All Illustrations previously published on Zephyrinus’ Blog.
unless stated otherwise.
Saint Paul says: “By Him (i.e., Our Lord) we have access both in one Spirit to The Father”.
All the properly sacerdotal formulas said by the Celebrant at the Altar (Collect, Secret, Preface, Postcommunion) are addressed to The Holy Ghost. That is to say that, under the influence of Grace attributed to The Holy Ghost, we are united with Christ as man, as our Priest or mediator in order to honour The Father in Whom the whole Blessed Trinity may be said to be implicitly contained, since, from Him, The Son and The Holy Ghost both proceed.
It is “through Christ that we go to God”. Therefore, all The Church’s Prayers conclude with the words: “Through Jesus Christ Our Lord”; and the Canon of The Mass ends with the formula: “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, be unto Thee, O God The Father Almighty, in the unity of The Holy Ghost, all honour and glory, World without end. Amen”.
Christ, by His bloody sacrifice on The Cross, merited for each of us our redemption and the graces necessary for obtaining it. After His Resurrection and Ascension, His Priesthood is continued in Heaven by presenting His Glorious Wounds to The Father in our favour.
By this perpetual oblation, He obtains the application to our Soul of that which He merited for us on Calvary.
In order to save us, the mediatorship of Jesus is necessary also upon Earth. For this purpose did The Saviour institute the Holy Eucharist, whereby He might find the means of being made man no longer merely in Palestine and for a determined time, but every day and in every Country.
That our Souls could benefit from the merits of Jesus, Who was both Priest and Victim on The Cross, God wills that He should continue to offer Himself on the Altar under the species of Bread and Wine, recalling the separation of His Body and His Blood on Calvary.
“The sacrifice offered on the Altar”, says the Council of Trent, “is the same which was offered on Calvary, since it is the same Priest and the same Victim”.
Christ is the High Priest, but to perform the rites of this sacrifice, a lower order of Priesthood is necessary to supply what Our Lord does not Himself perform.
These Ministers of the Priesthood of Christ are the members of the Catholic hierarchy, and thus at one and the same time by Christ invisible, and by Christ visible, it is ordained that we shall Pray to God in the person of the Pope, Bishops, and Priests.
PART THREE FOLLOWS.
