In the economy of redemption there are two stages, the action of Jesus Christ, and a human one which applies His action to our souls. Our Lord prayed, taught, suffered, died; but that which He thereby merited for us is conveyed to us through our own prayers, the teaching of His ministers, and the Sacraments. So it is with the Sacrifice of Calvary. There is a means appointed whereby we may be present at it and make it our own; and that means is the Holy Eucharist in the form of the Mass. It is an outward sign by which we "show the death of Christ until He come" (1 Cor. xi. 26). It was ordained by Him when He placed Himself under the appearance of bread and wine, and said, "Do this for a commemoration of Me" (Luke xxii. 19). It makes us communicate in Our Lord's death considered as an act of worship to God. The Mass completes the external forms of religion in the Christian system; it gives us a solemn ceremony as an external bond of union; and that ceremony is no mere shadow of a past event, but is really the great act of worship and expiation wrought by Christ, and brought by Him from heaven, and placed before us. What a wonderful form of worship is that which you have inherited or gained for yourself! "Neither is there any nation that hath gods so nigh to them as our God is present to all our petitions" (Deut. iv. 7).
