The Editor asks me to write on ‘the nature of sacrifice, showing how the Mass is a sacrifice’. It sounds quite simple. It is as if I were asked to speak on the nature of buttercup, and show that the flower you have picked is a butter-cup. I can get a dictionary description of Buttercup, show you Pictures of the species of Ranunculus called buttercup, compare your specimen with these descriptions and pictures, prove to you that there is no difference whatever between them, and conclude without a shadow of a doubt that you have picked an authentic, genuine sample of the class ‘Buttercup’.

We might proceed in the same way with this present assignment. We might look up the word ‘Sacrifice’ in a standard dictionary; or start from some good definition of ‘Sacrifice’ from some Doctor of the Church. Then we could take a good look at what happens at Mass, show how it fits the definition, and conclude that Holy Mass is undoubtedly a genuine specimen of the class ‘Sacrifice’.

It might be thought that much, too much, has been said about what the Holy See has for over fifty years called actuos participatio of the people in the Mass, and much of what has been said is often superficial enough. The impression has sometimes been given that all that was required was that you should make the people vocal, that it was a good thing for them to be roused, that they should be weaned from ‘individualistic’ ways of assisting at Mass, that they themselves should say all that the server says, or that they should sing all the plainsong chants of the Mass even when these are not fitted to their capacity. Taken separately most of these things are good in themselves but they do not go to the roots of the matter. The question is: why should the people be active at Mass? To answer this question one needs to consider two matters: (I) the nature of the Mass itself; and (II) the nature of the Christian people.

With a title of this nature the reader may perhaps expect an invitatory ‘In Praise of Printing’, followed by a bibliography of the various Missals in Latin and English designed for the laity, in prices ranging from the lowest for the poorest to the highest for those who are reputed to find it difficult to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But not every enthusiast for the liturgy is now a strong supporter of the Missal for the laity; there have been in recent months refreshing criticisms of the use of this book from men rightly reputed for their support of the liturgicle revival. The Missal more often than not erects a barrier between the worshipper and the altar. In his enthusiasm to match his English with the Latin in the other column the missal-user may forget that he is taking part in an action and not in a linguistic exercise.

To Peter, these things spake the Lord in prophecy and command: Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it: Feed thou my sheep: As my Father sent me, so I send you. Thus upon Unity, was the beginning made and the words fulfilled of the Song of Songs where, in the Person of Christ, the Holy Spirit declared: My Dove, my spotless one is but one. She is the only child of her Mother, the Chosen of her that bare her.

If a man, then, stands not by this Unity of the Church, thinks he to hold the Faith? Can he who strives against the Church be yet within it; Even so taught the Apostle Paul: There is One Body and One Spirit even as ye are called in One Hope of your calling; One Lord, One Faith.