“Servant of God” Charles Cardinal Journet (1891-1975) was the 1st Swiss Cardinal in the Catholic Church. He was a close friend of renowned philosopher Jacques Maritain (with whom he founded the theological journal Nova et Vetera in 1926), an influential figure in the Second Vatican Council, and wrote a splendid book on the Mass. Guided by the teachings of the Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas and the Magisterium of the Church, and supported by his own rich spiritual life, Journet plumbs the depths of this unfathomable Mystery and presents It to the reader with a clarity rarely equaled.
For the purpose of this summary, I have focused on 3 key themes of this book:
1: The Bloody Sacrifice of the Cross
Journet presents the sacrifice of the Cross in the light of Christ’s priesthood. Since “the office proper to the priest is (1) to give people to God and (2) God to the people” (STh, III, 22.1), Christ perfectly fulfilled this office of the priest in both aspects on the Cross. We can look at the fulfillment of this dual office of the priest under both vertical & horizontal dimensions:
1: The vertical dimension
“The Cross is the place of passage to God for all the prayer of the world and for all of God’s response to the world. These are two inseparable and complementary aspects of one unique mediation” (19).
As fully man, Christ the High Priest gave all of mankind to God in ascending mediation (1 Jn 2:2). He recapitulated and fulfilled the priesthood and perfected the 4 ends of sacrifice to God in the Old Law: to adore God (Jn 10:17-18), to implore God’s pardon (1 Jn 2:2), to render God thanks (Lk 22:19), and to solicit God’s gifts (Heb 5:7).
And as fully God, Christ gave God to all of mankind in descending mediation (Eph 4:8). As the sacrifice of God, the redemptive sacrifice is “clothed with divine eternity” (22) (cf. Jn 12:33; Heb 8:12, 9:26, 10:14). “The intercession of the heavenly Christ consists in (1) presenting to the Father the unique sacrificial act by which is accomplished one time the redemption and salvation of the entire world, and in (2) dispensing to the world the riches of this one redemption (63-4).
2: The horizontal dimension
“The Cross of Christ extends its arms over the past and the future. Its luminous shade precedes it and stretches back even to the first days after the Fall. Its hidden light follows it and descends again even unto the world’s final days” (17-18).
As fully man, Christ’s “Hour” on the Cross was the “Hour” of His Priesthood that he anticipated with perfect clarity: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).
And as fully God, Christ’s “Hour” recapitulates all “hours” – past, present, and future. It can save those in past “hours” by anticipation and those in future “hours” by application. “Before Christ, the shadow of the Cross is over the world; after Christ, the light of the Cross” (68).
2: The Unbloody Sacrifice of the Last Supper
Journet presents the Last Supper and the Passion as part of one redemptive sacrificial act. Here are 3 brief points to consider:
1. Jesus fulfilled the Passover
Jesus intentionally celebrated His Last Supper during the Jewish Passover meal in order to institute a new Christian Passover meal: the Lamb would now be Himself – the immolated Savior (1 Cor 5:7). And He would institute a new Paschal liturgy that would preserve those who participated in it from spiritual death and lead them on an exodus journey to the Heavenly Promised Land (Jn 1:29, Rev 5:9, 1 Cor 10:1-11).
2. Jesus confected the Eucharist
When Christ changed the bread & wine into His Body & Blood, two distinct presences of the same and unique Christ were there with the apostles at the Last Supper: (1) one a natural mode – manifest and bloody; and (2) the other a sacramental mode – hidden and unbloody. The beloved disciple, for example, saw Jesus “troubled in spirit” (Jn 13:21) in a natural mode at the Last Supper. Although St. John rested on our Lord’s chest (Jn 13:23), probably in a desire to share in His pain, there was a natural separation between John and the redemptive sacrifice that Christ had begun. But in a sacramental way, after receiving Jesus’ Body and Blood, St. John’s prayer was answered and he got to enter in a hidden and unbloody manner into the very drama of Christ’s manifest and blood sacrifice. Therefore, under this sacramental mode, Christ’s Body was already given and His blood was already poured out at the Last Supper in an “unbloody mode.”
3. Jesus instituted the priesthood
The carry this out until the end of time, Christ instituted a priesthood to offer His Body and Blood, saying: “Do this in memory of Me” (Luke 22:19).
3: The Unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass
Journet presents the Mass, like the Last Supper, as one part of the redemptive sacrificial act on the Cross. Here are 3 points to consider:
1. The Mass is a renewal of the unbloody sacrifice of the Last Supper.
“Christ instituted the unbloody sacrifice at the Last Supper “in order to be repeated, reenacted, renewed with each generation until the Parousia” (88). Therefore, “the Mass multiplies (numerically, not specifically), repeats, reenacts, and renews the unbloody sacrifice of the Last Supper” (88). “The bloody sacrifice of the Cross, numerically one and the same, is hidden under the envelopment of the sacramental species, be it at the Last Supper or the Mass” (89).
Is there any difference between the Last Supper & the Mass? Yes. The Last Supper was the real presence of the one redemptive sacrifice on the way to being accomplished under the sacramental veil. The Mass is the real presence of the one redemptive sacrifice now consummated under the same sacramental veil (cf. 75-6, 88).
2. The Mass is an entrance into the one bloody sacrifice of Christ’s Passion.
Journet states: “[T]he Mass is the full existential entrance of the Church at every moment of her life into the bloody redemptive sacrifice of the Cross.” As Journet explained this insight, I imagined the Mass to act like a time machine of sorts. In that hour-long Mass, we get to mystically enter into a time machine and go back some 2,000 years to the “hour” of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross (cf. Jn 12:23, 32).
“As often as the memorial of this Victim is celebrated, the work of our Redemption is accomplished” (Secret from the 9th Sunday after Pentecost)
Journet says that just as the redemptive act of the Cross is always present to God as an actual object of vision since all things are present to God, we too can enter into this sacrifice through the Mass. So, at every Mass, we enter into the one redemptive drama. It is like we take a time machine and go back some 2,000 years ago to Calvary. Every time we take this time machine, we are powerfully reminded that Calvary is the ONLY place where salvation is found: “The Mass – where each time the death of the now glorious Christ is announced, He is made present to us under the sacramental species – is the power of the Cross ready to pour out its heart, so to speak, upon a generation in order to make it enter existentially, with all its faith and love, into the drama of the Passion, where its place had been marked out in advance” (69).
“This spiritual contact by which we are rendered partakers in the fruit’s of the Lord’s Passion is such that one must say that the very bloody immolation of Christ is made present to us, or better, that it is we who become present at it. If the Blessed Virgin and St. John had closed their eyes at the foot of the Cross, and if we close ours at the moment of consecration, it is for both the same real presence of the bloody Passion” (103).
3. The Mass is an application of bloody sacrifice of Christ’s Passion.
Christ does NOT come to us in Mass to touch us with His glory but rather to proclaim His death. He comes in His glorious state with the wounds of the crucifixion still showing and the bloody Cross in His hands (not to shame us but to reveal His power!). Between His glory and our sin, He places His bloody Cross. Why?
Aquinas compares the Passion of Christ, which “is the efficient Cause of the salvation of humanity” (STh III, 48.6), to a remedy made by a doctor, but which needs to be applied to each particular case (STh III, 49.1.3).
So, the Mass is where the Doctor comes to us in (1) the substantial presence of His glorious state; and (2) the operative presence of His bloody sacrifice, to apply the saving remedy (His Sacrificial death) to those who come to receive it (to be healed of sin).
It’s amazing to think how there is a Mass being celebrated at every single second throughout the world right now. Jesus’ Hours of service are 24/7!
At each Mass, the glorious Christ comes with the power of His Cross as High Priest, ready to apply it to us, to make it present to us, according to the intensity of our desire (that is, our faith and charity) (cf. 91).
“Each Mass is, by means of the Cross of Christ, a great blessing, a silent explosion of love, a grand descent of God into the world in order to prevent it from perishing and to prevent evil from completely prevailing over the good. And in return, each Mass provokes, in a hidden part of the world, a response of love, which, by means of the Cross of Christ, ascends back up to God” (239).
My Favourite Quote:
“[I]f God so loved the world that He gave it the corporeal presence of His only Son, would He not love it so much that He would leave His Son in it? Would He take Him away at the Ascension? When He receives His Son back into the heavens in order to seat Him at His right hand, would He not (without taking anything away from His glory) find some marvelous means of secretly bringing Him to us in the midst of this exile, on this bloodstained planet, where His Kingdom and that of the prince of darkness confront each other?” (181)
Going Deeper:
Here are more posts I made to discuss important points that Journet brings up:
The difference between the sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass (click here)
Protestants VS. Catholics: Comparing the sacrifice of the Cross & the sacrifice of the Mass (click here)
Who offers the Mass? (click here)
What is transubstantiation? (click here)
What is a church building? (click here)
3 ways to offer the Mass (click here)
3 ways of receiving the Eucharist (click here)
3 effects of receiving the Eucharist (click here)
Prodigal Catholic 
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