Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/330

 Testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”—1 Cor. xi. 24. “ This is my body which is broken for you: this do for the commemoration of me:"-25. “This chalice is the New Testament in my blood: do ye this, as often as you shall drink it, for the commemoration of me.”—26. “For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord until he come.

According to the translation of these passages, which is conformable to the Greek, our Saviour speaks in the present tense, (or time) of the actual immolation of his body, and the actual effusion of his blood, for the remission of sins; because at that moment, he really, but mystically, offered up his body and blood for the salvation of the Apostles and of all men: while the words, do this for a commemoration, or in remembrance of me, plainly denote the institution of a Sacrifice, to be celebrated to the end of time. Thus Christ seems to say: As I now immolate my body, and shed my blood, for the remission of sins; so do you offer up this same body, and this same blood, in remembrance of me. What I now do, do you and your successors. In this sense, as we have seen, and shall see, have the words of Christ been always understood in the Catholic Church.

Ibid. x. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. “ Wherefore, my dearly beloved, fly from the service of idols.- I speak as to wise men; judge ye yourselves what I say.-The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ?—For we, being many, are one bread, one body all that partake of one bread. -Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the Sacrifice, partakers of the altar?—What then? Do I say that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing? Or, that the idol is any thing ?—But the things which the