The Tool of Jesus Christ
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 14, 2019 at 12:00AM in Books
"When you see a priest offering the sacrifice", he ( St. John Chrysostom) says, "do no think as if it were he that is doing this; it is the hand of Christ, invisibly stretched forth." The hand of Christ invisibly stretched forth, that is the image we must conjure up if we are to think of the Mass as what it really is. The philosopher Aristotle, in defining the position of a slave, uses the words, "A slave is a living tool". And that is what a priest is, a living tool of Jesus Christ. He lends his hands to be Christ's thoughts; there is, there should be, nothing of himself in it from first to last, except where the Church graciously permits him to dwell for a moment in silence on his own special intentions, for the good estate of the living and the dead. Those who are not of our religion are puzzled sometimes, or even scandalized, by witnessing the ceremonies of the Mass; it is all, they say, so mechanical. But you see, it ought to be mechanical. They are watching, not a man, but a living tool; it turns this way and that, bends, straightens itself, gesticulates, all in obedience to a preconceived order, Christ's order, not ours. The Mass is best said, we Catholics know it, when it is said so that you do not notice how it is said; we do not expect eccentricities from a tool, the tool of Christ.
Source: Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, The Eucharist, Fr. Ronald Knox
