assertion, far stronger than was its destruction by death, of the sovereign power and dominion of Him who is the Author of Life. Then will the complete body of the Word Incarnate ascend, like purest incense, from the holy mount whereon the Church had fixed her tent here below, and make its way even to the Altar of heaven; it will be the eternal aliment of the divine flame, the immense holocaust, in which “the city of the redeemed, the people of the saints, will be offered to God, as the universal sacrifice, by the great High Priest, who offered himself for us, in his Passion, in the form of a servant and slave, that we might be the body of so great a Head.” (St Augustine, De civit. Dei, 10:6).
In this “universal sacrifice,” as we have just heard Saint Augustine calling it, in this Sacrifice of adoration and thanksgiving in which expiation will no longer have part, the very spirits of the angelic hosts will be included: for they too are the Sacrifice of the Lord, making up, together with ourselves, the one only City of God, of which the Psalm sings (Ibid. 7, and Psalm 86). St. Cyril of Alexandria thus speaks on the Angels forming part of the universal sacrifice: ”We have all received of the fullness of Christ, as St. John tells us; for every creature, not only visible but invisible, also receives of Christ; for the Angels and Archangels, and the spirits that are above these, and, finally, the very Cherubim are sanctified in the Holy Ghost, not otherwise than by Christ alone. So that He (Christ) is the Altar, He is the Incense, He is the High Priest, just as He is the blood of the cleansing away of sins.” (De adorat. in spir. et ver., lib. ix)
Having, therefore, as our great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who, by one oblation, hath perfected forever the holy City,—let us hold fast the teaching of this glorious faith. (Hebrews 4:14; 10:14) As the high priest of old went on the Day of Atonement, himself alone into the Holy of Holies, holding in his hands the blood of propitiation,—so our High Priest, Jesus, having purchased eternal redemption for us, has withdrawn himself for a time from our sight. (Hebrews 9:12, 24). Minister of the true sanctuary and tabernacle set up by God Himself, (Hebrews 8:2) we have seen this Jesus of ours entering, by his triumphant Ascension, beyond the veil; and that veil is still down, hiding God’s sovereign Majesty from our view. There, in the sanctuary of heaven, is he celebrating, and with unbroken unity, the rite of his Sacrifice, presenting thereby to his Father, in the human nature which he has assumed, and which is now marked with the bright stigmata of his Passion, the august Victim, whose immolation here on earth called for the consummation in heaven. Meanwhile, as heretofore, the people of Israel awaited the high priest’s return out of the Holy of Holies, so too we Christians, here below, keep close to our Priest, and are ever at prayer round the Altar which is in the outer court. “It is the Day of Atonement,” says Origen, “and it lasts till the setting sun, that is, till the world comes to an end. We stand nigh the door, awaiting our High Priest who is within the Holy of Holies, praying, not for the sins of all, but for the sins of them that are awaiting him … There were two portions of the holy place, as we are told by Scripture: one was visible and accessible to all the priests; but the other was invisible, and no one might enter into it, save only the High Priest, and while he was there, the rest stood outside; I believe that, by this first portion, is to be understood the Church wherein we now are, while in the flesh; in this portion, priests are ministering at the altar of holocausts, which is fed by that fire of which our Jesus speaks, saying: I came to cast fire on the earth, and I will it to be enkindled … It is there, in that first portion, that the High Priest offers the victim; and it is thence, also, that he goes forth in order to enter into the inner veil, the second portion, which is heaven itself, and the throne of God. But take notice of the wonderful order of the mysteries: the fire which he takes with him into the Holy of Holies, he takes from the altar of that first portion; and the incense, he takes it from that same portion, yea, and the vestments wherewith he is robed, he received them in that same place.” (In Levit. Hom 9)
Nor is that all: even after his departure, the fire of the Sacrifice is not extinguished in the outer court; and the victim of Atonement, whose Blood gives him admission into the most holy sanctuary, continues to burn and be offered on our outer Altar.
MASS
This Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi is the second after Pentecost. The Introit is taken from the 17th Psalm, which sings the praises of the God, who protects his people, and delivers them from their enemies. Let us lovingly extol this God, who is our support and our refuge.
The Lord hath, become my protector, and set me at large: he hath saved me, because he loved me.
Ps. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my support, my refuge, and my deliverer. Glory, etc. The Lord, etc.
In the Collect, the Church prays for us, that we may have love and fear of God’s holy name. Yes, the fear here spoken of, the fear which children have for their father, does not exclude love; on the contrary, it strengthens love, by guarding it against the negligence and oversights into which certain souls are led by a false familiarity.
COLLECT
Grant us, O Lord, both a constant love and fear of thy holy Name: since thou never withdrawest thy protection from those whom thou solidly groundest in thy love. Through, etc.
COMMEMORATION OF CORPUS CHRIST
O God, who, under the wonderful Sacrament, hast left us a memorial of thy Passion: grant us, we beseech thee, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that, in our souls, we may always feel the fruit of thy Redemption. Who livest, etc.
EPISTLE
Lesson of the Epistle of Saint John the Apostle, 1 John 3:13-18
Dearly beloved, wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.
These impressive words of the Beloved Disciple could not have a more appropriate occasion for their being addressed to the faithful than this joyous Octave. God’s love for us is both the model and motive of that which we owe to our fellow-men: the divine charity is the type of ours. I have given you an example, says our Lord, that, as I have done to you, so you may also do. (John 13:15) If, then, he has gone so far as to lay down his life for us, we also should be ready, if occasion so required, to lay down ours, in order to procure our neighbor’s salvation; and still more ready to help him, to the best of our power, when he is in need; we should love, not in word, or in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.
Now, the divine memorial, which is shining on us in all its splendor, what else is it than an eloquent demonstration of infinite love? A living remembrance, and abiding representation of that Death of our Lord, upon which the Apostle bases his argument.
Hence it was that our Divine Master deferred his promulgation of the law of fraternal love, which he came upon our earth to establish, till he instituted the holy Sacrament, which was to give the strongest support to the observance of that law. No sooner has he effected the august mystery, no sooner has he given himself to mankind under the sacred species, than he exclaims: A new commandment I give unto you;—and this is my commandment;—that ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 8:43; 15:12). Truly the commandment was a new one, considering that the world to which it was given had egotism as its leading law. This new commandment was to be the distinctive mark of all Christ’s Disciples (John 13:35), and, as one of the shrewd observers of these early pagan times says, consign them to the hatred of the human race, (Tacitus, Annals, xv.), which was in open violation of this law of love. It was in answer to the hostile reception given by the then world to the new progeny, that is, to the Christians, that St. John thus speaks in the Epistle of this Sunday: Wonder not, dearly beloved, if the world hate you. We yes, we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death.
The union of the members with each other, through their divine Head, is the condition on which the existence of the Christian religion is based. The Eucharist is the vigorous nourishment of this union; it is the strong bond of Christ’s mystical body, which, thereby, maketh increase in charity. (Ephesians 4:16) Charity, therefore, and peace, and concord are, together with the love of God Himself, the best proof that our reception of Holy Communion is not turning to our condemnation, and the most needful of all preparations for our participation in the sacred Mysteries. It is the meaning of that injunction of our Lord: If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has anything against you, leave there your offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother; and then coming, you will offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)
The Gradual, which is taken from the Psalms, gives thanks to God for the protection he has accorded us in the past; and prays for its continuation, seeing that our enemies are as unrelenting as ever.
In my troubles, I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.
℣. O Lord deliver my soul from wicked lips and a deceitful tongue.
Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust: save me from those that persecute me, and rescue me. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Luke 14:16-24
At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the Pharisees: A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready. And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. But I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited, shall taste of my supper.
The Gospel just read was appointed for this Sunday long before the institution of the Corpus Christi feast, as we learn from the Capitulary of Gospels, published by Blessed Thomasi, upon manuscripts much earlier than the 13th Century, as well as Honorius of Autun, (Gemma aninm, iv. 45, 46) and Rupert. (De Div. Off. xii. 2) The Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in her arrangement of the Liturgy, was thus anticipating and completing the instructions suited for the future grand Solemnity.
The parable here spoken by Jesus at the table of one of the leading Pharisees (Luke 15:1) was again used by him when he spoke so strongly in the Temple, a few days previous to his Passion and Death. And what is this Supper to which many are invited,—what is this Marriage Feast,—but that which eternal Wisdom has been getting ready, from the very beginning of the world? Nothing could exceed the magnificence of these preparations; there was a splendid banquet hall built on the top of a mountain (Isaias 2:2), and supported by seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1) of mysterious beauty. There were the choicest meats,—purest bread, and wine the most delicious,—served up to the King’s table. It was with his own hands that the Wisdom of the Father pressed the rich cluster of Cyprus grape into the cup; (Song of Songs 1:13) it was He who ground down the wheat that had sprung up without having been sown from a soil holy beyond description. It was He that immolated the Victim. (Proverbs 9:2) Israel, the Father’s chosen people (Ecclesiasticus 24:13), was the fortunate guest invited by the loving kindness of the Master, that is, Wisdom, that is, the Son of the Father. He had sent messengers without end to the children of Jacob. As we read in the Gospel: The Wisdom of God said: ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles’ (Luke 9:49). But this favored people, this loved one, as the Book of Deuteronomy says, grew fat and kicked, that is, it abused the gifts bestowed on it. It seemed to study how to provoke the anger of God its Savior by despising His invitations, and going their ways (Deuteronomy 32:15). This daughter of Sion, in her adulterous pride, preferred the bill of divorce to the Marriage-feast; (Isaias 1:1) Jerusalem rejected the heavenly messengers and killed the prophets (Matthew 23:34-37), and crucified the Spouse Himself.
But, even so, eternal Wisdom still offers the first place at the Supper to the ungrateful children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He does so because of those saintly fathers of theirs. Yes, it is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that are first sent the Apostles. (Matthew 10:6; Acts 13:46). What delicate attention may we justly exclaim, with St. John Chrysostom: “Before his Crucifixion, Christ calls the Jews; he does the same after it, he goes on inviting them. Instead of crushing them with a terrible chastisement, as it seemed most just he should do, he invites them to a Marriage; he loads them with honors. But they that have slain his prophets and murdered even Him,—these same, invited so pressingly by such a Spouse, urged so lovingly to go to the Wedding, and that by the very victim of their own making,—these same, I say, pay no regard to the invitation, and give as an excuse their yoke of oxen, and their wives, and their estates!” (Freely from Hom. 69., in Matt) Soon, these Priests, these Scribes, these hypocrite Pharisees, will persecute and slay the Apostles also; and the Servant of our parable will find none in Jerusalem whom he can induce to come to the Master’s Supper, except the poor, and little, and sickly ones, of the roads and by-lanes with whom there is no ambition or avarice or pleasure, to keep them from the divine banquet.
Then will be realized the vocation of the Gentiles,—that great mystery of a new people being substituted for the former one, in the covenant with Jehovah. “The Marriage of my Son is indeed ready,” will God the Father say to his servants; but they that were invited, were not worthy. Go ye, therefore: abandon the wicked city that hath not known her time, and my visit! go ye into the highways, and hedges, and countries of the Gentiles; and as many as ye shall find, call ye to the Marriage! (Matthew 22:8-14; Luke 19:44)
O you Gentiles! Praise the Lord for His mercy! (Romans 15:9) You have been invited, without any merits of your own, to a feast that was prepared for another people; take heed, lest you incur the reproach given to the intended guests, who were excluded from the promises made to their fathers. O thou lame one, and blind, that hast been called from the by-path of thy sin and misery, hasten to the holy table! But then take care, out of respect to Him who calls thee, to put off the rags of thy former life; and quickly put on the wedding garment! The invitation given thee has made a queen of thy soul; “give her, then, the purple robe and diadem, and set her on a throne! Think of the Marriage thou art invited to attend,—the Marriage of God! Oh! the soul that goes to it, should be clad and decked with a garment richer than all the garments of earth!” (From St. John Chyrs. ubi supra)
Like the Gradual, the Offertory is an earnest prayer for God’s help; it is his mercy that encourages the soul to make this prayer.
Turn to me, O Lord, and deliver my soul: O save me, for thy mercy’s sake.
In the Secret, the Church prays for the twofold effect of the holy Sacrament, in the transformation of man’s soul: purification from the remnants left by sin, and progress in the works which lead to life everlasting.
SECRET
May this Sacrifice, offered to thy Name, purify us, O Lord: and make us, every day, advance towards a heavenly life. Through, etc.
COMMEMORATION OF CORPUS CHRISTI
Mercifully grant thy Church, O Lord, we beseech thee, the gifts of unity and peace, which are mystically represented in these offerings. Through, etc.
During the Communion, holy Church enriched as she is with heavenly favors, pours forth her gratitude towards Him who, though the Most High God, is also her Spouse, and leads her with exquisite gifts.
COMMUNION
I will sing unto the Lord, who bath bestowed good things on me, and I will sing a psalm to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
Let us pray with the Church, in the Postcommunion, that our frequent participation in these sacred Mysteries may not be fruitless in our souls, but may effect, with increased assurance, the whole work of our salvation.
POSTCOMMUNION
Having received, O Lord, this sacred oblation, grant, that by frequenting these mysteries, the work of our salvation may increase. Through, etc.
COMMEMORATION OF CORPUS CHRISTI
Grant us, O Lord, we beseech thee, the everlasting possession of thyself: as a pledge of which, we have received thy Body and Blood. Who livest, etc.
VESPERS
The Vespers for this Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, are the same as those of the Feast itself, excepting what follows:
CAPITULUM
(1 John iii)
Dearly beloved, wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we hare passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
℣. He hath fed them with the fat of corn, alleluia.
℟. And hath filled them with honey from the rock, alleluia.
ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT
ANT. Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city; and compel the poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, to come in, that my house may be filled, alleluia.
LET US PRAY
Grant us, O Lord, both a constant love and fear of thy holy Name: since thou never withdrawest thy protection from those whom thou solidly groundest in thy love. Through, etc.
COMMEMORATION OF THE OCTAVE
ANT. O sacred banquet, wherein Christ is received; the memorial of his Passion is celebrated; the mind is filled with grace; and a pledge of future glory is given unto us, alleluia.
℣. Thou hast given them bread from heaven, alleluia.
℟. Having in it all that is delicious, alleluia.
LET US PRAY
O God, who, under the wonderful Sacrament, hast left us a memorial of thy Passion: grant us, we beseech thee, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that, in our souls, we may always feel the fruit of thy Redemption. Who livest, etc.
The Liturgy given in the Apostolic Constitutions, under the name of St. James, thus continues, after the Trisagion; it is the Bishop who is speaking:
CONSTITUTIO JACOBI
For truly art thou holy, and most holy, most high and exalted above all for ever. Holy, also, is thine Only Begotten Son, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.
Who, in all things, ministered to thee his God and Father, both in thy manifold creation, and in thy suitable providence, not despising the human race, that had perished. But, after the law of nature, after the admonition of the law (of Sinai), after the chidings of the Prophets, when, violating both the natural and positive law, forgetting the deluge, the burning of Sodom, the plagues of Egypt, and the extermination of the inhabitants of Palestine, itself was on the verge of total destruction: he, thy Son, willed, by thy consent, to become Man, who was man’s Creator; be under the law, who was the giver of the law; be the victim, who was Priest; be the sheep, he who was Shepherd. He also appeased thee, his God and Father, and reconciled thee with the world, being made of a Virgin, became flesh, God the “Word, the Son Beloved, the first born of every creature, and was, according to the prophecies foretold by him of himself, sprung from the seed of David and Abraham, and of the tribe of Juda.
He was made in the Virgin’s womb, who was the Maker of all men that are begotten; He became Flesh, who was without flesh; He that was born when time was not, was born in time. He lived in holiness, and taught the truth; he drove every sickness and disease from men; wrought signs and wonders among the people. He took food, drink, and sleep, who feeds all the needy with nourishment, and fills every living creature with blessing. He made known his Name to them that knew it not; he put ignorance to flight; he raised up charity; he fulfilled thy will; he finished the work thou gavest him to do. And when he had brought all these things to a happy issue, he was betrayed by the man who was sick with, the disease of wickedness, and (thus betrayed) was seized by the hands of wicked priests and iniquitous people, from whom, by thy permission, he suffered many things, and every kind of insult.
He was delivered up to the governor, Pilate; He, the Judge, was judged; he, the Savior, was condemned; he that could not suffer, was nailed to the Cross; he, that by nature was immortal, died; he, the giver of He, was buried; that he might loose them, for whose sakes he had come, from suffering and death, that he might break the bonds made by the devil, and deliver men from his deceit.
He rose again, the third day, from the dead; abode forty days with his disciples; was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of thee, his God and Father.
We, therefore, calling to mind his Passion and Death, and his Resurrection from the dead, and his Return to heaven; of his second coming, also, which he is to make, in which he will come, with glory and power, to judge the living and the dead, and render to each one according to his works: to thee, King and God, we offer this Bread and this Chalice, according to his appointment, giving thanks unto thee, through Him.
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This text is taken from The Liturgical Year, authored by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
Dom Gueranger
†The Ecu-Men† 