صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[blocks in formation]

Resurrexit e mortuis tertia die: quadraginta diebus commoratus cum discipulis, assumptus est in cœlos; et ad dexteram assidet tibi, Deo ac Patri suo.

Itaque memores passionis ejus et mortis, et a mortuis resurrectionis, atque in cœlum reditus; necnon secundi adventus quem idem facturus est, in quo cum gloria et potestate veniet judicare vivos et mortuos, et reddere singulis juxta opera eorum : tibi regi ac Deo panem hunc et calicem hunc offerimus, secundum constitutionem ejus, gratias tibi per eum agentes.

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 Saviour, was condemned; he that could not suffer, was nailed to the Cross; he, that by nature was immortal, died; he, the giver of life, 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.

MONDAY.

WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI.

Let us adore Christ, the King, who ruleth the nations: who giveth fatness of spirit to them that eat him.

Christum regem adoremus dominantem gentibus, qui se manducantibus dat spiritus pinguedinem.

The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent him of his oath he hath sworn: "Thou art a Priest for ever,

according to the order of Melchisedech!" Thus did the sons of Levi sing, to the expected Messias, in one of the loveliest of their Psalms. This noble and privileged family, this corona fratrum, standing, in all its glory, around the altar, whence there daily ascended the smoke of the victims burned on it,-this community of brethren celebrated, on the sacred harp, the Priesthood of the good things to come, and announced their own being set aside. Shadow and figure as it was, their own priesthood was to disappear, when the brightness of the divine realities of Calvary came. They were indebted to the infidelity of the nations, for their being called to perpetuate the worship of the true God, in his one single Temple; but this precarious honour would cease, when the reconciliation of the world took place. Being son of Juda, through David, the High Priest Christ receives nought of Aaron. When the inspired Psalmist sings a hymn in honour of our Jesus' Priesthood, he goes back, in thought, to the ages beyond Moses; he passes the time of the twelve Patriarchs and their father Israel; and there, in the distant past, he meets with the type of a Priest

1 Ps. cix. 4.

hood, which is to have no limits, either of place or time it is Melchisedech. Melchisedech receives, through Abraham, the homage of Abraham's son, Levi; the priest of the uncircumcised nations gives a blessing to the venerable holder of the promise; and this mighty blessing, which is extended to the patriarch's entire race, derives its efficacy from a mysterious sacrifice :—the peaceful offering of bread and wine to the Most High.i

The priesthood of the King of justice and peace, not only precedes that of Aaron as to time, but it is also to outlive it. And observe, it is at the very time when God was making a covenant with one single race, and, thereby, seemed to be turning away from all other nations, and was establishing the priestly order, to their exclusion,-it is precisely then, that the King-Priest of Salem, who has neither beginning of days nor end of life, suddenly comes before us as the imposing image of our Eternal Priest, who offers the divine Memorial, which is to perpetuate the great Sacrifice on the earth, and for ever take the place of the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation.

2

The Sacrifice of the Cross lasts all ages of time, and fills eternity. And yet, as to time, it was the offering of one single day; and as to place, it was made but on one spot. It matters not: in every place, in every age, man must have the sacrifice ceaselessly offered up in his presence; he must have its offering renewed daily in his midst. As we have already seen, sacrifice is the centre of the whole of religion; and man cannot dispense with religion, for it unites him to God as the sovereign Lord, and constitutes the primary bond of social life. As, then, to satisfy the imperious necessity, which showed itself from the very beginning of the world, divine Wisdom appointed those figurative offerings, which foretold the one great Sacrifice,

1 Gen. xiv. 18-20.

2 Heb. vii. 3.

and from which they derived what merit soever they possessed; so, in like manner, once the oblation of the great Victim made, it is again to supply the demands of mankind, and provide the world with a permanent Sacrifice; it is to be a Memorial, and not a Figure; it destroys not the unity of the Sacrifice of the Cross; and it applies the fruits of that one Sacrifice to each member of each future generation.

We will not here describe the Lord's Supper, and the institution of that new Priesthood, which is as far above its predecessor as the promises it holds

2

more glorious, and the covenant, of which it forms the basis,1 is more divine. We have had all the details of that marvellous history related to us on Maundy-Thursday. It was on that day,—that day expected from all eternity; it was at that hour, (cum facta esset Hora), that Hour so long put off, that divine Wisdom sat down to the supper and banquet of the New Covenant; he sat down, having with him the Twelve Apostles, who represented mankind. Putting an end to figures by a final immolation of the Paschal Lamb, Jesus exclaimed: With desire (that is, with immense desire), I have desired to eat this Pasch with you! The Man-God thus eased his sacred Heart, which had so long waited for this Hour; he had so loved it! and it is now come! Then, forestalling the Jews, he immolates his victim,-the divine Lamb, signified by Abel, foretold by Isaias, shown by John the Precursor; and, by a miraculous anticipation, there is already in the holy chalice the Blood which, in a few hours hence, is to be flowing on Calvary; already his divine hand presents to the disciples the bread now changed into his Body, which has become the ransom of the world: Take, says this Jesus, take ye and eat: this is my Body, which shall be delivered

'Heb. viii. 6.
2 St. Luke, xxii. 14.

VOL. X.

3 St. Luke, xxii. 15.
St. Greg., Moral. xxix. 31.
2 B

for you! Take and drink this Chalice, which is the new testament in my Blood! This do ye for the commemoration of me: that is, "As I am now anticipating, for your sakes, the death I am to suffer on the morrow, so you, when I have left this world, do this same for the commemoration of me.”

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

2

The covenant, the alliance, is now made. The New Testament is declared, and, like its predecessor, is sealed by Blood. If, as yet, it be of no force, save in prevision of the Testator's real death, the reason is, because this Jesus, who is the Victim of the divine vengeance for the salvation of the whole world, has made a solemn covenant with his eternal Father,3 that this universal redemption is not to be effected but by the morrow's cruel work. He has made himself the Head of guilty mankind; he has made himself responsible to God for the crimes of his own race; for the destruction of sin, therefore, he willingly submits to the stern laws of expiation, and, by the torments he undergoes, reveals to the world how immense are the claims of eternal justice. Notwithstanding all this, the earth, from that very Thursday night, is in possession of the Chalice which is to announce the Saviour's death until he come," by communicating to each member of the human family Christ's real and true Blood, shed for our sins." And, surely, it was most fitting, that our adorable High Priest himself, and without all that display of outward violence,—which, a few hours later, is to disconcert the whole Apostolic college,should offer himself, with his own hands, as a true Sacrifice to his Father; he would thus evince how spontaneous was his death, and do away with our ever having such a thought as that the treachery, or

11 Cor, xi. 24, 25.
2 Heb. ix. 16-18.
3 Ibid. xii. 2.
4 Rom., iii. 25, 26.

4

6

5 1 Cor. xi. 26.
6 Ibid. x. 16.

7 St. Luke, xxii. 20.

8 St. John, x. 18.

« السابقةمتابعة »