If the
sacrificial system I have been writing to you about was to serve and sustain man
throughout the world, as it was intended to do, you will agree that an authorized body of
men, a priesthood, would be required for its ministrations. Such a priesthood would have
to exercise authority that came from the Author of the sacraments that form the system,
that is from Christ Himself. This same principle applied to Israel. Its priesthood, in the
days when the religion of the Old Covenant was the religion of the One True God, would
have to be of God's making, as was the Aaronic priesthood. It had sacrificial and other
duties which the Mosaic Law enjoined,
"No stranger, or any one who is not of the seed of Aaron should
come and offer incense to the Lord, lest he suffer death" (Num. 16:40).
No doubt St. Paul had this Mosaic declaration in mind, when he said,
"No man takes the honor to himself (that is the priestly
honor), but he that is called, as Aaron was" (Heb. 5:4).
By the sacred rite Christ instituted at the Last Supper, following
it with the request that His Disciples do the same thing in "remembrance of Me,"
power was conferred upon them to execute the priestly function Christ had just performed.
Thereby Christ instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which imparts to specially
selected men the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables them to perform priestly functions.
The institution and empowering of a priesthood by Christ was referred to in
my letter regarding the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. This Sacrament of Holy Orders
confers a two-fold office upon the priest, for he offers the Eucharist as a sacrifice to
God, and gives it to the faithful as spiritual food for their sanctification.
The consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus
Christ, which took place originally at the Last Passover Feast of Christ and His
Disciples, was the beginning of the Sacrifice (first called the Breaking of Bread, and
later the Mass), which ended on the Cross. Speaking to His chosen Twelve on that sacred
occasion, Christ said,
"Take and eat: This is My Body which shall (that
is, about to) be given up (put to death) for you: do this in remembrance of
Me."
"This cup of the new covenant is My Blood (as promised in Jer. 31:31,
expressed in about the same language used by Moses in writing of the covenant of blood, in
Exod. 24:8) do this in remembrance of Me" (1
Cor. 11:25: interpolations mine).
Thus Christ instituted a priesthood, through which He
continues to function in the world today, as He did in the first Catholic Church edifice
(the Upper Chamber in Jerusalem), where He instituted the Unbloody Sacrifice that took the
place of the bloody sacrifices of Israel, as Malachi foretold would happen.
Please to note that Christ called it a "new covenant,"
as it is recorded not alone in the First Corinthian, above quoted, but also in St.
Matthew's (26:28), St. Mark's (14:24) and St. Luke's (22:20)
Gospels. Covenant is a term that came, as you know, from the Hebrew word B'rith, as it is
used to designate such Jewish societies as the B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant) and
B'rith Shalom (Covenant of Peace). It is sometimes translated and used interchangeably
with the word testament. The reason for mentioning this detail is to refute the
declaration of Prof. Joseph Klausner, and leaders in American Reform Jewry, that Christ
never instituted a new rite, which took the place of the old Jewish rite. By the use of
the word "new" Christ explicitly declared, or at least implied, that there was a
covenant that is "old," in the sense of being a thing of the past, having been
superseded by a "new covenant." If Christ did not institute a new rite at the
Last Supper, then words have lost their dictionary as well as theological meaning.
Before saying a word about the Sacrifice itself, I want to say that the
Catholic Church does not hold the offering of sacrifice to be the only function of
priests. They are also preachers, teachers, pastors, rulers and judges by divine
ordination. Christ told His priests to
"Preach the Gospel to
every creature" (St. Mark 16:15).
"Teach all nations" (St. Matt. 28:19).
Pastors "To feed My lambs...feed My
sheep" (St. John 21:16-17).
Rule "Whatever you bind on earth shall also be
bound in heaven" (St. Matt. 28:18).
Shrive "Receiveth the Holy Spirit; whose sins
you shall forgive they are forgiven them" (St. John 20:23).
This priestly power was not to end with the death of the Disciples, as they,
unitedly, formed Christ's teaching Church, which Christ said He would remain
"with...all days, even to the consummation of the world" (St. Matt. 28:20).
Hence the priestly power passed on to Matthias, Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, and so on
in an unbroken succession throughout the Christian ages.
This Christ-given sacrificial power enables priests to change the bread and
wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and then to offer it to God as a clean
oblation in remembrance of the bloody Sacrifice on Calvary. The words of consecration in
each Mass are the words Christ uttered at the Last Supper. The Victim was Christ, and that
same Victim is sacrificed in the Mass. The Sacrifice that began at the Last Supper, and
ended on the Cross, was a bloody oblation, which happened but once, as Christ is the only
Person who "shed His blood" for "the sin of the world." The Sacrifice
of the Mass is a mystical continuation of that eternal bloody sacrifice, but
in an unbloody manner.
I wish my fellow-Israelites, who are wandering around outside the Sheepfold
of their Messianic Lord, would earnestly study the short Book of Malachi in their Old
Testament, and the Catholic analysis of it. They would very likely realize that converts
from the Synagogue to the Church pass, in worship, from belief in the bloody sacrifices of
Israel of old (which are no more) to participation in the predicted unbloody Sacrifice,
which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus they continue, like their holy forebears, to
give honor to God, as God wants to be honored, through sacrifice. If the bloody sacrifices
of our forefathers "sanctified the unclean unto the cleansing of the flesh, how much
more will the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself unblemished
unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb.
9:11-13).
Malachi predicted, about 450 years before Christ was born, that "Elias
the Prophet" would come "before the dreadful day of the Lord (4:5), the
`day' Christ came to Jerusalem, as Elias did in the person of John the Baptist, in
`spirit' and power." The predictions in Malachi's Book have so fully come to pass,
that the only reasonable conclusion is that he is truly what his name signifies, the
"messenger of God."
Malachi severely condemned the priests and their polluted sacrifices, which
would no longer "find pleasure" with God; that a new, a clean sacrifice would
take the place of the Jewish sacrifice, as has come to pass; that the Gentiles would
partake of the new oblation, as no longer would God-ordained oblations be for Jews only;
that the new sacrifice would be offered to God all over the world, and no longer in a
single place, Jerusalem. That this severe indictment was warranted, is attested to in the
Jewish encyclopedias. To quote some words from Vallentine's Ency.,
"The people turned to all kinds of vice to fill the void in
their lives. Against those rose Malachi, who in strong language rebukes priests and laymen
alike for their laxity in ritual matters and social obligations, predicting the Judgment
Day and inevitable divine punishment" (p. 405).
It is a pitiful thing that, after over nineteen
centuries of "divine punishment," only a very few Jews realize that their
affliction is due primarily to their deliberate refusal to accept Jesus as their Christ,
and the glorious Sacrifice of the Mass that goes with Him. Here are some of the exact
words of Malachi foretelling the "clean oblation," the new Sacrifice.
"I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of hosts and I will
not receive a gift of your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down my
name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is
offered in my name a clean oblation; for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the
Lord of hosts" (1:10-11).
Let us look at the "clean oblation" Malachi
foretold. Priests, with Christ-given sacrificial power, are enabled to change the bread
and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, and then to offer it up to God as the
Sacrifice to the New Covenant, for all classes of persons without consideration as to
whether they descended from Abraham or Pharaoh. The words of consecration in the Mass are
the exact words that Christ uttered at the Last Supper. The Victim offered for sacrifice
at the Last Supper is the same Victim offered in the Mass, but in an unbloody manner, a
point I keep repeating for emphasis. The bloody Sacrifice of the new covenant happened but
once, as Christ is the one and the only "Lamb of God" who shed His blood for the
"sin of the world." The Sacrifice of the Mass is a continuation of the Sacrifice
on the Cross, in an unbloody manner. The priest at the altar fulfills the command of
Christ by doing what Christ said should be done "in remembrance of Me."
An understanding of this Sacrifice makes plain the reason that every one of
the fifty-two Sundays in the year is to Catholics a "Go to Church Sunday." The
Sacrifice is offered to God by the congregation, in association with the officiating
priest, as an expression of complete subjugation to God. The Mass is an expression of
praise, thanksgiving, petition and expiation. Every Mass is offered for the whole human
family. In this it differs from the Jewish sacrifices, which were for Israel.
This Sacrifice is a great mystery, which Catholics believe upon the authority
of Christ Himself, who, being Truth Personified, never deceives. Catholics believe it on
the authority of the Church that is protected from error by the indwelling Holy Spirit in
matters of a worshipful nature. Catholics believe that priests exercise the powers Christ
gave them; that they trans-substantiate, that is change the bread and wine into the Body
and Blood of Christ; offer it up as a Sacrifice to God; and distribute the Bread of Life,
as a Sacrament, to the faithful. At the Jewish sacrifice the lamb was offered to God and
then eaten. At the Eucharist Feast, Christ, the Lamb of God, is offered to God as a
sacrifice and consumed by the priest; and extra Hosts consecrated for the laity, are
distributed by the priests and eaten by the faithful. "The Bread that I (Christ) will
give is My Flesh for the life of the world"; "the Bread that came down from
heaven" (St. John 6:52-58) is thus received by Catholics, as explained in my
letter on the Holy Eucharist.
This is a great mystery, as I said before. As far as the senses are
concerned, all that the eye sees in the Eucharistic God are the accidents - color and the
form of bread and wine - which, when consumed, taste like ordinary bread and wine. The
change that takes place at the consecration of the bread and wine is in the substance;
that is in the immaterial, the elemental, the unseen thing of which bread and wine are
basically constituted, which become the Body and Blood of Christ. There was somewhat of a
similarity in the Jewish sacrifice of the lamb on Yom Kipper Day. The thing offered to God
was not merely the blood of the animal, but the invisible thing, the life of the creature.
The visible thing - blood - lets us know that the invisible thing - the life
of the animal - was offered. "The wages of sin is death," and it is the death of
the animal, rather than mere blood, that is sacrificed as an atonement, and thus restores
the supernatural life lost by transgressions. Life cannot be seen with the naked eye,
whether it be the life of Christ in the Holy Eucharist or of the animal in its blood, as
no substance can be seen with the sense of physical sight.
Though it is a mystery, Catholics see Christ present in the Sacrament of the
Altar, and in the Sacrifice offered by the priest, with eyes of faith. That faith is based
upon their knowledge of who Christ is and what Christ said, and the unerring teachings of
Christ's Church. It is the Sacrifice of the Mass, and not the preaching or the personality
of the priests, that prompts the regular attendance of hundreds of millions of Catholics
at Church services. Many of them go to Church before breakfast in order that their souls
be fed with the Bread of Life before they feed their bodies, as a fast must precede the
reception of christ in His Sacrament of Love. The Sacrifice of the Mass is to Catholics
the most sublime, soul-satisfying means of paying homage to God. They pray that the
existing remnant of Israel may some day learn of its spiritual value, and thus share in
the graces it bestows by partaking with them at the banquet of the Lord.
The main thing dealt with in this letter is the Sacrifice of the Mass,
because the Sacrament of Holy Orders, instituted by Christ, confers spiritual power upon
specially selected men primarily to do what Christ said should be done in
"remembrance" of Him. Priests and Sacrifice are considered to be complementary
terms in the Catholic Church, as they were in Israel when it had an Aaronic priesthood.