Traditional Catholicity of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight
"The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the sacrifice, dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the altar. If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart, and mouth all that happens at the altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have then to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens at the altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass." - His Holiness, Pope St. Pius X
"My flesh is meat indeed, and my Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in Him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever." (John 6: 56-59)
The following text is from the Roman Catholic Daily Missal, 1962, page XLVII:
In God's plan, it is not man who is the center of the universe, but Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. God created all things for Christ. For the sake of Christ Jesus in whom the Father already had "placed all His delight" and for the sake of Mary, His Mother, "full of grace," God decided to create man and the universe.
To this Son, in whom He is well pleased, friends were to be given- and so man was created (The race of man represents the "friends of the Bridegroom" mentioned by our Lord in the Gospel). To this Son whom He loves, the Father will give a house and garden- and so the universe was created. Man, created for Christ, is loved in Him. We thus form, as it were a "wedding gift" from God the Father to Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom.
In Him, through Him, and for Him, we are pleasing to the heavenly Father. Without Him we are nothing. This last is very important for an understanding of the Mass. Our sacrifices are of the value only through their being united with Christ's Sacrifice. Since all have issued from the heart of God solely to give pleasure to Jesus, all then are brothers. Creation itself is our kin. The universe and I, what are we, if not a delicate thought of the Father toward His Divine Son?
The creation, launched into existence by God's loving power, will forever have something unfinished about it, until that time when it shall return to the Source of its perfection; there to receive from that same Source its final perfection and beatitude. Thus the general plan of creation appears to us as an image and prolongation of the fecundity of the Most Blessed Trinity. The chronological order of the plan is as follows: (1) Creation of the heavens; (2) Preparation of the earth; (3) Creation of minerals, vegetation, and animals (4) Creation of man.
King though he may be of that creation predating his own existence; man, however, is not creation's final goal.
Man- simple link in a chain that must go back to God- paves the way for the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary, God's jewel case, in which reposed He Who upholds all things, Jesus Christ! Christ is the center of the universe. He is before all things: "He is before all creatures" (Col. 1:17) "The firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1:15). "In the beginning was the Word..." (Jn. 1:1)
"In Him... through Him... unto Him... all things!" (Col. 1:16-17)
All things are through Him. "Without Him was made nothing that was made" (Jn. 1:3). "Upholding all things by the word of His power." (Heb. 1:3)
All things are in Him. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." (Eph. 1:3-4)
All things are unto Him. "Whom He hath appointed heir of all things" (Heb. 1:2). "I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Apoc. 22:13)
"Brethren, I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye and eat, this is My Body, which shall be delivered for you; this do for the commemoration of Me. In like manner also the chalice, after He had sipped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in My Blood; this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of Me. For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord until He come. Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself; and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgement to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord." (I Corn. 11: 23-29)
The following text is from the Roman Catholic Daily Missal, 1962, pages L-LI:
The Mass is the means whereby we may become the prolongation of Christ.
Through the offering of ourselves with Christ
Through the consecration of ourselves through Christ
Through the communion in Christ
To the greater glory of the Blessed Trinity and the sanctification of our souls. The Mass reminds us at one in the same time of God's condescension toward man, and of man's ascension toward God. For the Mass sums up the twin mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, at the same time that it applies to us their fruits. Crib and Cross manifest to mankind God's love for all; whereas the Mass stresses His love for the individual.
One ought, then, to look on the Mass as the sum total of men's ascensions toward God, because it presupposes and completes them. The sinner derives from it abundant graces of conversion. The just man finds fervor in it- outstripping himself from one Consecration to another. Through the Mass man offers to God praise that is worthy of Him.
This, then, is the place that the Mass occupies in God's plan. Like Christ, it is at the center: as a sun to bring light and warmth, to transform and uplift all creation and bring it back to its Creator in a hymn of thanksgiving.
The Mass ought to occupy ALL the place in our lives. We ought to:
-Offer ourselves up, like Christ on the cross.
-Consecrate ourselves, “transubstantiate” ourselves- dying to our life of sin; to live, henceforth, the life of Christ.
-Unite ourselves to Someone stronger than ourselves, communicating with Christ through reception of His Sacred Body, in order to identify ourselves ever more closely with Him, so that- in our bodily members belonging more to Him than to us- we may be able to accomplish divine and supernatural works.
-Render- through Christ- perfect praise to the August Trinity.
Such should be the constant concern of our earthly existence, and the prelude to our heavenly life and a blessed eternity.
In Christ Crucified and the Most victorious Heart of Jesus.
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