E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

THE FOUR ENDS OF SACRIFICE.
forgive sins directly and immediately, like Baptism and
Penance. Mass appeases the anger of God, and obtains
from Him the grace of repentance. Man can,
if he
chooses, reject the grace and remain in sin; the free
acceptance of this grace enables the creature to turn
to God by Faith, Hope, Chanty, and Sorrow, and thus
to receive worthily those sacraments which of them
selves forgive all his sins.
The propitiatory power of the Mass disarms God s
justice ; the impetratory power draws down His mercy.
Indirectly Mass causes the conversion of sinners as a
propitiatory Sacrifice appeasing God s anger, leaving
scope for His mercy ; in so far as it is impetratory,
it obtains the grace of repentance, which may be
accepted or rejected. The propitiatory power is
infallible as Christ s work, that is, the Lord is in
some ways appeased, though to what extent never can
be known. This depends on the free-will of God and
on the dispositions of the creature.
The power of the Mass to forgive sins is more clearly
understood by selecting a particular case. Let us take
a simple illustration. Suppose a mother has a Mass
offered for each of her sons, John and James. John is
Catholic and
leading a bad life ; James is a practical
is free from mortal sin. What effect on John has the
Mass said for him ? It may be altogether barren of
result, because John can reject, if he likes,
" the grace
and gift of repentance," which the Council of Trent
speaks of. (Sess. xxii. ch. 2.) We are certain at least of
this ; first, that Mass necessarily and infallibly appeases
to some extent the anger of God which John has pro
voked by his sins ; secondly,
that it obtains from God
necessarily and infallibly grace which, though not always
of itself sufficient at the moment to cause John s conver-