The Last Supper, Francesco Henriques

FROM The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass by St. Leonard of Port Maurice:

Place together all the gifts and all the graces you have received from God ; so many gifts of nature and grace, — body, soul, senses, faculties, health, and life itself; add to all these the very life of His Son Jesus Christ, and the death that He suffered for love of us, and does not all this increase a thousandfold the debt you owe to God? But how shall we ever be able sufficiently to thank Him? If the law of gratitude is observed by the wild beasts, whose fierce nature is often changed into gentleness towards their benefactors, how much more ought it not to be observed by man gifted as he is with reason, and so nobly endowed by the Divine liberality? But unhappily our poverty is so great that we have no means of making adequate return for the least of these countless favours; as the very least of them coming from the hand of a Majesty so great, and accompanied as it is by an infinite love, acquires an infinite value which obliges us to an infinite correspondence in the way of reverence and love.

O poor and wretched creatures that we are! If we cannot repay one single benefit, how can we ever be able to repay so many and so countless? We are thus placed in the cruel necessity of living and dying, ungrateful to our Sove-reign Benefactor.

But, thank God, this shall not be, for the manner of showing our gratitude to that generous Benefactor, and of fully requiting Him for all His favours is taught us by the Royal Prophet, who, led by divine inspiration, clearly indicates that nothing, save Holy Mass, can render due thanks to God.

” What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits to me?” says this holy King, and then answering himself, he continues, “I will take the cup of salvation,” or, according to another version, ” I will raise on high the chalice of the Lord,” that is, I will offer a sacrifice most acceptable to Him, and with this alone I shall satisfy the debt of so many and such signal favours.

Remember also that the Most Holy Sacrifice was instituted by our Redeemer principally for this end, that is, to acknowledge the Divine bounty and as a thank-offering to His Goodness. Hence it is called the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and the Eucharist or Thank-offering, He Himself gave us the example, when at the Last Supper before consecration, in that first Mass, He raised His eyes to heaven, and gave thanks to His heavenly Father.

O divine thanksgiving I which discovers to us the sublime end for which this tremendous Sacrifice was instituted, and which invites us to conform ourselves to our Head ; so that at every Mass at which we assist we may know how to make good use of so great a treasure, by offering it in gratitude to our Supreme Benefactor. And, that we may perform this act with greater zeal and devotion, let us always remember that all Paradise, the Blessed Virgin and the Angels and Saints rejoice when we offer this, our tribute of thanks, to our great King.

Learn about the “intentional irreverence” of the Vatican II mass here.

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