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SAC R H ;Cove's expression is in deeds . . .
rather than words
Holy Mass may become just another cold external duty . without inner gift of love .
"That self-offering of Christ in His Passion was the only perfect act of worship since time began."
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Preaching at the 11 o'clock Mass in St. Mary's Cathedral, on Sunday, 4th inst. (which was broadcast over the Xational Stations) Rev. Dr. J. T. McMahon, took as his text : What return shall I make the Lord for all His gifts to me? -The Prophet David. Dr. McMahon said:Love Needs More Than Words. Love feels that words can never do it justice. As children we realised how inadequate they were to express our love for our parents on any special occasion, such as Christmas time or on a birthday. Having no money we unashamedly asked our parents for some, and gladly did we spend it on gifts to celebrate the day. And our parents were so deligted at this expression of our love for them that they quite forgot that it was their money which purchased the gifts. A young man falling in love speaks to his beloved in the sign language of gifts. He says it with flowers often, and his girl understands him to say that, beautiful as the flowers are, in his eyes she is more beautiful by far. And when she accepts him, he places a ring of precious stones on her finger, to show that nothing is too rich or rare for his beloved. And so it goes on the world over, in every time and clime, human love calls to human love in the language of giving, for gifts are more eloquent than words. The Prophet David. That natural instinct of speaking one's love in the sign language of giving is also true of man's religious nature. The story of David the Prophet is familiar to you all. You can readily recall his selection by God, and
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his annointing by Samuel, His patience and kindness to Saul. His slaying of
the giant Goliath. The psalms he wrote; tender love -songs which are on men's tongues still when they wish to sing the praises of God in the most appropriate words. We can visualise David singing them to the accompaniment of the harp as he led the ark of the covenant into the tablernacle he had built for it on Mt. Sion. We also know of his temptation and fall. His eyes saw and his heart coveted the wife of another man. And having sinned he ordered that her husband should be exposed to death in battle. David repented this double crime with sincere sorrow. He expressed his sorrow in the seven penitential psalms he wrote. Once again he felt the warmth of God's friendship for him. That God could so quickly forget and so readily forgive him-David's gratitude made him exclaim: "What return shall I make to the Lord for all His gifts to me?" But though he was a skilled craftsman in words, a rich singer, as the psalms so abundantly prove, yet, words could not satisfy this great lover. We are not surprised that his answer to his question is to thank God with a gift: "I will offer God a sacrifice." What is a Sacrifice? And what then is a sacrifice? Sacrifice is a giving. Sacrifice speaks our love by offering to God a gift. Whatever gift we offer in sacrifice is made sacred by its contact with the altar. It is dedicated, consecrated, set apart irrevocably to honour God. The Jews spoke of the gift offered in sacrifice as
inviolated, a host, a holocaust; words which bring vividly before us the altar of holocausts with the smoke of sacrithe fice rising up to God before Temple at Jerusalem. Christ in His own supreme sacrifice on Calvary obeys this natural instinct of speaking the sign language of giving. For we can say that Christ on the Cross spoke His love for the Eternal Father with the Body broken for men, with His Blood shed for men. And after Calvary St. John pointed out to the Disciples and to us that Christ's gift of Himself on the Cross was the proof of His love for us: "Hereby we have come to know His love in that He laid down His life for us" (I. John III, 6.) So no matter how we approach the shrine of love, whether it be on the natural or the supernatural plane, the path to it is giving. "The First and Principal is the Inward Sacrifice." Sacrifice is a giving, but whatever is offered must bespeak the inner gift of love. Were our parents to learn from our conversation as children that we no longer loved them, neither father nor mother could welcome a birthday gift from us. To send a gift to anyone and not to have any real friendship behind it is just hollow pretence. Such make. belief may deceive our fellows for a while, but it cannot deceive God, for Holy Writ assures us "Man sees the things that appear but the Lord seeth the heart." In the opening chapter of the history of man, we read that Cain and Abel of-
fered sacrifice to God. God accepted the gift of Abel because the gift spoke the love of the giver. The gift of Cain He rejected, because already in the heart of Cain lurked a hatred for his brother Abel The Lord spoke again His rejection of any gift that was not prompted by the love of the giver. From the time of Moses the Jews scrupuously fulfilled the rubrics of offering sacrifice as prescribed for them in the Book of Leviticus. The priests wore vestments rich and becoming; the victims were selected with care; there was dignity and decorum in the rite of sacrifice, and the setting left nothing to be desired. And yet God spoke through the mouth of Malachias, the prophet: "I have no pleasure in you, and will not receive a gift from your hands." Why these words of rejection? Because priests and people concentrated on external ceremony; a cold, correct, official duty with no self offering or turning of the inner man back to God. But have these words of Malachias, "I have no pleasure in you," no message for us? Yes, indeed, they are addressed to us in warning lest our official act of sacrifice, the Holy Mass, may be just another cold external duty, with no inner gift of love. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, leaves no doubt on this point for he writes:"Sacrifice is twofold. The first and principal is the inward sacrifice. The other is the outward sacrifice." One may say, with all due reverence, that Christ's inner gift of Himself in (Continued on Page 4.)
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