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"
CHAP, vii.] The Sacrilegious Mass. 125
II.
How Great is the Crime of the Priest that Celebrates Mass
in Mortal Sin.
But does the priest that celebrates in mortal sin give
honor to God ? As far as regards himself, he treats the
Lord with the greatest dishonor that can be offered to
him, by despising him in his own person. For by his
sacrilege he appears, as far as in him lies, to defile the
immaculate Lamb, whom he immolates in the conse
crated host. To yon, O priests, says the Lord by the
offer
. . .
you Prophet Malachy, who despise My name,
polluted bread upon My altar, and you say, wherein have we
polluted Thee ? l " We," says St. Jerome, in his comment
on this passage, pollute the bread, that is, the body
of Christ, when we unworthily approach the altar. 2
God cannot raise a man to a greater elevation than by
conferring on him the sacerdotal dignity. How many
selections must the Lord have made in calling a person to
the priesthood. First, he must select him from a count
less number of possible creatures. He must then separate
him from so many millions of pagans and heretics, and,
lastly, he must make choice of him from the immense
multitude of the faithful. And what power does God
confer on this man ? If the Lord bestowed only on one
man the power of calling down by his words the Son of
God from heaven, how great should be his obligations
and his gratitude to the Lord ! This power God grants
to every priest.
Lifting up the poor out of the dunghill, that
he may place him with princes, with the princes of his people?
" 1
Ad vos, o Sacerdotes, qui despicitis nomen meum! .
super altare meum panem pollutum,
Mai. i. 6.
et dicitis: In
. . Offertis
quo polluimus te?"
2 "Polluimus panem, id est, corpus Christi, quando indigni accedimus
ad altare."
3
De stercore
"
erigens pauperem,
sui."
populi Ps. cxii. 6.
ut collocet eum
cum principibus