The Problem of the Liturgical Reform

Introduction by Father Francois Laisney

Part II: The Mass is a Sacrifice

“The Sacrifices of the Lord” was the beginning of the quote of Saint Cyprian, which we gave in the first part of this study published in the last issue of Communicantes. Speaking of the unity of the Church, Saint Cyprian proved it with the Holy Eucharist as indicated by this expression. One could find many other examples. Here is just one: in recounting a Eucharistic miracle which happened during the holy Mass, which he celebrated one day in the year 251, the same Saint Cyprian writes: “sacrificantibus nobis – when we were offering the Sacrifice”.

This shows how ancient and unquestioned the faith in the sacrificial nature of the holy Mass was already at that time. How widely different this is from “The Lord’s supper or Mass, the sacred synax or gathering of the people of God under the chairmanship of the priest, to celebrate the memory of the Lord.” Like this first version of the article 7 of the Institutio Generalis (presenting the New Mass), many modernist authors strive to present the Mass as an ordinary meal, and put aside its sacrificial nature, or even deny it, more or less, openly. Others, following Luther, reduce it to a sacrifice only of lauds and thanksgiving, eliminating the propitiatory nature of this sacrifice. The new Mass has many changes and suppressions, as compared to the traditional rite, which all go in the same direction of curtailing the sacrificial and especially the propitiatory nature of the Mass. You can find the main changes listed in the first  part of the book: The Problem of the Liturgical Reform.

To help to better understand the importance of the sacrificial nature of the Holy Mass, let us first see what a sacrifice is, and then how the Mass is a sacrifice.

The Virtue of Religion

Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches us that sacrifice is an act produced by the virtue of religion. It is even the supreme act of this virtue. What is the virtue of Religion? It is the virtue by which we honour God. But what is it to honour someone? It is to give testimony to the excellence of that person.

1 – The honour given to persons here on earth

To better understand the importance of this virtue, let us consider that here on earth, we honour four kinds of human excellences.

First, men honour the excellence of Science, or knowledge in general: customarily, prizes were granted, in school, to the most successful students (an excellent custom which is alas rejected by modern methods, but was helpful in giving us a great esteem for knowledge). Even now, Nobel prizes are given to the scientists who make important breakthroughs in Science. In Universities academic titles are given to those who are outstanding: Professor, Doctor, etc. In the Holy Church, the title of Doctor of the Church was granted to certain saints who admirably enlightened the Church by their theological science.

Second, men honour the excellence of virtue, even on a natural level. So, for example, medals are given to recompense the service or courage of certain persons. Suppose a house is on fire, and the distressed mother outside indicates that her baby is inside. A firefighter dashes through the flames and saves the baby. He will receive a medal to acknowledge the excellence of his courage. It is this kind of excellence that Holy Church acknowledges in her Saints: by canonizing such or such a Saint, She acknowledges the excellence, the heroic nature of his virtues and She invites all the faithful to honour him, that is to give testimony to this excellence.

Third, men do honour the excellence of authority: one presents arms to an army general, one honours the King, the Queen, even the President or Prime Minister. Nevertheless not all of these excel in virtue (!) or in science: what we do honour in them, is the authority in itself, the care of the common good which is entrusted to them.

The fourth kind of human excellence to which honour is due is: “Thou shall honour thy father and mother”. What is the excellence of parents? Granted, the parents have a certain science, they teach their children how to speak, and many other things. They also possess authority, and the children must obey them. However these qualities pass. The children will grow older and could eventually surpass the science of their parents. And, when they will have founded their own family, their own parents will not retain the same authority over them. Nevertheless, the children must honour their parents till their death and even after. The particular excellence of the parents over their children is the excellence of “origin”: the very life of the children originates from their parents, it is from them that they received existence. When the children are little, they receive everything from their parents, and through the years they accumulate a debt towards them which they will never be able to repay. If children would meditate more on what they received from their parents, they would respect them more. This kind of excellence we also find, but to a lesser degree, in all those who did good to us, be it our teachers, those who gave us good examples, good advice, our benefactors, etc.

But why should we honour excellence? First, absolutely speaking, to honour that which is excellent is honest because, no intelligent creature being able to know everything, it is reasonable that they apply themselves to know that which is more excellent. It is a true sickness of the modern world to see so many people applying themselves to learn trifling things, which do not have any real interest nor excellence, and on the other hand ignoring not only the masterworks of civilization on the natural level, but even the Blessed Trinity and the truths of our holy religion, which are necessary to eternal salvation.

Moreover, honour is also due to the measure in which we benefit from any excellence. The excellence of a person springs forth into benefits for others: for example, medical science benefit to all, the excellence of the courage and the virtue of a hero is an inspiring example to all, the authority of a political leader is for the common good of the people, and the excellence of parents obviously benefits the children. However, here some may object, that if a person has some excellence and others have benefited from it, he freely gave of himself; and so if it is a gift, why should there be a duty to give something back? The answer is simple: the giver, gives out of goodness, he gives because good tends to diffuse itself to others. “God created us because He is Good”, says Saint Augustine. But if the recipient is an intelligent being, it is good for him to know the truth, particularly the fact that what he has, he received from someone else. It is good to appreciate the worth of what he has received, so as to better appreciate the goodness of the giver. One understands here how honour leads to love. It is because the donor wants the good of the one to whom he gives, that he also wants that the latter acknowledges the source of what he has received. Gratitude is already a virtue on the human level, it is something that we owe. The honour due to our parents is very important, since it is the object of the fourth commandment given to us by God even before the very strict duty to respect life. If one indeed does not respect the authors of his own life, what life will he respect?

There exists a vice in the excessive desire of excellence; this is pride, which forgets that any created excellence is not the first, but depends on God’s excellence, who is the first source of all being and of all good. “What do you have which you have not received? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it?” (I Cor. 4:7)

2. The honour due to God

Now if we lift our minds to God, we find in Him all of these four perfections in a supreme degree, infinitely above that of creatures.

In Him is found the supreme knowledge, He knows absolutely everything, from the most distant galaxies to the smallest of particles, each and every particle in the entire universe! He knows all the past and all the future, not only the exterior events, but even all the thoughts and affections of all men from Adam and Eve up to the last man at the end of the world; He knows all the thoughts and affections of all the Angels. And infinitely above everything created, He knows Himself. He is the source of all knowledge, and the Light that enlightens all men that come into this world.

In Him is found all virtue. He is all-powerful, He is Wisdom itself, He is the perfect Justice united to the most exquisite Mercy, He is Goodness and Holiness itself; all that He does is done with perfect measure, beauty and right judgment. If we consider His works of nature, He is the most exquisite and sublime Artist. If we consider His work done in souls, He is even more admirable: “God is admirable in His Saints!” (Ps. 67:36). He is the source of all virtue, and without Him we can do nothing.

In Him is found the supreme authority over all creation, and all authority comes from Him. Those who exercise an authority on earth will have an account to render before His tribunal, which is supreme and irrevocable. He says one word, and all obey Him: “He spoke and all was made, He commanded, and all was created” (Ps. 148:5).

In short, He is at the origin of every being; He alone is of Himself, He alone has not received His existence. All other beings come from Him, and depend upon Him for existence and for activity. “Every excellent gift, every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17). Material causes lose that which they give: for example, a mother gives an apple to her child; she no longer has it. Spiritual causes do not lose that which they give: thus, a teacher doesn’t lose the knowledge that he communicates to his students. Furthermore, material causes are not superior to their effect: the apple is the same in the hand of the mother and in the hand of the child, the momentum that passes from one fast moving ball into another after a collision is the same, it is the “conservation of energy”. But the spiritual causes possess in a superior manner that of which they give: thus the architect who puts on paper the plans of a house does not forget them once they are drawn, but he possesses the knowledge of them in his mind, he understands their ‘raison d’être’ (whereas a computer has no true understanding of what it can print). Since God is the primary cause of everything, it follows that He has not lost anything of what He has given to creatures, but rather He possesses all the good that can be found in creatures. And what is more, He possesses it in a superior, transcendent manner. If, therefore, we find something good or pleasing in a creature, we find it more perfectly in God. He is therefore supremely good and worthy to be loved!

The light of the Faith reveals to us even more of the supreme excellence of God in Himself. The excellence of origin is found in a supreme manner in the Father, “from Whom all paternity in heaven and on earth receives its name”, from Whom proceed the Son and the Holy Spirit without a beginning, eternally. The intelligence that the Father has of Himself is so perfect that He expresses that which He is in One Word, completely adequate, His Word, the Son equal to the Father, the Word respiring Love. The excellence of the Virtue of God is His Holiness, His Spirit of Holiness, the Love from the Father and from the Son. And the excellence of the authority of the Blessed Trinity over every creature manifests itself in the greatest of miracles, the transubstantiation: by the word of the eternal Son of the Father, who was made flesh in the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary through the operation of the Holy Ghost, the bread and wine are changed into His own Body and Blood, and this not only at the time of the Last Supper when Our Lord Jesus Christ pronounced these words by Himself, but also at every Mass when He pronounces them through the ministry of the priest! The Blessed Trinity truly merits “all honor and glory forever and ever!”

All this clearly demonstrates that to the Blessed Trinity is due a very special honour, the supreme honour, due to the supreme and absolute excellence, and to the First Cause of every being and of all good. We call this honour: cult of latria, or of adoration. To the Saints is due a relative honour called cult of dulia, or of veneration.

The cult offered to God is the object of the three first Commandments; it is an obligation, which dominates over all the other duties of men towards their fellow creatures. From the accomplishment of this obligation, abundant graces flow to help us to fulfill our obligations towards men. In adoring the Creator, man learns to respect His work, from which comes respect for parents, respect for life and its transmission, even respect for the material goods of our neighbour and for his reputation. From disrespect for the three first commandments often proceeds disrespect for the others: if one does not even respect the Creator, whom will he respect? We see only too much of this in our modern world.

3. The acts of the virtue of religion

There are numerous acts of this virtue. The interior acts are the most important. St. Thomas mentions devotion and prayer. Devotion is the promptness to do everything for the honour of God. Prayer honours God because it recognizes, even before God has given something, that He is the source and that in His Love He takes care of us and sees to our needs. Notice that devotion directs the acts of all the other virtues to the honour of God. The theological virtues themselves take from this virtue a characteristic “note”: indeed, faith honours the truthfulness of God and His knowledge; hope honours fidelity to God and His Providence, Charity honours His infinite Goodness, worthy of being loved above all things. To not love God above all things, to put one’s last end in something besides God, is to dishonour Him. Furthermore, the honour rendered to God helps us and helps our neighbour to better understand and appreciate the excellence of God and His Goodness towards us, and thus to know Him and to love Him. There is a common influence between this virtue and the theological virtues.

What is more, the love of God not only delights in God and rejoices in Him (love of complacency) but desires to do something for Him: “What will I render to the Lord for all that He has given to me? I will take the Chalice of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord!” (Ps. 115:4). We cannot give God something that He doesn’t have; we can only give Him honour, which is an exterior good. It is to the honour of God, and the good of the creature, to live entirely for Him, to love Him above everything and to do everything for His Glory. It is not surprising that St. Thomas concludes his study of the virtue of religion by saying that in it consists our sanctity!

But this virtue does not only consist of interior acts, because man is not a pure spirit. Thus praise, which is frequent in the singing of the psalms, honours God in words; the oath by which God is taken as witness to the truthfulness of an affirmation, honours the divine knowledge which, aware of the secrets of our hearts, knows if we tell the truth or not, and will judge accordingly. Adoration, in its limited signification of corporal signs of honour such as genuflecting, or even the full prostration such as on the day of a religious profession or of an ordination, honours God by manifesting that we consider ourselves very little in front of God and even nothing in comparison to Him who is Infinite. And we must mention vows, tithes, invocations of the Name of God (as for example in the benedictions of the Church), the usage of holy things such as the Sacraments, etc., and the sacrifice.

Several of these acts of religion are also found in the honour rendered to the Saints and even to men on earth, such as praise, or prayer. But there is one that is reserved to God alone, because it more particularly expresses the supreme excellence: it is the sacrifice.

4. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

The sacrifice is an immolation of a tangible thing made to God alone to avow His supreme excellence and our total submission. As life is the first gift that we have received from God and also the most fundamental, because all the others presuppose it, the sacrifice manifests that we recognize God as the Author of life, by immolating a victim to Him, or something that sustains our life (for example, the sacrifice of Melchisedech). From the beginning of humanity we see sacrifices, such as the sacrifice of Abel. Being the supreme act of worship, it is not surprising that God had given to Moses a great many precise requirements for the rites of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

The exterior sacrifice signifies the interior sacrifice, namely, when the soul offers itself to God through a total submission, it is the sacrifice of adoration. The interior acknowledgment that God is the source of all good that was in the past (thanksgiving) and will be in the future (asking, petition) is an essential part of the interior sacrifice, signified by the exterior immolation of the most fundamental good, the life of a victim.

The sacrifices of the Old Testament had value from the fact that they represented the future perfect sacrifice of Christ: thus the sacrifice of the paschal lamb did not receive its value so much because it commemorated the Passover of Moses, but rather from the fact that it announced the Paschal Lamb, which is Christ. Far from establishing a religion without sacrifice, Our Lord Jesus Christ has given to His Church the perfect Sacrifice, His own sacrifice of the Cross, which the Church offers every day on all the altars. St. Thomas explains the superiority of the New Testament over the Old Testament precisely in this: in the Old Testament, the sacrifices only signified and announced the Sacrifice of Christ; the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass does not only signify (commemorate) the Sacrifice of the Cross, but it is truly the Sacrifice of Christ: “We say ‘the Blood of the New Testament’ because It is given to us henceforth in reality and no longer in images.”² Even as the Body of Christ is truly and substantially present in its entirety in each Host, and there is nevertheless only one Body of Christ, so in the same way each Mass is truly a perfect Sacrifice, and yet there is only one Sacrifice of Christ.³

Thus we see how much the spirit of adoration, of respect, is essential at the Mass, precisely as it is a Sacrifice, the supreme act of worship, acknowledgement of the sovereign domain of the Blessed Trinity over us, His creatures. In many ways, the new rite has placed the emphasis on the meal and has set aside the sacrificial aspect of the Mass: many gestures of adoration have been omitted, as well as many expressions manifesting the humble submission and the nothingness of the creature before his Creator.

In order to participate well at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it is important to find once more this spirit of sacrifice, this spirit of adoration, of thanksgiving and of humble supplication. The traditional Mass is filled with this spirit and nourishes it in us. May Our Lady, who stood present at the Sacrifice of the Cross, completely united to the sacrifice of her Son, deign to help us to better unite ourselves to this perfect Sacrifice at the Holy Mass!

(We will see in the next issue the propitiatory end of the sacrifice).

2. Illa qu. 78a 3.

3. See IIIa qu. 83a. 3ad. 1m.