Jesus, this liturgical life means a special attraction for all that pertains to worship.
To some people, You have freely given this attraction. Others are less privileged. But if they ask You for it, and aid themselves by studying and reflecting, they too will obtain it.
The meditation I shall make, later on, upon the advantages of the liturgical life, is going to increase my thirst to acquire it at any price. At present I pause to consider the distinctive characteristics of this life, which give it such an important place in spirituality.
Union, even remote, together with the Church, to Your Sacrifice, by thought and intention, O Jesus: this is already a great thing. So is it to find one’s prayer fused with the official and unceasing prayer of Your Church. The heart of the ordinary baptized Christian thus takes flight with more certainty towards God, carried up to Him by Your praises, adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition.
Union with somebody else’s prayer can lead one to a high degree of prayer! Take the case of the peasant who offered to carry the baggage of St. Ignatius and his companions. When he noticed that, as soon as they arrived at some inn, the Fathers hastened to find some quiet spot and recollect themselves before God, he did as they did, and fell on his knees too. One day they asked him what he did when he thus recollected himself, and he answered: “All I do is say:
‘Lord, these men are saints, and I am their packhorse. Whatever they do, I want to be doing too’; and so that is what I offer up to God.” (Cf. Rodriguez, Christian Perf. Pt. I, Tr. 5, ch. xix).
If this man came, by means of the continuous practice of this exercise, to a high degree of prayer and spirituality, how much more can even a man without education advance in union with the liturgical life of the Church.
A Cistercian lay-brother of Clairvaux was watching the sheep during the night of the Assumption. He did his best, chiefly by reciting the Angelic Salutation, to unite himself to the Matins which the monks were singing in choir, the distant bells for which had reached him, out in the hills. God revealed to St. Bernard that the simple and humble devotion of this Brother had been so pleasing to Our Lady that she had preferred it to that of the monks, fervent as they were. (Exordium Magnum Ord. Cisterciensis, D. 4, c. xiii. Migne: Patr. Lat., Vol. 185).
An active participation (Pope Pius X’s own words) in the sacro-sanct mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer: that means assisting at this worship with piety and understanding; it means an avid desire to profit by the feasts and ceremonies; better still, it means serving Mass, and answering the prayers, or joining in the recitation and chanting of the Office. Is not all this a way to enter more directly into the thoughts of Your Church, and to draw from the prime and indispensable source of the Christian spirit?
Pius X, Mot. Prop. Nov. 22, 1903, on Sacred Music.
But then, O Holy Church, what a noble mission it is to present oneself each day, by virtue of ordination or religious profession, united to the angels and the elect, as your ambassador before the throne of God, there to utter your official prayer!
Incomparably more sublime, and beyond all power of expression, is the dignity of a sacred minister who becomes Your other self, O my Divine Redeemer, by administering the Sacraments, and above all by celebrating the Holy Sacrifice.
First Principle
As a member of the Church, I must have the conviction that when I take part, even as a plain Christian,
The priest, and even the bishop, is present, like any ordinary member of the faithful, only in his capacity as a plain Christian when he assists at a ceremony, when exercising no special function in it, profiting from it in the ordinary way.
in a liturgical ceremony, I am united to the whole Church not only through the Communion of Saints, but by virtue of a real and active co-operation in an act of religion which the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, offers as a society to God. And by this notion the Church like a true Mother helps dispose my soul to receive the Christian virtues.
We can better understand the efficacy of the Liturgy in making us live the life of grace and in making the whole interior life more easily accessible to us, when we recall that all official prayer, every ceremony instituted by the Church, possesses an impetratory power which is, in itself, irresistible, per se efficacissima. In this case the prayer that is put into operation to obtain a particular grace is more than just an individual gesture, the isolated prayer of a soul, however excellently disposed; it is also the act of the whole Church who becomes a suppliant with us. It is the voice of the dearly beloved Spouse, which always gives joy to the Heart of God, and which He always hears and answers in some way.
To sum it all up in a word: the impetratory power of the Liturgy is made up of two elements: the
opus operantis of the soul making use of the Great Sacramental of the Liturgy, and the
opus operantis of the Church. The two actions, that of the soul and that of the Church, are like two forces that combine and leap up, in a single momentum, to God.
Your Church, Lord Jesus, forms a perfect society, whose members, closely united one to another, are destined to form an even more perfect and more holy society, that of the Elect.
As a Christian I am a member of that Body of which You are the Head and the Life. And that is the point of view from which You look at me, Divine Savior. So I give You a special joy when, in presenting myself before You, I speak to You as my Head, and consider myself as one of the sheep of that Fold of which You are the only Shepherd, and which includes in its unity all my brothers in the Church militant, suffering and triumphant.
Your Apostle taught me this doctrine which expands my soul and broadens the horizons of my spirituality. And thus it is, he says, that “As in one body we have many members, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
Sicut enim in uno corpore multa membra habemus . . . ita multi unum sumus in Christo, singuli autem alter alterius membra (Rom. 12:4–5).
And elsewhere: “For as the body is one and hath many members: and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ.”
Sicut enim corpus unum est, et membra habet multa, omnia autem membra corporis cum sint multa, unum tamen corpus sunt; ita et Christus (1 Cor. 12:12).
There, then, is the unity of Your Church, indivisible in the parts and in the whole, all entirely present in the whole Body, and all in each one of the parts,
Unusquisque fidelium quasi quaedam minor videtur esse Ecclesia dum salvo unitatis arcanae mysterio, etiam cuncta Redemptionis humanae unus homo suscipit Sacramenta (St. Peter Damian, Opusc. xi. c. 10. Migne, Patr. Lat., Vol. 145, col. 239).
“Each one of the faithful may be called a little Church in himself, since, with the mystery of this hidden unity, one man receives all the Sacraments of man’s Redemption (which were given by Our Lord to the whole Church).” This passage is taken from St. Peter Damian’s beautiful treatise on the Mystical Body which is also a treatise on the Liturgy, the “
Liber qui Dicitur Dominus Vobiscum,” or the tract on the “Dominus Vobiscum.” The present words occur in his discussion of the way each one of the faithful can say “miserere MEI Deus,” and “Deus in adjutorium MEUM intende” (as it is in the psalm and at the beginning of each hour in the monastic Breviary), both in his own name and in that of the whole Church.
united in the Holy Spirit, united in You, Jesus, and brought by this union into the unique and eternal society of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
St. Peter Damian, quoted by D. Gréa, La Sainte Liturgie, p. 51.
The Church is the assembly of the faithful who, under the government of the same authority, are united by the same faith and the same charity, and tend to the same end, that is, incorporation in Christ by the same means, which are summed up in grace, of which the ordinary channels are prayer and the Sacraments.
The great prayer, and the favorite channel of grace is liturgical prayer, the prayer of the Church herself, more powerful than the prayer of single individuals and even of pious associations, no matter how powerful private and non-liturgical forms of social prayer may be, and no matter how much they are recommended in the Gospel.
St. Ignatius Martyr writes, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, c. v: “Make no mistake: unless one come to the altar he is deprived of the Bread of God. Now if the prayer of one or the other of you has such great power, how much greater is the power of that prayer which is of the bishop and of the whole Church? Therefore, he who does not come to the assembly of the faithful, is puffed up with pride, and has already excommunicated and judged himself ” (Migne, Patr. Graeca, Vol. III, 647).
St. Alphonsus Liguori preferred one prayer of the Breviary to a hundred private prayers.
Incorporated in the true Church, a child of God and a member of Christ by the Sacraments of Baptism, I have acquired the right to participate in the other Sacraments, in the Divine Office, in the fruits of the Mass, and in the indulgences and prayers of the Church. I can benefit by all the graces and all the merits of my brethren.
I bear, from Baptism, an indelible mark which commissions me to worship God according to the rite of the Christian religion.
Charactere sacramentali insignitur homo ut ad cultum Dei deputatus secundum ritum Christianae religionis (Card. Billot, De Ecclesiae Sacram., t. 1, thes. 2).
My Baptismal consecration makes me a member of the Kingdom of God, and I form part of that “chosen generation, the kingly priesthood, the holy nation.”
Vos autem genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus acquisitionis (1 Ptr. 2:9).
And so, I participate as a Christian in the sacred ministry, although in a remote and indirect manner, by my prayers, by my share in the offering, by my active participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass and in the liturgical offices, and in multiplying my spiritual sacrifices, as St. Peter recommends, by the practice of virtues, by accomplishing all things with a view to pleasing God and uniting myself to Him, and by making of my body a living victim, holy and agreeable to God.
Sacerdotium sanctum, offerre spirituales, hostias, acceptabiles Dco per Jesum Christum (1 Ptr. 2:5). It is in this sense that St. Ambrose says:
“Omnes filii Ecclesiae sacerdotes sunt; ungimur enim in Sacerdotium sanctum, offerentes nosmetipsos Deo, hostias spirituales” (In Lucam, lib. iv. n. 33. Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. 15, 676). “All the children of the Church are priests, for we are anointed in a holy priesthood, offering ourselves to God as spiritual victims.”
Sicut omnes Christianos dicimus propter mysticum Chrisma; sic omnes Sacerdotes, quoniam membra sunt unius Sacerdotis. (St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, xx :10. Migne, P. L., vol. 41, col. 676).
“Just as we call all ‘Christians’ because of the mystical Chrism, so we call all ‘priests’ because all are members of one Priest.”
And that is what you teach me, Holy Mother Church when, by the priest, You say to the faithful: Orate frates . . .”Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable,” and where the priest says also, in the Canon:
Memento Domine . . . et omnium circumstantium pro quibus tibi offerimus vel qui tibi offerunt hoc Sacrificium laudis, “Remember Lord . . . (N. and N.) and all those who are here present, for whom we offer to Thee, or who offer to Thee this sacrifice of Praise.” And, further on: “Receive, Lord, with Kindness, we beg of Thee, this offering which we make to Thee, I Thy servant, and Thy family.”
Hanc igitur oblationem servitutis nostrae sed et cunctae familiae tuae quaesumus, Domine, ut placatus accipias (Canon of the Mass).
“We all make this offering together with the priest, our consent is given to all that he does, all that he says. And what is it that he says? ‘Pray, my brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be agreeable to the Lord our God.’ And what is your answer? ‘May the Lord receive from your hands: . . . What? . . . my sacrifice and yours!’ And then, again, what does the priest say? ‘Remember Thy servants for whom we offer . . . ’ Is that all? He adds . . . ‘or who offer Thee this sacrifice.’ Let us, then, offer with him. Let us offer Jesus Christ, and offer up our own selves, together with the whole Catholic Church, spread over the whole earth” (Bossuet, Medit. on the Gospel. Last Supper, Pt. 1, 83rd day).
Indeed, the holy Liturgy is so truly the common work of the entire Church, that is of the priests and people, that the mystery of this unity is ever really present in the Church by the indestructible power of the Communion of Saints, which is proposed to our belief in the Apostles’ Creed. The Divine Office and Holy Mass, which is the most important part of the Liturgy, cannot be celebrated without the whole Church being involved, and being mysteriously present.
Peter Damian (also speaking of the
Hanc igitur . . . ): “By these words it is quite clearly evident that the Sacrifice which is placed upon the altar by the hands of the priest is offered by the entire family of God as a whole” (Lib. qui Dic. Dominus Vobiscum, cap. viii. Also see D. Grea. La Sainte Liturgic., p. 51).
And so, in the Liturgy, everything is done in common in the name of all, for the benefit of all. All the prayers are said in the plural.
This close union between all the members, by the same faith and by participation in the same Sacraments, produces fraternal love in their souls, and this is the distinctive sign of those who wish to imitate Christ and walk in His footsteps.
“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.”
Joan. 13:35.
This bond among the members of the Church draws them all the closer together in proportion as they participate more fully, through the Communion of Saints, in the grace and charity of the Head who communicates to them supernatural and divine life.
These truths are the foundation of the liturgical life which, in its turn, brings me constantly back to them.
O Holy Church of God, what great love for you this thought enkindles in my heart! I am one of your members. I am a member of Christ! What love for all Christians this gives me, since I realize that they are my brothers, and that we are all one in Christ! And what love for my divine Head, Jesus Christ!
It is not possible for me to remain indifferent to anything that concerns you. Sad, if I behold you persecuted, I rejoice at the news of your conquests, your triumphs.
What a joy to think that, while I am sanctifying myself, I am also contributing to the increase of your beauty and working for the sanctification of all the children of the Church, my brothers, and even for the salvation of the whole human family!
O Holy Church of God, I wish, as far as in me lies, to make you more lovely and more holy and more full. And the splendor of your whole unity will come forth from the perfection of each one of your children, built on the foundation that dominated solidarity which was the thought that dominated Christ’s prayer after the Last Supper and was the true testament of His Heart: “That they may be one . . . That they may be made perfect in one.”
“Ut sint unum, ut sint consummati in unum” (Joan. 17:21, 23).
O Mother, Holy Church, how moved I am with love and admiration for your liturgical prayer! Since I am one of your members, it is my prayer too, especially when I am present or take an active part in it. All that you have is mine; and everything I have belongs to you.
A drop of water is nothing. But united with the ocean, it shares in all that power and immensity. And that is the way it is when my prayer is united with yours. To God all things are present. He takes in, at one glance, the past, the present, and the future; and in His eyes, my prayer is all one with that universal chorus of praises which you have been sending up to Him ever since you began, and which will continue to rise up to the throne of His Eternal Majesty even to the end of time.
Jesus, You want my piety to take, in certain respects, a utilitarian, practical, and petitioning character.
But the order of petitions in the Our Father shows me how much You want my piety to be first of all devoted to the praise of God,
Creatus est homo ad hunc finem, ut Dominum Deum suum laudet ac revereatur eique serviens tandem salvus fiat: “Man was created to this end; that he should praise God and give Him reverence, and, by serving Him, be saved” (St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises).
“Our end is the service of Our Lord, and it is only in order to serve Him better that we must correct our faults and acquire virtues; sanctity is only a means to better service.” Bl. P. J. Eymard.
and that far from being egotistical, narrow, and isolated, it should make my supplications embrace all the needs of my brothers.
Help me, by the liturgical life, to arrive at this generous and exalted piety which, without detriment to the spiritual combat, gives to God, and generously, great praise; this charitable, fraternal, and universal (i.e. Catholic) piety, which takes in all souls and has all the interests of the Church at heart.
Holy Church, it is your mission to beget, without ceasing, new children to your Divine Spouse and to bring them up “into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.”
In mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi (Eph. 4:13).
And that means that you have received all the means, in abundance, to achieve this end. And the importance you attach to the Liturgy proves how efficacious it must be to teach me how to begin to praise God and to make spiritual progress.
During His public life Our Lord spoke “as one having power.”
Sicut potestatem habens (Matt. 7:29).
And that is the way you talk too, O Holy Church, my Mother. Guardian of the treasure of truth, you realize the importance of your mission. Dispenser of the Precious Blood, you well know all the means of sanctification which the Lord has put into your hands.
You do not call upon my reason, and tell me, “Examine these things, study them.” But you do address yourself to my faith, saying, “Trust in me. Am I not your Mother? And is there anything I desire more than to see you grow, from day to day, in likeness to your divine Model? Now who is there that knows Jesus better than I do, who am His Spouse? Where, then, will you better find the Spirit of your Redeemer than in the Liturgy, which is the genuine expression of what I think and what I feel?”
Oh yes, dear holy Mother, I will allow myself to be led and formed by you with the simplicity and confidence of a child, reminding myself that I am praying with my Mother. These are her very own words, which she puts in my mouth in order that I may be filled with her spirit, and that her thoughts may pass into my heart.
With you, then, will I rejoice; yes, with you, Holy Church. Gaudeamus exultemus! With you will I lament: ploremus! With you will I praise Him: confitemini Domino! With you will I beg for mercy: miserere! With you I shall hope: speravi, sperabo! With you I shall love: diligam! I will ardently unite myself with all your demands, formulated in the wonderful prayers, in order that the life-giving movements of the mind and will that you wish to elicit by these words and sacred rites may enter more deeply into my heart, and make it more pliant to the touch of the Holy Ghost, so that my will may at last be totally absorbed into the Will of God.
Second Principle
Whenever I take part as a REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHURCH
Those who are thus delegated by the Church are: clerics, religious obliged to recite the office, even though they only do so in private. So, too, are all those who are bound to sing office in choir in churches canonically erected, and to attend chapter of conventual masses. The same also applies to those who, without having received Orders, fulfill such functions by the tolerance of the Church, such as servers of Mass.
in any liturgical function, it is God’s desire that I give expression to my virtue of religion by being fully conscious of the OFFICIAL MANDATE with which I am honored, and that, thus united more and more perfectly to the life of the Church, I may progress in all the virtues.
I am the representative of Your Church for the purpose of offering incessantly to God, through You, Lord Jesus, in His Name and in the name of all His children, the sacrifice of praise and supplication. Consequently, I am what St. Bernardine of Siena so beautifully called: persona publica, totius Ecclesiae os, a public person, the mouth of the whole Church.
Sermon xx.
And therefore, at every liturgical function, there must be in me a kind of dual personality, such as exists, for instance, in an ambassador. In his private life, such a one is nothing but a private citizen. But once he has put on the insignia of his office and speaks and acts in the name of his king, he becomes, at that very moment, the representative and, in a certain sense, the very person of his sovereign.
The same is true in my own case when I am carrying out my liturgical “functions.” My individual being receives the addition of a dignity which invests me with a public mandate. I can and must consider myself, then, as the official deputy of the entire Church.
If I pray, or recite my office, even privately, I do so no longer merely in my own name. The words I use were not chosen by me. It is the Church that places them upon my lips.
Sacerdos personam induit Ecclesiae, verba illius gerit, vocem assumit (Gulielm. Paris., De Sacramento Ordinis). The priest puts on the person of the Church, he utters her words, he takes on her voice.
That very fact means that it is the Church that prays with my lips, and speaks and acts through me, just as a king speaks and acts through his ambassador. And then I am truly THE WHOLE CHURCH, as St. Peter Damian so beautifully puts it.
Per unitatem fidei, sacerdos Ecclesia tota est et ejus vices gerit. “Through the unity of faith, the priest is the whole Church, and acts in her behalf.”
Quid mirum si sacerdos quilibet . . . vicem Ecclesiae solus expleat . . cum per unitatis intimae Sacramentum, tota spiritualiter sit Ecclesiae? “What wonder is it, then, if any priest . . . stands in the place of the whole Church, since by the Sacrament of intimate union, he is, spiritually speaking, the whole Church” (St. Peter Damian, Lib. qui dic. Dominus Vobiscum, c. x. Migne, P.L. vol. 145, col. 239).
By me, the Church is united in the divine religion of Jesus Christ and addresses to the Most Holy Trinity adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and supplication.
Hence, if I have any appreciation of my dignity, how will I be able to begin my office, for instance, without there taking place within me a mysterious activity which elevates me above myself, above the natural course of my thoughts, to fill me and penetrate me completely with the conviction that I am, as it were, a mediator between heaven and earth.
Medius stat sacerdos inter Deum et humanam naturam; illinc venientia beneficia an nos deferens, et nostras petitiones illinc perferens (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. V, n. 1, in illud, Vidi Dominum).
“The priest stands midway between God and human nature: he passes on to us the good things that come down from God, and lifts up to Him our petitions.
What a disaster if I were to forget these truths! The saints were filled with them.
Why is it that the priest, when he says the office, says, even when alone, Dominus vobiscum? And why does he reply,
Et cum spiritu tuo? and not
Et cum spiritu meo? The thing is, says St. Peter Damian, that the priest is not alone. When he says Mass, or prays, he has before him the entire Church, mysteriously present, and it is to the Church that he addresses the salutation, Dominus Vobiscum. And then, since he represents the Church, the Church replies through his own mouth, Et cum spiritu tuo. (Cf. St. Peter Damian, in the Lib. Dominus Vobiscum, 6, 10, etc.) His thoughts on this subject are followed throughout this whole section.
These truths were their life. God expects me to be mindful of them whenever I exercise any function. By the liturgical life, the Church helps me, unceasingly, to keep in mind the fact that I am her representative, and God demands that I live up to this dignity, in practice, by leading an exemplary life.
Laudate Dominum, sed laudate de vobis, id est, ut non sola lingua et vox vestra laudet Dominum, sed et conscientia vestra, vita vestra, facta vestra (St. Augustine, Enarratio in Ps. 148, n. 2).
“Praise the Lord, but praise Him from the very roots of your being, that is, let not only your tongues and voices praise the Lord, but also your consciences, your lives, and all that you do.”
“Just as men expect you to be a saint when you present yourself among them as God’s delegate, so God demands it of you when you appear before Him to intercede for mankind. An intercessor is one sent from the misery of this earth to parley with the justice of God. Now, St. Thomas says, two things are necessary, in an envoy if he is to be favorably received. The first is that he be a worthy representative of the people who send him, and the second that he be a friend of the prince to whom he is sent. You priest, who have no esteem for your sanctity, can you call yourself a worthy representative of the Christian people when you do not show forth the completeness of the Christian virtues? Can you call yourself the friend of God, when you do not serve Him faithfully?
“If this is true of the indifferent mediator, how much more so of one who is in sin ! How can words be found to express the anomalies of his appalling situation? Good souls come to you and say: “Pray for me, Father, you have credit in the sight of God.” But would you like to know what efficacy there is in the protection thus piously invoked? “God is more pleased with the barking of dogs, than with the prayer of such clerics” (St. Augustine, Serm. 37: Fr. Caussette, Manrèze du Pretre, 1e jour, 2e discours)
Oh my God, fill me with a profound esteem for this mission which the Church has entrusted to me. What a spur it will be, to me, against cowardly sloth in the spiritual combat! But grant me, also a true sense of my greatness as a Christian, and give me a childlike attitude before Your holy Church, so that I may profit abundantly by the treasures of interior life laid up in the holy Liturgy.
Third Principle
As a PRIEST, when I consecrate the Blessed Eucharist or administer the Sacraments, I must stir up the conviction that I am a MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, and therefore an alter Christus. And I must hold it as certain that if I am to find, in the exercise of my functions, the special graces necessary to acquire the virtues demanded by my priesthood, everything depends on me.
What is said here regarding priests also applies, in due proportion, to deacons and subdeacons.
O Jesus, Your faithful children form a single Body, but in that Body “all the members have not the same office.”
Omnia autem membra non eundem actum habent (Rom. 12:4).
“There are diversities of graces.”
Divisiones gratiarum sunt (1 Cor. 12:4).
Since You willed to leave to the Church a visible Sacrifice, You endowed her with a priesthood whose principal end is to continue Your immolation on the altar, and then to distribute Your Precious Blood by the Sacraments and to sanctify Your Mystical Body by communicating to it Your divine Life.
Sovereign Priest, You decided from all eternity to choose and consecrate me as Your minister in order to exercise Your Priesthood through me.
Ipse est principalis Sacerdos, qui, in omnibus et per omnes Sacerdotes novi Testamenti, offert. Ideo enim quia erat Sacerdos in aeternum instituit Apostolos Sacerdotes, up per ipsos suum Sacerdotium exsequeretur (De Lugo, De Euchar., Disp. xix, Sec. VI, n. 86).
You communicated to me Your powers in order to accomplish by my co-operation,
Dei adjutores sumus (1 Cor. 3:9).
a work greater than the creation of the universe, the miracle of Transubstantiation, and in order to remain, by this miraculous means, the Host and the Religion of Your Church.
What meaning I find, now, in the exuberant terms with which the Fathers of the Church seek to express the magnitude of the priestly dignity.
The Holy Fathers seem to have exhausted their eloquence in speaking of the dignity of the priest. Their thoughts may be summed up in a word, if we say that this dignity outstrips everything else in creation: God alone is greater.
Sublimitas sacerdotis nullis comparationibus potest adaequari. “The sublimity of the priest can be expressed by no comparison” (St. Ambrose, De Dign. Sacerd., c. ii).
Qui sacerdotem dicit, prorsus divinum insinuat virum. When you say “priest,” you are speaking of a man who is altogether divine (St. Dionysius, the “Areopagite”).
Praetulit vos regibus et imperatoribus, praetulit vestrum ordinem ordinibus omnibus, imo ut altius loquar, praetulit vos Angelis et Archangelis, Thronis et Dominationibus. “He has placed you above kings and emperors, he has placed your order above all other orders, indeed, to go higher still. he has placed you above the angels and archangels, Thrones and Dominations” ( St. Bernard, Serm. ad Past. in Syn., an apocryphal work, Migne, P.L., vol. 184. col. 1086).
Perspicuum est illam esse illorum sacerdotum functionem qua nulla major excogitari possit. Quare merito non solum angeli, sed dii etiam, quia Dei immortalis vim et numen apud nos teneant, appellantur.
“It is evident that this is that function of priests, than which no greater can be conceived. Wherefore they are rightly called not only angels, but even gods, because they hold, among us, the power and might of the undying God” (Cat. Rom. de Ord., 1).
Indeed, their words logically compel me to consider myself by virtue of Your priesthood, communicated to me, as Your other self, Sacerdos alter Christus.
Is there not, in fact, an identification between You and me? After all, Your Person and mine are so truly one that when I pronounce the words:
Hoc est Corpus meum, Hic est calix Sanguinis mei, You make them Your own?
Reliqua omnia quae dicuntur in superioribus a sacerdote dicuntur. . . .
Ubi venitur ut conficiatur venerabile Sacramentum jam non suis sermonibus utitur sacerdos, sed utitur sermonibus Christi. Ergo sermo Christi conficit hoc Sacramentum. Quis est sermo Christi? Nempe is quo facta sunt omnia.
“All the other words, uttered in the prayers up to this point in the Mass, are spoken by the priest in his own person. . . . But when the time comes to confect the adorable Sacrament, the priest now no longer uses his own words, but utters the words of Christ. And therefore this Sacrament is confected by the word of Christ. What is the Word of Christ? It is that Word by which all things were created” (St. Ambrose, De Sacramentis, Lib. iv, c. 4, n. 14).
Ecce Ambrosius no solum vult sacerdotem loqui in persona Christi sed etiam non loqui in propria persona, neque illa esse verba sacerdotis. Quia, cum sacerdos assumatur a Christo ut eum repraesentet, et ut Christus per os sacerdotis loquatur, non decuit sacerdotem adhuc retinere in his verbis propriam personam.
“See how Ambrose would have the priest not only speak in the person of Christ, but also not to speak in his own person: nor would he have these words be the priest’s at all. For, since the priest is assumed by Christ, to represent Him, and in order that Christ may speak through the mouth of the priest, it is not fitting that the priest should, when uttering these words, retain his own person” (De Lugo, De Euch., disp. xi, sec. v, n. 103).
I lend You my lips, since I can say, without lying: My Body, My Blood.
Ipse est, (Christus) qui sanctificat et immolat. . . . Cum videris sacerdotem offerentem, ne ut sacerdotem esse putes, sed Christi manum invisibiliter extentam. . . . Sacerdos linguam suam commodat
“It is Christ Himself who sanctifies and immolates . . . When you see the priest offering the Holy Sacrifice, do not think that it is as a priest that he does so, but as the hand of Christ, invisibly extended. . . . The priest lends his tongue” (St. Chrysostom, Hom. 86, in Joan. n. 4).
All that is necessary is for me to will to make this consecration, and You will it also. Your will is fused with mine. In the greatest act which You can perform here below, Your soul is tightly bound together with mine. I lend You what is most mine, my will. And at once Your will and mine are fused.
So true is it that You act through me, that if I dared to say, over the matter of the Sacrifice, “This is the Body of Jesus Christ,” instead of “this is My Body,” the Consecration would not be valid.
The Blessed Eucharist is Your very Self, Jesus, hidden under the appearances of bread. And does not every Mass make it more strikingly clear to me that You yourself are the Priest;
“Nihil aliud Sacrifex quam Christi simulacrum”: “The sacrificer is simply an image of Christ” (Petr. Bles., Trac. Ryth de Euch. c. viii).
for You are the only Priest; and it is You that are concealed under the appearances of the one You have chosen as Your minister.
Alter Christus! I re-live that phrase every time I confer one of the other Sacraments. You alone are able to say, in Your quality of Redeemer,
“Ego te baptizo,” “Ego te absolvo,” thus exercising a power no less divine than that of creation itself. I too utter these same words. And the angels are more attentive to them than to the fiat which made worlds spring forth where there was nothingness,
Majus opus est ex impio justum facere quam creare coelum et terram: “It is a greater work to make a just man out of a sinner, than to create heaven and earth” (St. Augustine).
since (and what a miracle it is, too!) they are capable of forming God in a soul, and producing a Child of God who participates in the intimate life of the Divinity.
At every priestly function, I can almost hear You saying to me: “My son, how is it possible for you to imagine that after I have made you, by these divine powers, another Christ, I should tolerate that in your practical routine of living you should be WITHOUT CHRIST or even AGAINST CHRIST?”
“What! In the exercise of these priestly functions, you have just acted as one whose being has been melted into My very own Being. And a few minutes later, Satan comes and takes My place and makes you, by sin, a sort of Antichrist, or hypnotizes you to such a degree of torpor that you deliberately forget the obligation to imitate Me, and to strive, as My Apostle says, to “put Me on”?
“
Absit! You can count on My mercy when human weakness alone is the cause of your daily faults, which you right away regret and for which you quickly make reparation. But if you cooly adopt a program of systematic infidelities, and return from these to your sublime functions without any remorse, you will only arouse My anger!
“What an abyss there is between your functions and those of the priests of the Old Law. And yet, if My prophets uttered dire threats against Sion, because of the sins of the people or the rulers, listen to what came of the prevarication of the priests: ‘The Lord hath accomplished His wrath. He hath poured out His fierce anger; and He hath kindled a fire in Sion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof . . . for the iniquities of her priests.’
Lam. Jerem. 4:11–13.
“With what severity, too, does my Church forbid the priest to approach the altar or to confer the Sacraments if there remain one single mortal sin upon his conscience!
“Inspired by Me, she goes still further. Her very rites compel you to be either truly holy or an impostor. Either you will have to make up your mind to live an interior life, or else resign yourself to say to Me from the beginning of Mass to the end, things that you do not really think, and ask of Me things that you do not desire. The sacred words and ceremonies necessarily imply, in the priest, a spirit of compunction and a desire to purify his soul of his slightest faults; therefore, custody of the heart. They imply a spirit of adoration, and, therefore, of recollection. They imply a spirit of faith, hope, and love, and, therefore, a supernatural trend in everything that you say or do during the day, and in all your works!”
O Jesus, I fully realize that to put on the sacred vestments without being firmly resolved to strive to acquire the virtues which they symbolize, is only a kind of hypocrisy. It is my will that henceforth bows and genuflections, signs of the Cross and other ceremonies, and all the formulas of prayer may never be a hollow fraud hiding emptiness, coldness, indifference for the interior life, and adding to my faults that of a lying mummery under the very eyes of the Eternal God.
Let me then tremble with a holy fear every time I draw near to Your dread mysteries, every time I put on the liturgical vestments. Let the prayers with which I accompany this act, the formulas of the Missal and Ritual, so full of unction and strength, move me to scrutinize my own heart and find out whether it is truly in harmony with Yours, O Jesus; that is to say, whether I have a loyal and practical desire to imitate You by leading an interior life.
O my soul, get rid of all those compromises which might lead me to consider it enough to be an “alter Christus” only during my sacred functions, and to believe that after them, provided I am not actually against Christ, I can dispense myself from working to put on Jesus Christ.
Here I am, not merely an ambassador of Jesus Crucified, but actually His other Self. Can I attempt to get away with an easy-going piety, and content myself with commonplace virtues?
Useless for me to try and persuade myself that the cloistered monk is bound, more than I am, to strive after the imitation of Christ and to acquire an interior life. It is a grave error, based upon a misunderstanding.
The religious is obliged to tend to sanctity by the use of certain special means; that is, vows of obedience and poverty, and keeping his rule. As a priest, I am not restricted to these means; but I am obliged to pursue and to realize the same end, and I am so obliged by many more considerations than the consecrated soul who does not have the responsibility of distributing the Precious Blood.
Vos estis lux mundi, vos estis sal terrae. Quod si sal evanuerit in quo salietur? “You are the light of the world . . . You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” (Matt. 5:13).
Exemplum esto fidelium in verbo, in conversatione, in caritate, in fide, in castitate. “Be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity” (1 Tim. 4:12).
In divino omni quis audeat aliis fieri nisi secundum omnem habitum suum factus sit Deo formissimus et Deo simillimus. “In all divine things, who is there that would dare to show the way to others unless in all his habits he himself first be most closely patterned on God, and most like to God ?” (S. Dionysius. De Eccles. Hier.).
Sacerdos debet vitam habere immaculatam, ut omnes in illum, veluti in aliquod exemplum excellens, intueantur. “The priest should lead a life that is without blemish, in order that everyone may look to him for a perfect example” (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. x, in Tim.).
Nihil in sacerdote commune cum multitudine. Vita sacerdotis praeponderare debet, sicut praeponderat gratia. “The priest has nothing in common with the multitude. The life of the priest should excel as grace excels” (St. Ambrose, Epist. 82).
Aut caeteris honestiores, aut fabula omnibus sunt sacerdotes. “Priests are either better than everybody else, or else a scandal to everybody else” (St. Bernard, De Consideratione, Lib. iv, c. 6).
Sicut illi qui Ordinem suscipiunt, super plebem constituuntur qradu Ordinis, ita et superiores sint menito sanctitatis. “Just as they who receive Holy Orders are constituted above the crowd by the degree of their Order, so too they ought to stand out by virtue of their holiness” (St. Thomas, Suppl., q. 35).
Sic decet omnes clericos in sortem Domini vocatos, vitam moresque suos omnes componere, ut habitu, gestu, incessu, sermone, aliisque omnibus rebus nihil nisi grave, moderate ac religione plenum prae se ferant. “Thus it is fitting that all clerics called to the service of the Lord should order their life and manners in such wise that in their dress, their gestures, their gait, their speech, and in all other things they should display nothing but what is grave and proper and full of religion” (Council of Trent, sess. 22, c. 1, de reform.).
Si religiosus careat Ordine, manifestum est excellere praeeminentiam Ordinis quantum ad dignitatem, quia per sacrum Ordinem aliquis deputatur ad dignissima ministeria, quibus ipsi Christo servitur in Sacramento altaris; ad quod requiritur major sanctitas interior quam requirat etiam religionis status. “In the case of a religious who has not received Holy Orders, it is clear that the Holy Orders have a far superior dignity (to the vows of religion) since by Orders a man is deputed to the most noble of all ministries; namely, that by which Christ Himself is served in the Sacrament of the Altar; and this demands a greater interior sanctity than is required even by the religious state” (St. Thomas, 2a 2ae. q. 184).
Vix bonus monachus facit bonum clericum. “A good monk will not necessarily be a good cleric” (St. Augustine. ad Val.).
Nullam ascensus et deificationis mensuram agnoscant. “Let them know no limit to spiritual progress, nor to likeness to God” (St. Greg. Naz.).
Pares Deo conentur esse sanctitate, ut qui viderit ministrum altaris Dominum veneretur. “Let them attempt to be equal to God in sanctity, in order that whosoever sees the minister of the altar may revere God in him” (St. Ambrose. de Offic., c. 5).
Woe to me, then, if I lull myself to sleep with an illusion that is beyond doubt culpable since it could have easily been dispelled by a glance at the teaching of the Church and of her saints: an illusion whose falsity will be brought home to me on the threshold of eternity.
Woe to me if I do not know how to take advantage of my liturgical functions to discover what You demand of me, or if I remain deaf to the voices of all the holy objects that surround me: the altar, the confessional, the baptismal font, the vessels, linen and vestments.
Imitamini quod tractatis—“imitate what you handle.”
Roman Pontifical: Rites of Ordination.
“Be ye clean you that carry the vessels of the Lord.”
Mundamini qui fertis vasa Domini (Is. 52:12).
“For they offer the burnt-offering of the Lord and the bread of their God and therefore they shall be holy.”
lncensum et panes offerunt Deo, et ideo sancti erunt (Levit. 21:6).
I would be all the less excusable, Jesus, for turning a deaf ear to these appeals, inasmuch as each one of my functions is the occasion of an actual grace which You offer me to form my soul to Your image and likeness.
It is the Church that solicits this grace. It is her heart full of jealous eagerness to fulfill Your expectations, that cares for me like the apple of her eye. It is She who, before my ordination, tried to make me see what immensely important consequences were involved in this identification of me with You.
Impone, Domine, capiti meo galeam salutis . . . praecinge mecingulo puritatis . . . Ut indulgeris omnia peccata mea. Fac me tuis semper inhaerere mandatis et a te numquam separari permittas, etc.,
From the prayers said by the Priest while vesting, and also just before Communion in the Mass.
it is no longer I that make these petitions for myself. They are being made by all the true faithful, all the fervent souls consecrated to You, all the members of the Ecclesiastical heirarchy who made my poor prayer their prayer. Their cry rises to Your throne. It is the voice of Your Spouse that You hear. And when Your priests are resolved to lead an interior life, and therefore bring their hearts into harmony with their liturgical functions, You always grant these entreaties made for them by the Church.
Instead, then, of excluding myself by my voluntary negligence from these suffrages which I address to Your Father for the faithful at large, when saying Mass or administering the Sacraments, I want to profit by these graces, Jesus. At each one of my priestly acts I will open my heart wide to Your action. Then You will fill it with light consolation and power which, in spite of all the obstacles, will enable me to identify my judgments with Yours, my affections and desires with Yours, just as my Priesthood identifies me with You, Eternal Priest, when, through me, make Yourself a Victim upon the altar, or Redeemer of souls.
A few words to sum up the three principles of the liturgical life.
Cum ecclesia
When I unite with the Church as a simple Christian, this very union impels me to fill myself with her thoughts and her aspirations.
Ecclesia
When the Church herself is represented in my person, so that I, so to speak, am the Church, and so act as her ambassador before the throne of God, I am all the more powerfully drawn to make her aspirations my own, in order to be less unworthy to address myself to His Thrice Holy Majesty, and, by means of official prayers, to exercise a more efficacious apostolate.
Christus
But when, by virtue of my participation in the Priesthood of Christ, I am an alter Christus, what terms can express the insistence with which You call me, Jesus, to take on more and more of Your divine likeness, and that I may thus manifest You to the faithful and move them, by the apostolate of good example to follow You?
