FROM Dom Prosper Guéranger’s entry, “Sunday within the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi,” in The Liturgical Year:
God has a right to His creatures homage. If earthly kings and lords may claim from their vassals this recognition of their sovereignty, the sovereign dominion of the great and first Being, the first cause and end of all things, demands it, on an infinitely just title, from beings called forth from nothing by His almighty goodness, And just as, by the rent or service which accompanies it, the homage of the vassals implies, together with the avowal of their submission, the real and effective declaration that they hold their property and rights from their liege-lord; so the act whereby the creature, as such, subjects himself to his Creator, should adequately manifest, by and of itself, that he acknowledges Him as the Lord of all things, and as the author of life. Moreover, if, by the infringements of His commands, he has deserved death, and lives only because of the infinite mercy of this his sovereign Lord — then his act of homage or fealty will not be complete, unless it also expresses an avowal of guilt, and the justice of the punishment. Such is the true notion of sacrifice …. but as regards man, this oblation must be spiritual, and at the same time material, for, being composed of a soul and a body, he owes homage to his God for both.
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