Archbishop Lefebvre: 1971 Address - The Priest and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

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THE PRIEST AND THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

Address given at the retreat for the priest-members of the Association of Priests and Religious of St. Anthony Mary Claret.
Barcelona, Spain
March 1971

My dear Friends,

It is all too clear that the great suffering of the Church today is born of the number of perjured priests, of the many priests who, heedless of their sacred character, laicize themselves, take on the spirit of the world, and forsake the only true wisdom which our Lord has taught us, the wisdom of the cross.

In the face of these betrayals and these desertions you, by your attitude, by your declarations and by your publications, have reacted healthily, firmly professing your faith. May you be thanked, congratulated, and heartened for the holy example you have given and are still giving to all priests throughout the world. Since you have done me the honor of an invitation to come and speak a few words to you, I should like, with God’s grace and in all humility, to set before you in a few questions a problem vital to the priest, to every Catholic priest.

You admit that many priests have lost the true sense of the priesthood, that they are asking what a priest is and what part he should play in society! Well! I venture to ask you this question: What is the essential role of the priest, the reason why our Lord Jesus Christ established that office? If we are to cure these priests of their self-distrust, we must ourselves understand the nature of the priest in order both to help our wavering brothers who are in danger of going astray and to find aid in our own striving for sanctification.

You have, of course, already answered the question: What is a priest? You answer it in your hearts, I think, in the words spoken at the birth of the priesthood: “Do this in memory of me.” Indeed, the Church has always believed and proclaimed that it is through these words that the Apostles received a share in the priesthood of our Lord, i.e., the sacrament of Order.

Yes, the words are brief, but how heavy with meaning: “this” “in memory of me.” This - the sacrifice of the cross continued, perpetuated in its physical and mystical reality. It is the sacrifice of the cross continued by the Bread and Wine consecrated and become substantially the Body and Blood of Jesus. This – is the sacrifice of bloodless oblation, of the living Christ immolated on the cross once and for all and continuing to plead for us! This – is the Body and Blood of the risen Jesus becoming the food of His Mystical Body, for it is by this sacrifice of the cross that the graces of the resurrection enter into the souls of the faithful at baptism, in penance, in extreme unction, and in all the graces of the sacraments.

Sharers in the priesthood of Christ Jesus, ministers of the divine mysteries, chosen and marked by our Lord’s election as priests for all eternity, we are this for the sacrifice of the holy Mass and by the sacrifice of the Cross, both being substantially the same and unique sacrifice of our Lord. Thus, at the call of the priest, there rises the cross on which hangs the ideal Priest, the ideal Victim, the raison d’étre of the Incarnate Word, the raison d’étre of the Redeemer. Tota vita crux et martyrium!

The priest has no reason for existence, no meaning, save in the sacrifice of the Mass. Let us then seek for a better understanding of the Mass that we may better understand our priesthood. We will say a few words about the priesthood and sacrifice in general, then about the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ and, finally, about that priesthood continued in Holy Mass by the ministry of priests.


RELIGION, SACRIFICE, PRIESTHOOD

The human race has always felt the need for priests, i.e., for men who, by a mission officially confided to them, may act as mediators between God and humanity; men who, wholly consecrated to this mediation, make it their life’s work; men chosen to offer to God official prayers and sacrifices in the name of society which, as such, shares the duty of rendering to God this public and social worship, recognizing Him as the supreme lord and first principle, stretching out to Him as to their last end, giving Him thanks and seeking His favour.

Indeed, among all the peoples Whose customs are known to us, when not forced by violence to deny the most sacred laws of human nature, priests are to be found, though often in the service of false gods; wherever any religion is professed or altars raised there is a priesthood, encompassed by special marks of honor and veneration. (Pius XI, Ad Catholici Sacrodotii Fastigium, December 20, 1938)

Leo XIII, in his Encyclical Caritatis Stadium of July 25, 1898, said:

Necessitatem sacrrifcii vis ipsa et natura religionis continet....Remotisque sacrrificii nulla nec esse nec cogitari religio potent. - Now the very essence of Religion implies Sacrifice. For the perfection of Divine Worship is found in the submissive and reverent acknowledgment that God is the Supreme Lord of all things, by Whose power we and all our belongings exist. This constitutes the very nature of Sacrifice, which, on this account, is emphatically called a “thing Divine.” If Sacrifices are abolished, Religion can neither exist nor be conceived. (§10)

St. Thomas in Ila-Hae, Question 81, Art. 1, shows us very clearly that religion, which is a virtue supplementing the virtue of justice, binds us to God:

Religion...denotes properly a relation to God....Religion has two kinds of acts. Some are its proper and immediate acts, which it elicits, and by which man is directed to God alone, for instance, sacrifice, adoration and the like. But it has other acts, which it produces through the medium of the Virtues which it commands, directing them to the honor of God....Accordingly to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation is an act of religion as commanding...

Sacrifice, which means the offering up and the submission of man to God, is the outward act most perfectly befitting the nature of man.

In Question 85, Art. 1, St. Thomas tells us:

It is a dictate of natural reason that man should use certain sensibles, by offering them to God in sign of the subjection and honor due to Him, like those who make certain offerings to their lord in recognition of his authority. Now this is what we mean by a sacrifice, and consequently the offering of sacrifice is of the natural law.

Nothing, then, is as deeply engraved in human nature as religion and its essential act-sacrifice. Now, to achieve a holy thing “sacrum facere”-there must be consecrated persons set apart, capable of drawing near to God and serving Him. This person will be the priest-“sacerdos,” “sacra dans.” We shall see how, in his infinite goodness and mercy, God has so arranged all things that worship worthy of Him may be rendered by the men who have departed from Him.


THE PRIESTHOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

If it be indeed true that the natural order demands that religion, sacrifice, and the priesthood should be closely united, so much so that one cannot be dissociated from the other without totally destroying religion, the order of revelation admirably confirms this. We cannot understand the incarnation of the Son of God without applying to Jesus those fundamental ideas which are the raison d’étre of the Incarnation: “Ego te glorificavi super terram, opus consummavi quod dedisti mihi ut faciam...Manifestavi nomen tuum hominibus” (Jn. 1714-6).

Jesus is God’s ideal religious. He is the perfect oblation, the perfect victim. We can never sufficiently meditate on these sublime and divine realities. St. Paul has described to us in moving terms the greatness of our Lord’s priesthood, the sublimity of His oblation and sacrifice. Jesus is essentially the Priest-Mediator, the Anointed, that is to say Christ, by His hypostatic union. He will forever be the one and only true priest, the one true victim acceptable to God. “Tu es sacredos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.” Thus the essential acts of our natural and supernatural religion have been forever determined by God’s Son Jesus Christ, His divine Son.

Let us then marvel at God’s ordering of all that relates thenceforth to the worship owed Him. It goes without saying that what God has ordained He has ordained for all eternity, and that none soever of His creatures may change the essential norms. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange has admirably expounded these things in his book The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, for that is what will henceforward dominate all our holy religion, here on earth and in heaven-the cross of Jesus, the altar on which the Priest and Victim sacrificed Himself. What a Priest and what a Victim! “Habemus Pontifcem magnum, qui penetravit caelos, Jesum Filium Dei” (Heb. 4:14). “If there is a revealed doctrine which allows us to glimpse all the greatness of the sacrifice of the Mass,” says Fr. Garrigou, “it is unquestionably that of the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is tantamount to saying: If there is a revealed doctrine that gives us a glimpse of the priest as he is and as he should be, it is unquestionably that of the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me draw your attention particularly to the following lines:

Just as the greatness of Mary, all her privileges and all that is the source of her glory today, came to her through her divine Motherhood, the dignity of the priest, his privileges and his duties come to him through his sharing in the priesthood of Christ, which he realizes in essence when he pronounces the words of consecration during the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. His priestly character, his virginity, his intrinsic power over the sacraments and the mystical Body of our Lord Jesus Christ derive from the power over His Body and Blood given by our Lord Himself.

As Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange says: “The more the ineffable riches of the priesthood of our Lord, of His Passion, His Cross, and His Resurrection are plumbed, the more deeply the mysterious realities of the Sacrifice of the Mass are penetrated.” Thus we have a clearer understanding of the definitions given by the Council of Trent against the Lutherans:

In the divine sacrifice accomplished in the course of the Mass, Christ, who offered Himself upon the altar of the Cross, shedding His blood for us, makes a bloodless sacrifice. It is the same Victim, it is also the same priest...idem nunc offerens sacradotum ministerio. He offered Himself on the Cross, He offers Himself now through His ministers, only the way of oblation differs. (Conc. Trid., Session 22, Canon 2, D2. 940.)

In substance, then, the sacrifice is the same. Thus, the better to measure the importance of the sacrifice of the Mass, then the reality of the priestly character that assimilates the priest to our Lord Himself, hypostatically united to the Word, and, finally, the real and substantial presence of our Lord under the species of bread and wine, we must acknowledge in the Gospel how great a place our Lord Himself has given to His priesthood at the Last Supper and on the cross in His life here below-and for the times to come.

It is on the cross that He will say: “Consummatum est.” His work is finished. It is the hour which haunts Him all His life: “Nondum venit hora mea” (Jn. 2:4); “Sciens Jesus quia venit hora eius” (13:1); “Venit hora ut clarificetur Filius hominis” (12:23). The hour that Jesus foresees is the hour of sacrifice; He desires it. He wants it in conformity with the will of His Father. This hour dominates His whole life, it was for this that He came. It is at oncethe hour of His death and the hour of His triumph over the powers of darkness.

He who accomplishes this sacrifice and offers Himself as a victim for the redemption of the world is the Word of God made man. It is this same sacrifice which we accomplish on our altars; it is in this same priesthood that we participate.

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, describes the infinite superiority of the priesthood of our Lord over that of Levi. Jesus is above the angels, above Moses-incomparably above the high priests of the Old Law: “Novissime, diebus istis locustus est nobis in Filio…: tanto melior angelis effectus, quanto differentius prae illis nomen hereditavit” (Heb. 1:2, 4).


THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS; THE PRIESTHOOD OF PRIESTS

If you would know the why and wherefore of the real presence in the holy Mass, the reality of your priesthood and the necessity, for celibacy, since a married priest must always exist on sufferance as an exception destined to disappear, examine the greatness of our Lord’s priesthood and the sublimity of Christ’s sacrifice. You will then realize that your whole priestly being exists to continue the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and thus to lead souls to this inexhaustible source of graces for their sanctification and glorification. As Fr. Garrigou rightly says: “Just as the priesthood is the supreme sacred function, sacrifice, as its name implies, is the supreme sacred action. There is no priesthood without sacrifice, there is no sacrifice without priesthood” (op. Cit. p. 757). Between the two terms there is a certain transcendental and essential relationship.

Jesus is the most perfect of priests, the holiest of victims, the most closely united to His Mystical Body. Indeed, Jesus as a priest could not be more closely united to God since He himself is God. He could not be more closely united to the Victim since He Himself is the victim. He could not be more closely united to men since He is the Head of the Mystical Body and has taken the same nature as they.

At Mass it is always the same Priest, the same victim, the same Mystical Body united with the Priest who is the Christ. The ministers offer the sacrifice only “in persona Christi.” The more deeply we enter into these considerations the more we must realize how close and how real is the bond between the Cross and Mass-that the bond between the eternal Priest and His ministers is necessary.

Here we put our finger on the three realities which are essential in the Mass for it to be the continuation of the sacrifice of the cross: the reality of sacrifice, i.e., the oblation of the victim brought about in the consecration; the real and substantial presence of the Victim that must be offered, and thus the necessity of transubstantiation; the need of a priest who is the minister of the principal Priest, who is our Lord, and consecrated by His priesthood.

The Church, to which our Lord bequeathed His ministerial priesthood to accomplish it till the end of time, has carried out the sacrifice of the Mass with love and devotion; it has ordained its prayers, ceremonies, and rites to signify these realities and to preserve our faith in these realities willed and determined by God Himself. The Council of Trent teaches us that (Session 22, Canon 5):

The nature of man being such that he cannot easily or without some external aids rise to meditation on divine things, the Church, as a good Mother, has established certain practices, such as speaking parts of the Mass quietly and others aloud; and in accordance with the discipline and tradition of the Apostles it has introduced such ceremonies as mystical blessings, lights, incense, ornaments and many kindred things so as, in that way, to signify the majesty of so great a sacrifice, and to raise the souls of the faithful by these outward signs of piety and religion to the contemplation of the great things hidden in this sacrifice.

We owe it to truth to affirm and maintain without fear of mistake that the Mass codified by St. Pius V clearly expressed these great realities of sacrifice, the Real Presence, and the sacerdotal character of priests, besides the essential relation to the sacrifice of the cross, from which all the supernatural Virtue of the Mass derives. To weaken and blur the expression of our faith in these realities which constitute the very essence of the sacrifice bequeathed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself could lead to the most disastrous consequences, for the sacrifice of the Mass is the heart, the soul, and the mystical wellspring of the Church.

The whole history of Protestantism illustrates Luther’s blasphemous saying: “Let us destroy the Mass and we shall have destroyed the Church.” The recently canonized English martyrs sealed that truth with their blood. Do not the ills of the Church, the weakening of faith, the dwindling number of vocations, the destruction of religious communities, all these grievous effects of which we are the bewildered witnesses spring from the doing away with altars and their replacement by the tables of the Eucharistic meal? I leave these thoughts for your consideration.


CONCLUSION

Here are some quotations which may contribute to our sanctification:
Just as the whole life of the Savior was ordained to His own sacrifice, the entire life of the priest, which should inwardly reflect the image of Christ, should with Him, by Him and in Him be a sacrifice pleasing to God. Pius XII, Menti Nostrae, September 23, 1950.

So closely bound as he is to the divine mysteries, the priest cannot but hunger and thirst for justice and holiness. As he must offer and sacrifice himself with Christ, he cannot but feel the need to adapt his life to that high dignity and direct all his conduct to sacrifice. Thus he will not content himself with the celebration of Holy Mass; he will have it inwardly. By so doing he will draw the supernatural strength which will utterly transform him and enable him to share in the life of sacrifice of the divine Redeemer. In this way the priest will strive to reproduce in his soul What happens on the altar of sacrifice. It is the summons of St. Peter Chrysologos:
Be the sacrifice and the priest of God....Priests and my beloved sons, we hold within our hands a great treasure, the pearl of great price, namely, the inexhaustible riches of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Let us draw as fully as possible from this treasure so that, by the entire sacrifice of ourselves to the Father with Jesus Christ, we may be true mediators of holiness in all that touches the worship of God.

Pope John XXIII, taking up these words of his predecessor, added:

It is this lofty doctrine that the Church has in mind when she calls her ministers to a life of asceticism and adjures them to celebrate the eucharistic Sacrifice with deep piety. Is it not because of a failure to grasp the close, reciprocal bond which unites the daily offering of one’s self to the offering of the Mass that priests have gradually come to lose the first fervor of their ordination?

That was the experience attained by the Curé d’Ars: “The cause of the priest’s falling off is the neglect of the Mass” (Sacerodotti Nostri Primordia, August 1, 1959). Finally, here is the advice of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange:

To end with a practical conclusion. It is not possible to urge too strongly on interior souls the need for a great devotion to the Consecration, which is the very essence of the sacrifice of the Mass and the most solemn moment in our every day. Jesus, when He instituted the Eucharist, raised His eyes to heaven, His face lit up and He longed to annihilate Himself in some degree under the species of bread and wine to all eternity that He might thus remain really and substantially among us in giving Himself to us as food. Thus, at the moment of Consecration, the priest, Minister of the universal Mediator, must follow His example, lifting up his eyes to heaven in an ardent desire to unite himself with the oblation of the ever living Christ who does not cease to intercede for us and, with Himself, offer to His Father all the living members of His Mystical Body, especially those who follow His example of suffering (The Love of God, p. 771).

A poet, Jacques Debout, in his poem “The Three Against the Other, ” expresses through the mouth of Satan, who is attacking our Lord, the value of a Mass.

THE DEMON OF RICHES
What does He set up against us?

SATAN
The Eternal Sacrifice
Which has crushed my head and, despite my efforts,
Daily wrenches from me both the living and dead.
In the hidden, but true, destiny of nations
Masses are so many Revolutions.
Those which are unseen and in their lonely depths
Can disrupt worlds from within.
The Mass, overflowing both Priest and Missal,
Is an event, forever universal,
And when, powerless, I run my head against some obstacle,
It is because in a church, a barn or hut,
Some man, poor and infirm, has held in his hand
The formidable Host and the dread Wine.

A Bishop Speaks, Writings and Addresses 1963-1976, Angelus Press, 2nd ed., 2007, pp. 87-96