Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/539



THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST. 533

can be plainly perceived by the light of reason; for in- stance, that the dominion of God our Creator and Pre- server over all men, whether in their private or in their pubhc Hfe, is supreme and absolute; that our whole being and all that we possess, whether individually or as members of society, comes from the divine bounty; that we on our part are bound to show to God, as Our Lord, the highest reverence, and, as He is our greatest benefactor, the deepest gratitude. But how many are there who at the present day acknowledge and discharge these duties wdth full and exact observance? In no age has the spirit of contumacy and an attitude of defiance towards God been more prevalent than in our own; an age in which that unholy cry of the enemies of Christ: We mil not have this man to rule over iis,^ makes itself more and more loudly heard, together with the utterance of that wicked purpose: Let us make away vnth Him;^ nor is there any motive by which many are hurried on with more passionate fury, than the desire utterly to banish God not only from the civil government, but from ever}' form of human society. And although men do not everywhere proceed to this extremity of criminal madness, it is a lamentable thing that so many are sunk in obHvion of the divine Majesty and of His favors, and in particular of the salvation wTought for us by Christ. Now a remedy must be found for this wickedness on the one hand, and this sloth on the other, in a general increase among the faithful of ferv^ent devotion towards the Eucharistic Sacrifice, than which nothing can give greater honor, nothing be more pleasing, to God. For it is a divine Victim which is here immolated; and accord- ingly through this Victim we offer to the Most Blessed Trinity all that honor which the infinite dignity of the Godhead demands; infinite in value and infinitely ac- ceptable is the gift which we present to the Father in His only-begotten Son; so that for His benefits to us we


 * Luke xix. 14. ^ Jer. xL 11.