22. Christ Living on Our Altars

 

If you go into a Catholic Church seeking Christ, you will find Him. You will see a little red light burning before the altar. That is the sign that the living Christ is present in the tabernacle upon that altar. That is why the Catholic Church is truly the temple of the living God. It is not a meeting house. It is not a temple of worship where only sermons are given and prayers are said. It is the temple where the living God dwells, just as truly as He dwells in heaven. Here is the continued presence of Christ upon earth. That is why the Catholic looks upon his churches with so much reverence, whether they be the magnificent temple of St. Peter’s in Rome or the humblest wayside shrine, where the little red lamp keeps its silent vigil before the tabernacle of the living God. That explains the holy atmosphere of the sacred place. That explains the awful difference between a dead shrine, no matter how beautiful, and the living house of God, no matter how plain.

Christ said to the Samaritan woman. And we can say: “If thou did’st but know the gift of God,” “If the non-Catholic world did but know this gift of God by the hundreds of millions they would return home to partake again of the heavenly banquet that a loving God has prepared for them, and to live their lives bathed in the divine sunlight of His Presence.

21. The Holy Eucharist

 

If you enter the Catholic Church you will have returned home into the Church of Christ, into the Church of your fathers. There an almost unbelievable privilege is in store for you. From that day forward, yours it will be to take your place at God’s banquet table, to be nourished upon the living Body and Blood of Christ Himself, the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. This is the greatest of all the Sacraments of the Church for in it the faithful have the inestimable privilege of receiving the author of all grace, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity under the appearances of bread and wine.

Christ knew that men need food to preserve the life of the body. He knew too that men would need just as badly spiritual food to preserve the life of the soul. Hence the night before He died, He prepared a divine banquet for His children. Christ was the lover of men, who loved them with an inexhaustible love. Now the desire of the lover is to be with and be united with the object of his affection. Christ was the divine lover of the souls of men. Hence loving them, He loved them as the Scripture says ‘to the end’, and though returning to His Father in heaven, He determined to remain in reality with His children upon earth. In order to do this, He left His living Body and Blood upon our altars, that He, the living God, might always dwell in our tabernacles, that we might receive Him into our hearts in Holy Communion.

Let us listen to St. Paul speak of the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Writing to the Corinthians he says: “Brethren, I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread and giving thanks broke and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is my Body, which shall be delivered for you. This do for a commemoration of me.’ In like manner He also took the chalice after He had supped, saying: ‘This Chalice is the new Testament in my blood; this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.’” Taking Christ at His word, the Catholic Church rejoices in having the living Body and Blood of Christ upon her altars, and the same living Body and Blood of Christ as heavenly food for the souls of men. This is by virtue of Christ’s own command who said: “Unless you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, you shall not have life in you.” (Jn. 6.54) God in His infinite love of men, exhausts the very possibilities of His power in giving us Himself. That is why Catholic Churches are temples of the living God, because the living Christ dwells in the tabernacle on her altar under the appearances of bread and wine. That is why Catholic priests are priests, because they offer up this same sacrifice for the people.

Certainly since Christ was God, He had the power to change bread into His Body. What nature by its ordinary powers could do, certainly He, the Author of nature, could do. And if God could create the world out of nothing; if Christ could turn water into wine, as He did at the marriage feast of Cana, why could He not if He so willed, change bread and wine into His own Body and Blood? On the occasion of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the desert, the multitude that was there, having witnessed the great miracle, were in admiration at what Christ had done. On that occasion Christ promised them that He would later on give them an even better food to feed upon. “The bread which I shall give you,” He said, “is my Flesh for the life of the world. Unless you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, you shall not have life in you.” Many of the Jews that were there found this hard to believe.

“This is a hard saying,” they said, and they walked away. Christ knew what was in their minds. He knew that they did not believe He had the power to do what He said He would do, give them His very Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink. But though, He read their hearts and knew what was in their minds, He did not call them back. He did not say: “Come back, my friends, I do not mean that I will give you my real Flesh to eat and my real Blood to drink. I mean only that I shall give you bread that shall be a sign of my Body and wine that shall be a sign of my Blood.” No! Christ did not call them back. He allowed them to walk away. Then turning to His Apostles, He asked: “Will you also go away?” The Apostles however gave Him the answer that is the only answer mankind can give to Christ the Son of God: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

The Jews themselves knew well what Christ meant. They understood them so well that they said: “This is a hard saying. How can any man give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink?” They would not believe that Christ was God, and even if He were God, He would be so good to men that He would give them His own Body and Blood for nourishment. But the Apostles believed, and after the death of Christ, they did as He had commanded. They took bread into their hands, and through the power He had given them as His ordained priests, changed it into the Body of Christ, pronouncing over it the exact words of Christ: “This is My Body.” Taking wine in turn, they changed it into His Blood, saying the same as Christ had said: “This is My Blood, which shall be shed for you unto the remission of sins."

From that day forward, on every Catholic altar from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the priest consecrates bread and wine and offers Christ’s living Body and Blood up to His heavenly Father, just as Christ had offered up that same Body and Blood on the Cross. On the Cross Christ offered Himself up to His Father in a bloody manner; on the altar Christ is offered up in an unbloody manner. On the Cross Christ was offered up in reality and under the appearance of His own Body and Blood; on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine Christ is offered up as a sacrifice for man’s sin but in the same reality of His own Flesh and Blood.

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass after the priest has performed the consecration, the faithful approach the communion rail. Communion for them does not mean however merely receiving a sign of Christ. It means they are receiving Christ. It does not mean they are receiving an imitation of Christ, a type of Christ or a symbol of Christ. It means they are receiving the living Body and Blood of our Lord in one exquisite moment of union with God, when the Son of God stoops down from the high heavens to give Himself as the kiss of peace to His earthly children. The Church does not let the overwhelming generosity of the gift paralyze her faith in the Giver. The goodness of God and the generosity of God should not be a stumbling block in the way of Man’s salvation. It becomes a stumbling block only when man with his small mind refuses to believe that God is so good and so generous. We should rather expect an overwhelming gift from a divine lover, from Him of whom it was truthfully said: “Greater love than this no man hath, than that he lay down his life for his fellowman.”

You a non-Catholic and I a Catholic have similar tastes and similar needs because we are both human. We do not want to be fed upon signs and symbols and figures and imitations. We want and we need what the good God has been willing to give us, His own Flesh and Blood. “Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you shall not have life in you,” said Christ. Hence when He further says: “This is My Body; this is My Blood. Do this in commemoration of Me,” the Church joyfully accepts the gift of Christ, she dispenses the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to the faithful and she adores the real presence of Christ upon her altars.

The Holy Eucharist is rightly called the ‘wine of virgins and bread of martyrs,’ since millions of faithful Christians, nourished on this food, have risen to the heights of sanctity, millions have gladly endured the pains of martyrdom.

This then will be your privilege if you reenter the Church of your fathers. Once again you will be able to approach and partake of the divine banquet God Himself has prepared for you. This, the incredible gift of God to man, will again be yours. If there were naught else for you to receive, this in itself should be enough to urge you to hasten back home.

20. The Sacrament of Penance

 

For thirty years Christ, the Son of God, lived at Nazareth, the quiet retired life of a carpenter’s son. At the age of thirty He began His public life which lasted but for three years. In those three years that so changed the course of all history, the Redeemer of mankind was laying the foundations of His Church. Broad and deep must be these foundations, for they were the foundations of a Church that was to last till the end of time. For that reason He had said to His Apostle Simon: “Thou are Peter”, meaning that He was changing Simon’s name to that of Peter. Peter means rock, so Christ continues: “and upon this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He was therefore building a Church that was not meant to be the salvation only of those who lived in the time of Christ, but for all men of all time. Hence He would leave with His Church the authority to deal with men of all time, to teach them and to administer the Sacraments that would be necessary for their spiritual life.

Entrance into the Church He made possible through the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism. This Sacrament would wash away from the soul any stain left upon the children of Adam through the sin of the disobedience of their first parents. That sin is called original sin. But Christ knew the weakness of men. He knew the temptations to sin that would surround them in this life, that might lead them to commit sin after their Baptism. He knew that they would need another source of forgiveness. He had come, as was said, not to save those who need not penance but to save sinners that were lost. Hence He gives to His Apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins. After His resurrection, He thus addresses His disciples: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. Receive ye the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained.” (Matt. 18.18) Again the Church does not dispute with Christ. Rather she takes Christ at His word and knows that her priests have the power of forgiving sins in His name.

All of us must work out our salvation in fear and trembling while we are upon this earthly pilgrimage. What a wonderful feeling of relief and consolation it is, then, to know that if we have sinned, we have the means of reconciliation with God at hand. The Sacrament by which sins committed after Baptism are forgiven is called the Sacrament of Penance. The sinner kneels at the feet of the priest; with sincere sorrow for having offended the Almighty God, he humbly confesses his sins and resolves with a firm purpose relying on God’s sure help to commit them no more. Then he hears the healing words of absolution fall from the lips of the priest who sits there in the place of Christ: “I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Again we may ask, why doubt Christ, merely because He has been so good to us.

19. The Sacraments

 
Christ above all, He who was the divine Savior of men, knew the priceless value of the human soul. He knew it so well that He was willing to lay down his own life to save it, to suffer the awful agony of the cross in so doing. He knew the awful responsibility that would be the lot of men to cooperate with Him in the salvation of their souls. He knew in addition the difficulty men would have in view of the weakness of human nature, and in the midst of the temptations to break God’s law in this life. Christ therefore not only redeemed mankind by His death on the cross, He not only established His Church to be a light and a guide and a teacher of men unto salvation, but He also purchased for him innumerable graces that man would need in his journey through life. These graces would be spiritual helps that would give man the spiritual strength necessary to win out in the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. That these graces might flow into the souls of men, He dug for us seven different channels of grace in order that all men might partake of the spiritual strength they so desperately needed. These seven channels of grace are called Sacraments.

Now a Sacrament is a sign, a sign of Christ operating upon the souls of men. It is a visible sign instituted by Christ Himself to show that He is pouring His grace into their souls. For instance Baptism is a Sacrament. Christ instituted this sign, which is the pouring of the water upon the head of the person to be baptized and the pronouncing of the words by the priest. Christ Himself, the Author of all grace, instituted the sign, the pouring of the water. Christ Himself indicated plainly the words to be used. “Baptize,” He said, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He Himself taught us the necessity of Baptism. “Unless a man be born again,” He said, “of water and the Holy Spirit, He cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And to the Apostles He gave the command: “Go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism then is the first channel of grace, the first Sacrament. By it the person baptized is freed from the stain of original sin. He is made again a child of God and an heir of heaven. It is the badge of the Christian. It gives him the further right to partake of all the other sacraments Christ instituted. The sacraments the Church administers to the faithful are like the doctrines she preaches. They go back in an unbroken succession to Christ Himself for the Church neither makes up her doctrines nor invents her sacraments. She takes Christ at His word. Consequently when Christ says: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven,” the Church takes Him at His word and teaches the absolute necessity of Baptism, the first Sacrament.

18. The Blessings of The Catholic Faith

 

What then can I expect if I embrace the Catholic faith? There ought to be some magnificent blessing that should come to me from God if I do so. Of course we should not consider only blessings and rewards when it is a question of doing God’s holy will. Blessing or no blessing, if it is God’s will, we must be prepared to do it. And yet God in His extreme goodness, always has a blessing and a reward for His children when they but do their duty.

One of the greatest blessings that shall come to you, if you re-enter the faith of your fathers, is that you will again be a member of the one, true Church Christ founded, in which He intended that you work out your salvation. And out of the knowledge that you are in the true Church, a lively feeling of security and peace will flow. There will no longer be any doubt, any misgivings, any confusion in your mind. You will be at home on earth, as much as this earth can be our home. And out of this security, a life-long happiness shall be yours. We can be happy in nothing if the salvation of our immortal soul is insecure; we lay the firm basis of happiness in everything, if, as far as we are concerned, we have made secure our immortal salvation.

Christ came upon earth not only to satisfy for man’s sins but also to establish His Church upon earth. He intended that Church to be, until the end of time, the teacher and the guide of mankind on its way back to God. After the work of the redemption had been accomplished, just before he ascended into heaven, Christ called His Apostles together and entrusted to them their mission. “All power,” He said, “is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations—teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Matt. 28;18,20)

To the Church He gave the command to teach; to the faithful He gave the command to listen and to accept the teachings of the Church. Furthermore He promised that He would be with the Church always, that the Church would have His continued assistance to the end of time to keep her in the way of truth forever. This is the firm foundation upon which will rest your security as a Catholic. Listening to the Church in matters of faith and morals, you will be listening to Christ Himself.

Christ’s words on this point are very clear. Before He ascended into heaven, He said to His Apostles; “And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth.” (Jn. 14,16,17) “But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.” (Jn. 14:26) “But when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will teach you all truth.” (Jn. 16:13) The Catholic faithful, then, have only to listen to the Church’s teaching and they can be certain that, with the help Christ shall give His Church, she shall not teach them error.

Nor could this be otherwise. Christ expressly commanded the faithful to listen to the Apostles and accept their teachings. If these teachings ever could be false, Christ Himself, the God of truth, would be forcing His own followers to believe in error. It is entirely against reason to think that God would do this. This is why the Catholic has no misgivings about his faith. The security of the Catholic as far as his faith is concerned is well illustrated by the following story.

There was a certain English lady some time ago who was dissatisfied with her religion. She was an Anglican, a member of the Church of England. So she brought her doubts to her pastor, an Anglican minister. “I am thinking of investigating the claims of the Catholic Church,” she told him frankly.

“Oh,” he replied, “You are just suffering from a touch of the Roman fever. We all get a touch of that sooner or later, but it will pass away.” The Roman fever is the name given by Anglicans to the desire to return to the Roman Catholic Church. But the fever did not pass away in this instance. The woman consulted a Catholic priest. The priest explained Catholic doctrines to her and set forth the claims of the Church to be the one, true Church of Christ. Again the woman returned to her minister. She told him she still had grave doubts whether or not she was living in the Church in which Christ intended her to live.

“You must not worry, my good lady,” said he. “These doubts will pass away.”

“Well,” she replied, “if I take your advice and remain in the Anglican Church, will you answer for my soul in making this decision when I stand before the judgment seat of God?”

“But you cannot ask me to do that,” came the reply.

“Then my mind is made up,” said the lady. “The Catholic priest had not the slightest doubt about being willing to stand security for my salvation as far as this decision of mine is concerned of entering the Catholic Church. That is the Church I will enter.”

Any Catholic priest then will stand responsible for your soul in the matter of your conversion. He will be willing to pledge the salvation of his own soul that you are making the right step. Of course, once you have embraced the Catholic faith, you will be expected to live up to the commandments of God and His Church; you will be expected to grow in virtue, to avoid sin. But you need have little fear if you are of good will. Just as Christ in His infinite wisdom gives His assistance to the Church to keep it in the way of truth, so also He gives to the Church tremendous helps in order that the faithful may have the strength required to lead good Christian lives to the day of their death. He wanted all of them to be able to say with St. Paul: “I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith; for the rest there is laid up a crown for me in heaven.” The helps which Christ instituted and gave to the Church are called Sacraments. To be able to partake of the Sacraments Christ instituted will be one of the greatest blessings you will receive upon coming home.

17. Why Not Visit a Catholic Church

Just as no one should be timid as far as approaching a Catholic priest is concerned, no one should be timid about entering a Catholic Church. The doors are always open every day of the week. Each morning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered up in the church if there is a resident priest present. All through the day the living Christ is in the tabernacle inviting the silent worshipper. You may enter and feel the quiet presence of God. Religion, you know, is not a thing that should be relegated to an hour or so on Sunday. The Catholic feels that every hour of every day should be consecrated to God and the church stands open every day to invite the faithful to a quiet visit with God.

And though many outside her fold know little or nothing of Catholic worship or doctrine, this is certainly not the intention of Christ or the Church. As her founder wishes her to be, the Catholic Church is open and frank and honest in her doctrine, her morality and her manner of worshipping. She has nothing that she wishes to hide.

But if you enter a Catholic Church, do not be surprised if Catholics worshipping there take little notice of you. They are there for what they imagine you came for, to worship God. Hence they will be intent upon one thing and one thing alone while they are in church, the worship of God. With them you too can slip into a pew, look up at the altar and commune with your God.

16. The Next Step

The next step you should take on your way home is to seek the assistance and direction of a priest. Any priest will be only too glad to give you what help he can. This is a part of his vocation, one of the duties of the office he fills. Christ Himself said: “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” (Jn. 10, 16)

But if you do not feel confident enough to introduce yourself to a priest, ask some Catholic friend of yours to do so. The priest may seem strange to you at first, but you will find him surprisingly reasonable and human. The Catholic priest by the Sacred Orders he receives, has a special work to perform. He is chosen from among men and set aside to offer up worship at God’s altar. But though he is set apart and anointed for a holy work, he is still a human being, very glad to be of service in God’s cause and in the service of his fellowmen.

We are all, Catholics and non-Catholics, children of God, bound by the charity of Christ to love one another. The very greatest love that we can show one another is that love whereby we are anxious about the salvation of our neighbor. This is the love that impelled the Son of God to descend to earth and take upon Himself our flesh in order to save the sheep of Israel that were lost. This is the same love that impels the missionary to leave family and friends to travel to distant parts of the earth to win souls for Christ. This is the only reason why the Catholic priest is anxious that the truth of Christ be made known to you and to all men. He is absolutely confident that he is a member of and a leader in the Church in which Christ meant that all men should work out their salvation.

15. How Shall I go About it?

If I wish to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church with a view to entering it, providing I discover it to be the one true Church Christ founded, how shall I go about it? What steps shall I take? Well, the first step you must take in this matter is to pray. As a humble seeker after truth, ask God for light to know His holy Will. Like the beggar in the Gospel, cry out with the loud voice of your soul: “Lord, that I may see.” For faith is a gift of God, that God gives to those who ask for it. Christ has promised that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in His Name, you shall receive.” “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

The great Cardinal Newman, one of the keenest minds of all time, took over twenty years to find his way back into the Church of his fathers. He had been a member of the Anglican Church, and he wished to remain a member of that Church if such were the will of God. Amid the doubts and perplexities that tormented him, he wrote the beautiful lines of the hymn ‘Lead Kindly Light.’ We too can repeat his words in prayer:

Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on.
The night is dark and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on.

God finally answered his humble prayer, giving him not only the light of mind that he begged for, but adding also the strength of soul that would enable him to follow the inspiration of God. From that time forward no sacrifice that he would be called upon to make could deter him from answering Christ’s call to return to the Church of Christ.

“Without faith,” Scripture tells us, “it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11, 31) But without God’s grace, we cannot possess faith. That is why there are many men in the world today who are convinced that the Catholic Church is the one, true Church founded by Jesus Christ, yet who have not entered it because God did not give them the gift of faith. Such a man was Cobbett, author of a history of the Protestant Reformation in England. Though Cobbett was not a Catholic, in his history he gave irrefutable proofs that there was no need of any such reformation in England, that the Catholic faith was literally stolen from the people, that they did not willingly give it up. On one occasion Cobbett was asked by a Catholic: “Why, then, do you not embrace the Catholic faith? You seem to defend it in everything.” Cobbett replied: “I am surprised that you, a Catholic, should ask me that question. You certainly should know that there is a great difference between conviction and conversion.” In other words Cobbett was intellectually convinced that the Catholic Church was the true Church of Christ, and yet he lacked the grace of God to live up to his convictions. To merit the grace of embracing the Catholic faith means more than just making an intellectual study of it. It means in addition humble prayer that God will give you not only the light of mind that you may see your way but also strength of soul, that you may have the courage to walk therein.