Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/541

 heaven; and  whatsoever  you  shall  bind  upon  earth shall be  bound  also  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  you shall loose  upon  earth  shall  be  loosed  also  in heaven,"  and  in  one  of  His  apparitions  to  them after  His  Resurrection,  "  He  breathed  on  them,  and said to  them:  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost. Whose sins you  shall  forgive  they  are  forgiven  them,  and whose sins  you  shall  retain,  they  are  retained."  Nor was  this  concession  a  personal  grant  made  by  Christ to  His  Apostles  on  behalf  of  their  fellow-countrymen or  their  contemporaries.  He  is  the  Redeemer,  not of  this  people  or  that,  this  or  that  generation,  but  of all  men  of  all  time,  and  by  virtue  of  his  ordination every  successor  of  the  Apostles  is  clothed  with  this same  celestial  power.  By  reason  of  her  unbroken Apostolic  succession,  therefore,  the  priests  of  the Catholic  Church  are  the  only  real  ministers  of  Christ, and  the  only  true  dispensers  of  this  as  well  as  of  His other  sacramental  mysteries.  For,  in  the  sanctifying grace  communicated  to  the  soul  on  the  remission  of its  sins  by  that  outward  sign,  the  absolution  of  the priest,  and  the  manifestation  of  sorrow  by  the  penitent, instituted  by  Christ,  we  have  the  three  essential elements of  a  sacrament  of  the  New  Law. In its administration the  priests  act  as  the  vice-gerents, the plenipotentiaries,  of  Christ  on  earth,  of  whom He said:  "  He  that  heareth  you,  heareth  Me;  and  he that  despiseth  you,  despiseth  Me;  and  he  that  despiseth  Me,  despiseth  the  Father  that  sent  Me."

Brethren, the  Sacrament  of  Penance  does  not  consist merely  in  the  authoritative  pronouncement  of  the