MONTH OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS - FOURTEENTH DAY

A LAMB STANDING AS IT WERE SLAIN 

In the first Mass at the Last Supper Christ had to immolate Himself in a mystical manner, before He could give His Apostles His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. This is my body which is given for you. This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins. The food which He gave as well as the sacrifice which He made was spiritual. The Mass corresponds to the Commemorative Passover of the Jews: For Christ our Pasch is sacrificed.  
The sacrifice of the Mass is no new sacrifice instituted by the Church, but the same sacrifice offered by Christ on the Cross; for Christ our Lord, who immolated Himself once only after a bloody manner on Calvary, is the same victim of the Mass, whose sacrifice is daily renewed on our altars in obedience to the command of the Lord: Do this for a commemoration of me. The Eucharist as a sacrament is perfected by consecration; but as a sacrifice, all its force consists in its oblation. Although we say of the ministers of the Mass that they offer sacrifice, yet, when they consecrate the body and blood of our Lord, they do not act in their own, but in the person of Christ, as is shown by the words of consecration. It is Christ the Lord Who offers His own Blood for us at the elevation of the chalice.  For by one oblation he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.  But Christ being come a high-priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation: Neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies having obtained eternal redemption. 

Commenting on the form used at Mass in the consecration of the Blood,  For this is the chalice of my blood of the new and eternal testament, the mystery of faith, which shall be shed for you and for many to the remission of sins, the Catechism of the Council of Trent remarks that here, therefore, rather than at the consecration of His body, is appropriately commemorated the passion of our Lord, by the words, which shall be shed for the remission of sins; for the blood, separately consecrated, has more force and weight to place before the eyes of all the passion of the Lord, His death, and the nature of His passion.

 We call the Blood of the Lord the mystery of faith, because, when faith proposes to our belief that Christ the Lord, the true Son of God, at once God and man, suffered death for us, a death designated by the sacrament of His Blood, human reason is most particularly beset with very great difficulty and embarrassment. For we must well understand that the Blood of Christ the Lord is not given under a figure, as was done in the Old Law, but that it is really and truly given to men, a prerogative which appertains to the New Testament.

By a law of Holy Church it is forbidden that anyone but the priests consecrating the body of the Lord in the sacrifice should receive the holy Eucharist under both kinds, without the authority of the Church itself. There are various and many reasons why the laity are not to communicate under both species. In the first place, the greatest caution was necessary to avoid spilling the Blood of the Lord on the ground, a thing that seemed not easy to be avoided, if the chalice ought to be administered in a large assemblage of the people. 

Besides, as the holy Eucharist ought to be in readiness for the sick, it was very much to be apprehended, were the species of wine long unconsumed, that it might turn acid. Moreover, there are very many who cannot at all bear the taste or even the smell of wine; lest, therefore, what is intended for the health of the soul should prove noxious to that of the body, most prudently has it been enacted by the Church, that the faithful should receive the species of bread only. It is further to be observed that, in several countries, they labor under extreme scarcity of wine, nor can it be brought from elsewhere without very heavy expenses. 

The sacrifice of Calvary, of infinite value, was offered once, the application of its fruits must be made every day till the end of time. It must be unhesitatingly taught, says the Council of Trent, that the holy sacrifice of the Mass is not a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving only, or a mere commemoration of the sacrifice accomplished on the Cross, but also truly a propitiatory sacrifice, by which God is appeased and rendered propitious to us. 

If, therefore, with a pure heart, a lively faith, and impressed with an inward sorrow for our transgressions, we immolate and offer this most holy Victim, it is not to be doubted that we shall obtain mercy from the Lord and grace in seasonable aid; for so delighted is the Lord with the odor of this Victim, that, imparting to us the gift of grace and repentance, He pardons our sins. Hence, also, this usual prayer of the Church: As often as the commemoration of this Victim is celebrated, so often is the work of our salvation being done that is to say, through this unbloody sacrifice flow to us these most plenteous fruits of the Bloody Victim.