St Mary Catholic High School - Marathon Yearbook (Marietta, OH)

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The Marathon 1926 we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, fSt. John 6:68 and 691 thus deserving by their confession to obtain the grace of final perseverance in His blessed company. Exactly the same contrast that existed at Capharnaum nearly two thousand years ago between the Jews and Christians, exists today between Catholics and those without the Church-our non-Catholic friends. Those who disbelieve in the Real Presence ask such questions: How can this be? How can the body of Christ be present in such a small particle? How can the body of Christ be present in heaven and on earth in so many places at one and the same time? How can bread be substantially changed into the body and wine into the blood, and the external form remain the same? This is the fatal how pronounced by the Jews and those unfaithful disciples whom our Lord suffered to depart from Him, when they asked: How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Good Catholics imitate the Apostles by despising these pretended difficulties which indeed are as nothing to divine omnipotence, and they give full credit to Him who has the words of eternal life. Our belief ought to show itself-practically by the frequent use we will make of a means of grace so holy and miraculous. With what respect and reverence and love ought we not come into the Presence of Christ on the Altar: and with what devotion, love and fervor should we not attend and assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as often as possible, when this wonderful mystery of Love takes place. Ought we not approach Him as often as we are permitted? Truly, my dear friends, we may apply to this great Sacrament the words of the Royal Prophet: He hath made a memorial of all His wonderful works. He that is merciful and kind hath given food to those who fear Him. Amen. He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. fMattlzew 2876.1 Grace be unto you from Jesus Christ, Who is the First-Begotten of the dead. lActs 1:5.j The sorrow and sadness of Good Friday have burst forth into the solemnity and beautiful grandeur of Easter Sunday. And how very wonderfully did Almighty God, in His omnipotent and divine Providence arrange it all! And Joseph taking the body wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewd out in a rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument and went his way. fMatthew 28:59 and 60.1 And the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying: Sir, we have remembered, that that seducer said, while he was yet alive: After three days I will arise again. Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day: lest perhaps his disciples come and steal him away, and say to the people: He is risen from the dead: and the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate saith to them: You have a guard: go, guard it as you know. And they departing, made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting guards. And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the Hrst day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men. And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid. And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen: and behold he will go before you into Galilee: there you shall see him. Lo, I have foretold it to you. And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples. And behold Jesus met 50 l .

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1926 The Marathon llllllllllllllllllllllllIlllllllIlllllllllllllllIlllllllIlllllllllllllllIlllllllIlllllllIIllllulllllllllIlllllllllIlllllllIlllllllIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllnllll The Apostles taught this doctrine and they taught and wrote what they had heard from the lips of their Divine Master. St. Paul incorporates into his first Epistle to the Corinthians: ll-23-a noteworthy and notable account of the Institution, and as a concluding reflection, he warns all that would approach to receive the body and blood of Christ, that they must approach worthily, lest they be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, for 'the that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not disceming the body of the Lord. He thereby teaches the Real Presence of Christ, under the form of bread and wine, because he accepts the words of institution in their proper and literal sense. On this point, the tradition of the Fathers of the Church is unmistakable, for very often among them we find such expressions as these: Before the consecration there are bread and wineg after the mystical words are pronounced there are no longer bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ. The bread is changed, is trans- muted, passes over into the body of Christ. St. G1'egory Nazienzen says: Change these offerings, O Lord, into the body and blood of our Liberator. St. John Damascene: If the word of the Lord is living and efficacious, and He hath made all things, why has He not the power to make the bread His body and the wine His blood? St. Cyril of Jerusalem says: After the movement of the Holy Spirit, the bread becomes the body of Christ. From the pages of the Old and New Testament we glean many foreshadowings of the Blessed Eucharist, showing it is possible. Almighty God took care to prepare the people and to dispose the world for believing in this most majestic mystery by doing, on different occasions, in a visible manner, what He does invisibly here. By the hand of Moses He changed the waters of Egypt into blood, He changed the rod of Aaron into a serpent. The miracle of Cana shows the power of Jesus to transform sub- stances, equal to the power which created them. The healing of the officer at Capharnaum from a distance, proves that the word of Jesus is mighty and distance does not alter its power. The multiplication of bread shows His creative power: His walking on the waters and calming the storm, His absolute authority over nature, the curing of the man sick of the palsy at Bethsaida declares that the most inveterate disease cannot resist Him, the man born blind attests that Jesus is the origin of light, and the resurrection of Lazarus proves Him the Master of life and death. At the marriage feast of Cana He changed the substance of water into the substance of wine and He did this in a visible manner, which shows that it is perfectly easy for Him to change one thing into another, when and where He pleases. It is a noteworthy fact that the very first miracle whereby our dear Lord manifested Himself to the world, had for its object the changing of one substance into another. The wine fails and Jesus will satisfy the desires of the guests by changing the ignoble into the noble, the water into wineg by one simple action our blessed Lord gave the water a higher substance. If the marriage of Cana was so great and so wo1'thy of the power that made it, what, let me ask, shall we find, into which the wine itself shall be changed? There is only one change possible, the wine itself must be made a living How from the Heart of our Divine Lord, only thus shall the feast of the Last Supper surpass that of the marriage of Cana. Such, my dear friends, is a brief outline of the doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist as it appeals for the assent of every true believer. We have seen it is the chief means whereby Almighty God has made the Incarnation a permanent reality for the children of men. How great a void there would be in the Christian life had not our Divine Redeemer blessed His Church with so great a Sacrament. On our part it calls for firm and unwavering belief. Our faith ought to be like that of the Apostles, whom when Jesus interrogated: Will you also go away? contented themselves with answering in the words of St. Peter: Lord, to whom shall 49

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1926 The Marathon them, saying: All hail. But they came up and took hold of his feet, and adored him. Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me. Who when they were departed, behold some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done. And they being assembled together with the ancients, taking counsel, gave a great sum of money to the soldiers, Saying: Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep. And if the Governor shall hear of this, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they taking the money, did as they were taught: and this word was spread abroad among the Jews even unto this day. CMatthew 27:50 and 28:2 and following verses.J In this sublime, but simple way, St. Matthew, a Jew, relates the greatest event that has ever taken place in the whole world. The Incarnate Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, dying as an outcast, a worm and no man, and then, after three days, coming forth as the Risen Redeemer, the King and Conqueror of death, that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Who can fathom The Saviour's love for us! St. John, the beloved disciple, who rested his head upon the bosom of Christ, so close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, tells us: God so loved the world as to give His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. CSt. John 3216.5 St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and the vessel of election, who had the great happiness to be elevated to the third heaven, gives us a discourse on the Resurrection, which is noteworthy and notable: For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received: How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures: And that He was buried, and that He arose again the third day according to the Scriptures: And that He was seen by Cephasg and after that by the eleven. Then was He seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the Apostles. And last of all, he was seen by me, as by one born out of due time. Now if Christ be preached that He rose again from the dead, how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your Faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have given testimony against God, that He hath raised up Christ, Whom He hath not raised up, if the dead rise not again. For if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. QFirst Cor. 15:3 and following verses.j From the days of Adam, when Almighty God commanded him not to eat of the forbidden fruit, under pain of death- in the day in which you eat thereof, you shall die, -down through the ages to the time of Job, whose hopes in a future life are so well-expressed in these words: For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the Last Day, I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom, fJob 19:25-27.5 this same thought is expressed throughout the pages of the old Testament, until we find it promised by the Eternal Son of God Himself, when He says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. But He spoke of the temple of His Body. fSt. John 2:19-21.5 No Wonder St. Paul tells the citizens of Corinth in his own days: Behold I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinking of an eye, at the last Trumpet, for the Trumpet shall 51