In 1916, the Angel of Fatima came to impress upon us the the coming scandal of the abuses of the Eucharist and of the assaults on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It was a severe warning and was accompanied by vehement commands for reparation, sacrifice, and prayer from the children. The vital importance of the Mass and the Sacred Priesthood cannot be overstated; it is especially pertinent now. Today, we offer an earlier post which should be re-examined in this light.
The power of Christ’s priesthood is sublime in its scope, ruling the souls of men and its jurisdiction pervades the entire temporal world as well, as representative of Jesus Christ Who is the King of Kings. (Fr. Kramer, The Book of Destiny)
In today’s post, we consider the Fifth Chapter of St. John’s Apocalypse, which foretells the triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ through His loving gift of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. Amid all the speculation on the dire warnings about the events of the Chastisement and the “Last Times”, not much attention is given to the Eucharistic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider if you will, the beautiful passage below:
[6] And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. [7] And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne. [8] And when He had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints: [9] And they sung a new canticle, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; because Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God, in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. [10] And hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
[11] And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands, [12] Saying with a loud voice: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction. [13] And every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them: I heard all saying: To Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever. [14] And the four living creatures said: Amen. And the four and twenty ancients fell down on their faces, and adored Him that liveth for ever and ever.” (Apocalypse Ch. 5, 6-14)
The word for Lamb used here is different than the word St. John used in the Gospels, and is best translated, according to Father H. B. Kramer as “Little Lamb”. He stands in the position of a priest offering a sacrifice and since it is stated that He is “standing as it were slain”, and thus is both Victim and Priest. This passage calls to mind Psalm 109, v. 4-5: “The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech. The Lord at Thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of His wrath.” Psalm 109 therefore links the victory of Christ over His enemies with His Eucharistic priesthood. Thus, the Lamb is the Eucharistic Christ.
After Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacred Mystery at the Last Supper, He announced that the judgment upon the “prince of this world” is pronounced. Satan was judged in Heaven as the leader of rebellion and was condemned, but as prince of the world Satan was not judged until the Holy Sacrifice was offered by Christ at the Last Supper and the power to continue it conferred upon His Apostles. When Christ instituted the Sacred Mystery, the judgment on the prince of this world was pronounced although the execution of the decree was not carried out until Christ died on the Cross.
Jesus Christ dethroned Satan when He died. Yet the empire of satan still existed. The judgment of Satan as prince of the world was to be completed throughout the world and down through the ages by the destruction of his empire. Christ’s death on the Cross was not to be a mere memory or history, as heretics would have it, but a living reality constantly manifested through the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus, the “Little Lamb” – that is, Jesus in the Eucharist – will continue the destruction of Satan’s empire of evil through the centuries.
Christ’s judgment will strike all who refuse to accept this Eucharistic Mystery, those who choose the empire of Satan, the prince of the world. The Lamb has seven eyes and seven horns. In this symbolism, the eyes refer to the seven spirits, seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, and represent the union of the Holy Ghost with the Lamb, thus revealing the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son. This symbol also represents Christ’s omniscience, searching out souls than can be saved and drawing them gently to Him, to be nourished by His Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrifice.
The seven horns of the Lamb are signs of power, and here represent the power of the seven sacraments, powerful weapons in the battle against evil. They are the glory of the Church; through them souls are cleansed, saints are sanctified and made glorious with grace.
Because Christ offered Himself in a bloody manner on the Cross as a complete satisfaction to God for all the sins of men, the sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Real Presence are possible. The Mass is an unceasing renewal and re-presentation of the sacrifice of the Cross. In the Mass Christ is “as it were slain”. Through this mystic sacrifice He exercises the power merited in His bloody sacrifice on Calvary to destroy the empire of Satan. All worship of the Church is centered around the Mass; from it flow all saving effects of His bloody death; and the power to administer the sacraments is transmitted in and through this sacrifice.
So you see, the potency of the sacraments springs from the Sacrifice of the Mass, diminish the sacrifice, you deplete the sacraments. Pope Paul VI spoke several times in apocalyptic phrases, such as “I am about to blow the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse”, and “from some crack, the smoke of satan has entered the temple of God”. (The Fifth Trumpet)).
In verses 9 and 10, the priests sing a ‘new canticle’, praising the Lamb, because He has ordained them priests, not as in the Old Covenant, but in the new, endowed with the power to rule, disposing to them a kingdom, so that they share in working out His redemption of souls, ruling His followers in His place. Fr. Kramer affirms, “Their internal dignity is the priesthood and their office in the world is to rule. This is a clear definition of the meaning of the word presbyteros, which was adopted by the Apostles to distinguish their priesthood from the barren priesthood of the Old Covenant.”
The power of Christ’s priesthood is sublime in its scope, ruling the souls of men and its jurisdiction pervades the entire temporal world as well, as representative of Jesus Christ Who is the King of Kings.
These are the reasons for the acknowledgment Christ receives in His eucharistic presence from the episcopate and priesthood of the Church, the angels in Heaven and all creatures. [Note: Fr. Kramer wrote this long before the ravages of the modernist revolution in Vatican II] In the preface of the Mass, before the sacrificial act is performed, the priest sings the praises of God and Christ and joins his canticle with the choirs of angels in language very similar to that spoken by the elders. All creatures, except the reprobates, join with the priesthood of the Church in adoring the Eucharistic Lamb. [Is it any wonder that the forces of Satan have fought so mightily within the Church to destroy the true Sacrifice of the Mass and the most Holy Eucharist?]
In “The Book of Destiny”, Father H B Kramer writes of Satan that,
“… in trying to destroy Christ and His work, he brought the greatest defeat and humiliation of all upon himself and lost everything he had apparently gained in Paradise (with the temptation of Adam and Eve). With man redeemed and heaven re-opened, Satan’s kingdom in the world has been dismembered ever more and more, not so much by an almighty act of God or by an almighty word of the God-man, as by the words of mere man pronounced at the Consecration of the Mass. Man is here empowered to overthrow the kingdom of Satan and drive him out of the world. Christ is now triumphant over Satan in the humble and lifeless appearance of the eucharistic species.”
Readers, even though it may not seem so at present, the fact is, this is the last phase of the final and hopeless defeat and utmost humiliation of the archenemy of God and man. In the Apocalypse, St. John describes in epic splendors this last act of the grand drama of Redemption with its series of victories for Jesus Christ and mankind and its consequent defeats for Satan. Christ entrusted the power to renew His bloody death on the Cross in an unbloody mystic manner to the priests of His Church elevating man thereby to God-likeness and defeating forever the designs of Satan with the utmost humiliation to him. So much has man been exalted and Satan’s pride humiliated, that he who was far lower than the angels in natural gifts now rises in the power of grace to defeat his enemy and stand forth triumphant. [With so much granted to priests comes an awesome responsibility, that is why satan works to destroy them and we for our part, must support them with prayer and penances.]
The judgments executed by the Eucharistic Lamb upon Satan shall involve the whole world not to destroy but to chasten it and wrest it from the hands of Satan liberating the human race from his sordid servitude.
The firm belief of the faithful of the Church in this sacred mystery, in the Reality of the Great Presence, in the truth and effectiveness of Christ’s words at the Last Supper, just as the Church has explained and believed it through all ages, undoes the unbelief of the head of the human race in Paradise (the original sin of Adam). This is the “victory that overcomes the world” and the empire of Satan with all its earthly and unearthly forces, this firm faith. In and through the Eucharistic Mystery, the power with which Christ endowed His priesthood, distinguishing it thereby from all other priesthoods of history, and the unshakable belief in the words of Christ by the faithful of the Church, Paradise will be regained, and the honor refused God by Adam through the intrigue and deception of Satan will be restored to Him.
The Apocalypse clearly shows that the triumph of Christ will be a Eucharistic triumph. That is why the Message of Fatima actually began in 1916 with the Angel’s visits and prayers. The last Joyful Mystery shows us Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph leading us back to the Temple to find Jesus there. Meditate on this mystery and learn from it. The Blessed Virgin Mary only ever leads us to her beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Devotion to the Immaculata is not meant ever to be separated from devotion to the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. That is another reason why the First Saturdays of Reparation are vital. Without them, the Pope will not be able to repent and Consecrate Russia.
In the end, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph, and it will be through the most Holy Eucharist, through the resurgence of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and that means, through our Royal Priesthood. Please pray and offer reparation for all of our priests and prelates – and our Pope – to repent, be converted and saved.
Note: the above interpretation of the Apocalypse is largely from Father Herman Bernard Kramer’s “Book of Destiny”, which is cited above. However, in the years after Father Kramer penned his revelation of Revelation, we have experienced a considerable unfolding of the Apocalypse and much now becomes clear that in Father’s time was shadowy. We shall soon see how central the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our Royal Priesthood are to be in coming events.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
~ by evensong for love of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin, Give me strength against thy enemies!