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Show INSTITUTION Of THE BLESSED EUCHARIST Rev. W. f. Morrissey's Logical Talk on the ."Real Presence," on Holy Thursday Night, at St. Mary's Cathedral. "Jesus, knowing that his hour was come that He should pass out of this world to His Father; having loved His own who were in the world, lie loved them unto the end.'' (John xiii, 1.) ' The shadow of death is upon the Sou of God, the icy thrill of the traitors kiss causes his spirit to groan within Ilim, the forebodings of tomorrow's tomor-row's ordeals and sufferings cause His human na-lure na-lure to shrink from the decrees of the Divine, j Yet "not my will, but Thine, 0 Father, be done" He forgets Himself. Seated at the "supper table and surrounded by His faithful disciples. He is unmindful of Himself, and is full of solicitude only for them and for His loved ones in the world. What of tomorrow's sufferings! I can endure them. Put what will smooth over for my loved ones this tide of sorrow too great for man to bear'? What, proof of love shall I give them? What legacy shall I bequeath them rich enough and potent enough to console them in such bereavement!! He remembers remem-bers His promise of a yrar ago.- And oh! what a proof of love is the fulfillment of this promise a. change and time-abiding proof! Not; content with Bethlehem's proof of love; not content with stripping strip-ping Himself, as it were, of the splendors of His glory, by clothing Himself with our human nature, na-ture, and taking upon Himself our sins and infirmities; infirmi-ties; not content with subjecting Himself, for our sake, tovthc contempt, insults and prosecutions of His own creatures; not content with suffering the most cruel and ignominious death of the cross,, shedding thereon the last, drop of His most sacred, blood; not content with all this, He would go so far, would manifest the excess of His love to such a degree, as to institute a Sacrament, wherein He would bequeath us. not only His grace. His virtue, His blessing, but Himself, His own flesh and blood, to be perpetually the food and nourishment, of our souls! And behold how "He has loved His own who were in the world! and loved them unto the end." This is the legacy which He left to His sorrowing sor-rowing disciples and faithful followers to the end of time His own fiesh and blood; speaking of which,- St. Augustine remark,- "AIFpowerfuLthat. He was, He could give nothing: more; all-wise that He was, He knew nothing better to give; all-rich that He was. He had nothing to give more precious." pre-cious." Christ Himself says: "Greater love than this no man hath that a man lay down his life for his friends." He lays down His life, not only for His friends, but also for His enemies; and, before be-fore doing so, He bequeaths a legacy whose bounty is incomprehensible, whose generosity we may admire ad-mire but can never fully comprehend or appreciate, appreci-ate, whose impenetrable immensity would be too great for human faith had not the word of an omnipotent om-nipotent God placed its reality beyond the shadow of a doubt. Seated there at the supper table, surrounded by His beloved apostles, looking down the vista of ages upon myriads of faithful followers, and in the awful presence of death, across whose portals ambiguity am-biguity or equivocation must never cast its shadow, the Eternal Testator took into His hand a piece of bread, blessed, broke and gave it to His apostles. His beneficiaries and executors, saying: "Take ye and eat, for this is my body." Then, taking a cup of wine, he blessed and gave it to them, saying:, "Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood, which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sons." There is no protest from the apostles; there is no expression of doubt as to the meaning of His words; there is no evidence of wavering faith' in their countenances; they are impressed with the solemnity of the occasion; their whole demeanor bespeaks be-speaks and proclaims iheir implicit faith in the omnipotence of the Testator and in the sincerity of His words. From the supper room to the throne of heaven there arose a hymn of praise andthanks-givinir andthanks-givinir for the bounteous letraey. From the Garden of Olives, from the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem, from the Catacombs of ancient Pome, from -the crypts and misty caves of benighted lands, from the naves and aisles of mighty cathedrals .in every known land and clime, from forest solitude and desert waste, from humble hut and stately mansion, man-sion, from million hearts with one accord for fifteen centuries of time there ascended the same fond hymn of praise and thanksgiving. "This is my body; this is my blood." says Christ, and His real, true, substantial, living body and blood the apostles understood it to be. His real, true, substantial, living body and blood fifteen centuries of Christianity, after them, understood it to be. The confessor proclaimed it, the virgin loved it, the martyr died for it. During all these centuries there was found but one man bold enough to deny it as real and true, but all Christendom rose up in protest he retracted his error and-died in penance. It remained, therefore, for the Reformers (i) of th sixteenth century to proclaim a wholesale denial of the reality of the Testator's dying bequest; it remained for them to rob Christianity of its inheritance; in-heritance; i remained for them to destroy a reality and set up in its place a sign, a figure, an empty symbol. Every century from the apostolic days till that hour cried out in protest, but in vain. In vain St. Paul declares: "The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body and blood of the Lord?" (I. Cor. x. Id.) In vain did he say: "lie that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and .drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of he Lord." In vain would their forefathers come forth from the grave, scrape the moss from their. tombs, display the figure of a Host and Chalice Chal-ice on their breasts, bearing mute but eloquent testimony, point to them and exclaim: "Such is the faith in which we lived and died; such is the faith we received from our forefathers, our fore-, fore-, fathers from the apostles and the apostles from Christ. ' - ' If His dving legacy were to be only a figure, a symbol of His body and blood, and not the reality, why did Christ in the most stern manner insist up- (Continued on Page 4.P . jp mm. . .mudii - m i man , .... i ni-yn n n m jLiW l wm.i i , . imtvUPWyWtynirtM I INSTITUTION OF THE BLESSED EUCHARIST (Continued from Page 1.) on its reality, when teaching His disciples and a multitude of the Jews in the temple at Capharnaum about a year before His Passion, as recorded in the sixth chaper of St. John's Gospel? He says: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. heav-en. It any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread which 1 will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews understood Him in a literal sense that He would give His real flesh to be eaten. -They revolted at thc idea of eating human flesh; "they murmured and complained, com-plained, saying: 'How can this man give us His flesh to eatf " Our Lord saw their confusion and knew its cause. Js'ow if they were wrong in understanding under-standing His words in their literal sense, would He not have corrected them; was it not His duty as a divine teacher of truth to set them aright? , Does He do it? Xo; He only asserts what He said before more clearly, and this time with an oath:' "Amen, amen, I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at tho last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." The seventy-two disciples also understood him in a literal lit-eral sense; "many of them murmured and said: J Tins is a hard saying, and who can hear it,' and after this many of his disciples yent back and walked no more with him." If they misunderstood, will He not call them back and explain? ex-plain? Will He allow these chosen ones to depart de-part from Him and from salvation on account of a mere misunderstanding, thoso whom He has spent days and weeks' and months in instructing, and whom He has destined to carry the light of His Gospel to the nations? Surely He won't let them go. Does He then recall them? Xo; but He turns to His chosen twelve apostles, the pillars of His future Church, and asks: "Will you also go away ?" that is, if you, my chosen twelve, understand my words to mean that I am going to give you my flesh and blood, really, truly and substantially, to-be to-be eaten and drunk, as did my disciples, and if, liko them, you do not believe it. you, too. may go away. Ana leter answered: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Thus the matter stood till the eve of His Passion Pas-sion at the Last. Supper, and at . this opportune time He undertook to fulfill His promise to tho Jews and His disciples in the temple at Capharnaum: Caphar-naum: "The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Referring to the" bread and wine which lay before Him, He said: "This is my body," "This is my blood." These words were effective and operative they operated the effect ef-fect which -they 'signified. By the 'word of His power He changed the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of His, body' and blood. And then He added: "Do this for a commemoration commemora-tion of me." He commanded His apostles to do what 110 had done; and if He commanded them to do it, He must have given them tho power of doing it. Therefore, the. apostles, through these words, received fronv Christ the power to change bread and wine into His body and blood. But is that all? Xo; for StJ'Paul says: "As often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice you shall show forth the death of the Lord until He com-eth." com-eth." This power, therefore, must abide until tho Lord shall come, thit is, till the end of time; and, since the apostles were not to live to the end of time, this power must abide with some persons other than the apostles. And with whom should it abide if not with their lawful successors in the ministry with those who can trace their origin and authority in the ministry in unbroken succession from tho apostles? And history teaches who thov are. With whom should it abide if not with the ministers of that. Church which has maintained and upheld its reality, and always and everywhere taught and practiced it? Why should it remain and abide with those who have denied, ignored and ridiculed it? That is, in brief, the doctrine and history of the Blessed Eucharist, whose institution Ave commemorate commemo-rate today; this is thc princely spire which the Lord placed on the noble structure of Christianity; this is the magnet 'round which centers the Catholic Cath-olic heart, which cements our hearts together and our souls to our God; this is the means through whielr we worship and adore the God whom we lovo indeed and in truth and in a manner which alone is worthy of Him. The more noble and worthy of God the religion is, the more noble and worthy, too, should be its means. of worship; and what religion and what worship wor-ship can be more worthy of God than that established estab-lished by His own Divine Son ? Jesus Christ came to perfect worship and to crown religion, and this Sacred Institution is the crown Ho has placecj upon its brow; this is the unfading robe of beauty with which. He .has clothed it. He has clothed His priests with transcendent power; He has filled His temples with a presence and a glory far more thrilling thrill-ing and far more wonderful than that presence and glory which filled the Temple of Jerusalem. Thanks to Him for His unutterable gift, ire has established a Sacrifice which is the very reproduction and memorial of. the Cross, and through which this adorable Presence has been maintained and will be maintained to the end of time. Taking bread and wine, into His holy hands. He consecrated them, and changed them into His own body and ! blood; and He gave His apostles power to do the same. Thus did He, God's high priest eternal, fulfill His priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech. Thus did He establish that sacred rite in which He Himself forevermore would be both Priest and Victim.' There could be no priest other than He, the One anointed above all others, the only, Mediator between God and man. Xor eould there be a victim other than He, the holo-cause holo-cause of . Calvary. But, by ordaining his apostles priests, He made them participants in His priesthood, priest-hood, and by consecrating He perpetuated tho Sacrifice Sac-rifice which He was about to complete on the morrow mor-row by giving up His life. Henceforth from eVery temple in the Church of God there would bo offered of-fered the pure, holy, spotless Victim, to hallow tho earth, and to praise the loving condescension of the Most High God. As there is no sterner fact in the history of thc world than the Incarnation of the Son of God, so there is no sterner fact in the history of the' Incarnation itself, there is no more important doctrine doc-trine which the Incarnate Word proposes to our belief, than His Real Presence in the oly Eucharist Euchar-ist through the ministry, of the Mass that abiding Presence more wonderful and touching than His presence in Judea and Galilee. A Prophet once stood upon an eastern hill and beheld the God of his fathers worshipped and glorified among the Gentiles. The vision has become a reality. When thc robed priest bows down, and the bell rings, and the. incense rises, the faithful may see in spirit and in faith what the prophet beheld in vision the holy Sacrifice, the clean oblation. God's glory amoug the Gentiles. By" its sacred mystery ancient types of w-orship have been fulfilled, and Christ's own promises have reached out to every age the ripened fruit of His saving vine: "He that eateth eat-eth my flesh and drinketh my blood abidcth in me and I in him. He is in very truth the Emmanuel, the God with us; and His Church in Bethlehem, the City of Bread. This is that tree of knowledge set up inthe garden of the Church, of which if any man eat he hall not taste death forever. This is that Sacred Presence before which the afflicted soul finds hope and consolation. This is that worship in spirit, and in truth which the Eternal Father so desired, and which the Son came on earth to establish. This is that Lamb which was s-lain before the foundations of the world. Here is that altar which ,St. Paul contrasts so strongly with that which preceded it. and on account ac-count of which he exacts such purity of conscience. con-science. To the unbeliever all explanation of the Holy Sacrifice and, through it, the Real Presence, seems unsatisfactory. Some say the Mass as a sacrifice, derogates from the Cross, which was surely sufficient. suffi-cient. Xo doubht, the Cross was sufficient, and . more than sufficient, for worlds guiltier than even this poor guilty world of ours. Tho Mass does not add one jot or tittle to the eiEcaey of the Cross, as if the Cross wanted aught to complete is full atonement. But, the Mass does add to the Cross in the sense jof making it perpetual. "Having loved His own who were in the world, He would love thorn to tlin nnrl " UTko . tu: . w,4 tr noi t. u.-, in (ins csifiu xietni- sphere and in this twentieth century would be Calvary Cal-vary without some loving perpetuation and memorial me-morial of its tragic mystery? The heart of man could npver, indeed, have asked for such a gift ; but now that it has been given, our heart expands with new faith and hope and lovc. We sec how much richer is our humble Church than the proud Temple Tem-ple of Jerusalem. It had but the Tables of the Law; we have the Lawgiver Himself. It had but the Loaves of Proposition; we have the "Living Bread that came down from heaven," the Bread of Eternal Eter-nal Life. The Mass, and, through it, the Presence of Jesus, brings Bethlehem and Xazareth and Calvary Cal-vary together to each faithful disciple, in love and humility, in praise and prayer, in faith and hope as they could never have been done without its institution. Tonight, then, we prostrate ourselves in love and humility before this adorable Presence, reposing repos-ing on our altar, and pour forth our hearts in grateful thanksgiving for this generous gift. "O Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Teach our hearts to love Thee; fill them with a holy appreciation. Graut.that we may never invite Thee to our humble house and then betray Thee with the traitors kiss. Teach us to love Thee always to love Thee 'to the end, as Thou hast loved us. |