E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

THE ESSENCE OF THE MASS.
Lord. Mass is a commemoration of the death of the
Lord, a showing forth of the death of our Lord.
In the consecration of the bread and wine you find
all that is needed. For the Sacrifice of the Cross
consisted in the death of our Lord, and the death of
our Lord was caused by the shedding of His Blood.
To be a sacrifice there must either be a real death
or a mystical destruction of the victim. A real death
there cannot be in the Man Christ, for Christ died once,
and dies no more.
The mystical destruction (mystical, that is, by
sign or symbol, not real), a showing forth of the
death of our Lord, is seen in the double Consecration.
For in virtue of the words of consecration the Body
only is under the appearance of bread, and the Blood
only is under the appearance of wine. Our Lord s
death was due to the separation of His Body and
Blood, and as by the force of the words at the consecra
tion there is a separation of the Body and Blood, there
is a re-presentation, a re-enactment, a showing forth of
the death of the Lord.
By these words,
" Do this in commemoration of
Me," as the Council of Trent (Trent, Sess. xxiii. can. 2)
has defined, our Lord commands all priests to con
secrate in both kinds, bread and wine, and the
consecration in both kinds makes the Sacrifice. If the
priest consecrates bread only, or wine only there is no
Eucharistic Sacrifice our Lord s command has not
been fulfilled.
Receiving under both kinds is for the priest a
strict obligation because of our Lord s command. The
Communion of the priest belongs to the integrity or
completeness of the Sacrifice.
So strictly does the Church interpret this obligation