is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." [1] This saving victim was also foretold, as well before as after the promulgation of the Mosaic law, by a variety of sacrifices; for this alone, as the perfection and completion of all, comprises all the advantages which were typified by the other sacrifices. In none of the sacrifices of the old law, however, do we discover a more lively image of the Eucharistic sacrifice than in that of Melchisedech. [2] Our Lord himself, at his last Supper, offered to his Eternal father his precious body and blood under the appearances of bread and wine, at the same time declaring himself, " a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." [3]
We, therefore, confess that the sacrifice of the Mass is one and the same sacrifice with that of the cross: the victim is one and the same, Christ Jesus, who offered himself, once only, a bloody sacrifice on the altar of the cross. The bloody and unbloody victim is still one and the same, and the oblation of the cross is daily renewed in the eucharistic sacrifice, in obedience to the command of our Lord: " This do, for a commemoration of me." [4] The priest is also the same, Christ our Lord: the ministers who offer this sacrifice, consecrate the holy mysteries not in their own but in the person of Christ. This the words of consecration declare: the priest does not say: " This is the body of Christ," but, " This is my body;" and thus invested with the character of Christ, he changes the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of his real body and blood. [5] That the holy sacrifice of the Mass, therefore, is not only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, or a commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross; but also a sacrifice of propitiation, by which God is appeased and rendered propitious, the pastor will teach as a dogma defined by the unerring authority of a general Council of the Church. [6] If, therefore, with pure hearts and a lively faith, and with a sincere sorrow for past transgressions, we immolate and offer in sacrifice this most holy victim, we shall, no doubt, receive from the Lord " mercy and grace in seasonable aid." [7] So acceptable to God is the sweet odour of this sacrifice, that through its oblation he pardons our sins, bestowing on us the gifts of grace and of repentance. This is the solemn prayer of the Church: as often as the commemoration of this victim is celebrated, so often is the work of our salvation promoted, and the plenteous fruits cf that bloody victim flow in upon us abundantly, through this unbloody sacrifice.
The pastor will also teach, that such is the efficacy of this sacrifice, that its benefits extend not only to the celebrant and
