(From the booklet "A Thought a Day" by St. Paul Publications)
Every Man Needs a Redeemer
“Man is not self-sufficient. When born, he is the most helpless of all. Man, due to the sin of our first parents in paradise, is born an exile from his heavenly Father’s home. Man is not born to find in this world the fulfillment of his greatest desires. We come into this world with hearts hungering for perfect happiness, with desires that reach out even to the infinite, yet utterly incapable of reaching God, because Adam’s sin has deprived us of our heavenly inheritance, of our heavenly, divine life of sanctifying grace.
Every man needs a Redeemer who will wash away man’s sin, who will unite us once more to God, a redeemer who will unite us with himself by the rebirth into a divine life through baptism, who will feed us with his Body and Blood in the sacrificial and sacramental Eucharist so that closely united to himself, he can offer all humanity together with himself in one tremendous sacrifice of reparation to the Father of us all, against whom we have all sinned.
This is the meaning of Christianity. For it is not merely a set of doctrines, a series of laws by which we guide our lives; rather it is an event and a Passion constantly being renewed in the world. It is the Incarnation, continuing down through history, constantly reconstructing lives and renewing the redemption in the hearts of men.”
Life Must Be Dominated By Sacrifice
“The whole work of the Church is to bring its members into close imitation of the whole life of Christ. From his very entrance into this world, Jesus formulated but one all-embracing intention. There was but one idea giving unity and direction to all the acts of his life. That was the intention of sacrificing himself for the sins of men. Coming into the world, Christ said to his Heavenly Father: “Sacrifice an oblation you would not, but a body you have fitted to me. In holocausts and sin-offerings you have no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” And St. Paul explains that in this “will” we have been sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Hence the whole life of Christ was dominated by this idea of sacrifice. And it is from this constant act of sacrifice that we receive his grace and merits.
The same idea animates and commands the whole life of the Church. All its religious life, its moral teaching, its Sunday preaching; all its action as well as its thinking come from this idea of sacrifice and flow back to it.
In the sanctuary, the altar is the point toward which all the architectural lines converge. It is the altar of sacrifice that gives meaning to the whole building. It is on the altar that all eyes are focused; and it is from the altar of sacrifice that we gain understanding of our God-given religion.”
A Divine Cure-All
“In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to all without exception:
For the priest, it is his sweetest joy and glorious consolation.
For the saintly martyrs, confessors and virgins, it is the source of strength and courage and self-sacrificing love.
For the dying, it is the great Sacrament of consolation, the guarantees of eternal union and everlasting peace.
For the sinner, it is the Sacrament of hope, the conqueror of despair.
For the weak, it is the Sacrament of strength.”