My friends, our souls are immortal. They are spirits that will live forever. Material things are subject to decay and death, but spirits will never die. The universal longing for immortality was planted in the human heart by God. It could not arise from error or misconception. The spirituality of the soul is quite evident from our actions. The actions of inferior creatures are governed by fixed laws, which God has implanted in their very nature. When subjected to the same external conditions, a flower blooms to-day as it did at the dawn of creation, and birds build their nests in our age as their ancestors did in the garden of Eden. But we, with our intelligence and free will, can produce actions that transcend matter. We can form ideas, reason and deliberately exercise dominion over our human actions. And, if we thus produce the actions of spirits, the principle of life within us must be a spirit, though it is not revealed by the surgeon's knife, nor by the chemist's test-tube. This teaching of reason is emphasized by the Holy Ghost, who says: "God made man incorruptible, and to the image of His own likeness He made him" (Wis. ii. 23). Now, as the cradle and the grave of every one is in the vestibule of eternity, we should seriously meditate on those words of our Saviour in which He asks: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26). For we "were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, but with the precious Blood of Jesus Christ" (i Peter i. 18, 19).

My Brethren, God said to the Israelites of old: "I place before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil" (Deut. xxx. 15). He says the same to us to-day: "I place before you life and death." We must enter eternity. Before us is the happiness of heaven, or the misery of hell. Every step we take, every breath we draw, brings us nearer the brink of eternity. Enter eternity we must. We cannot return to that nothingness from which God created us. We cannot stray so far away from Him that His all-seeing eye will not be upon us, or that His all-powerful hand cannot arrest us and bring us to judgment. We must go on in existence forever and forever, for "man shall go into the house of his eternity" (Eccles. xii. 5). We must now choose between an eternity in heaven and an eternity in hell. With death the time of our trial will come to an end. As we now sow, so shall we then reap. To encourage us to work for Heaven now, St. Paul said: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him" (i Cor. ii. 9). God was even more explicit when He said to Abraham: "Fear not, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great" (Gen. xv. i). The fact is that we can find our happiness only in God. In creating us He has implanted in our hearts a longing for an endless possession of an infinite good. This He alone can satisfy. St. Augustine acknowledged this longing when he said: "Thou hast created me, O God, and my heart will never rest till it rest in Thee!" If we are interested in our own happiness we will, therefore, not content ourselves with loving God in a negative way by striving to avoid sin. We will ever give Him the first place in our mind's esteem and in our heart's affection. We will resolutely turn away from all inordinate concupiscence and avoid the voluntary occasions of sin. Knowing that we can do nothing without God's help, we should daily renew our consecration to Him and make Him the source of our strength, by fidelity in the practice of our devotions.

Another reason, my dear Brethren, why the salvation of our souls should be the most important affair of our daily life is found in their objective value. We treasure an article in proportion to its intrinsic value. Even a child knows how to choose between a penny, a dime, and a dollar. Now, the fact is, our souls are the most valuable things in this world. This is evident from the history of creation. When God created the sun, the moon, and the earth, with its varied vegetable and animal life, He merely said: "Let them be," but when He came to the creation of man, the Almighty considered the work of so great importance that the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity first held a consultation. Only then did they say: "Let us make man to our image and likeness" (Gen. i. 26). Again, in proportion to the value of an article we wish to send, we take precaution that it reaches its destination. A postal card may suffice for a message, but an article of importance we send by registered mail or entrust to the keeping of one of our own household. Now, this precaution God took when He created your immortal soul and sent it on the journey to eternity. He entrusted it to the guardianship of an angel, one of His own household. Though Providence watches over the grass in the fields, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the forest, He entrusted man alone to the special protection of a guardian angel.

In the second place, the value of the human soul is evident from the work of the Redemption. You and I might go to a sale and later on regret the rashness of our purchase. But Jesus Christ is the God of infinite wisdom. He could make no mistake nor do a foolish thing. In the parable of the merchant who went into a far-off country in search of pearls He teaches us the objective value of human souls. For He himself is that merchant, who left His starry throne in heaven and came into this country of misery and sin in search of the pearls of our immortal souls. And when He found them, defiled by original sin and steeped in the mire of ignorance and vice, He deliberately estimated their value as immortal images of His Father in Heaven. He then sold everything He had as man to buy those pearls. He sold His honor by allowing Himself to be mocked, reviled and spit upon. He sold His liberty by permitting Himself to be taken prisoner. He sold His virginal flesh by submitting to a cruel scourging and an ignominious crowning with thorns. He sold His very life by consenting to die the shameful death of the Cross. Remember that He said: "No man taketh my life from me: but I lay it down of myself" (John x. 18). The great St. Bernard, therefore, truly says: "O Christian soul, do you wish to know your true value? Then go in spirit to Calvary's heights. Consider the life of the Saviour on earth, His prayers, His labors, His sacrifices. Yes, estimate this human life of the Son of God at its true value, and you will find the value at which He has estimated your own soul in particular, for He gave this life for your redemption."

Finally, if we must have an object-lesson in our day to convince us of the importance of saving our immortal souls, we need but look at the Church which our Saviour has instituted to carry on His work on earth. Behold not only those costly temples that have been erected by the faith and sacrifice of the faithful to give "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke ii. 14), but concentrate your attention rather on those living temples of the Most High, those other Christs, priests and religious, who have consecrated their lives to the salvation of mankind. With St. Peter they can say to the Master: "Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee" (Mark x. 28). While other men and women were busy about many things, they thought of the one thing necessary. While others planned their own temporal happiness, they planned for the eternal happiness of all redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. While many others spent their youth in pursuing the follies of life, they, like the Master, spent their time in prayer, in study, and in self-discipline, to prepare themselves for their sublime ministry. Thanks to the ministry of the priest, you were born to the spiritual life in holy Baptism, cleansed from your actual sins in the tribunal of Penance, and nourished with the living bread that came down from Heaven. He ministers to you the countless blessings of Jesus Christ during life, consoles you in the hour of death and hastens your entrance into Heaven. Behold that countless number of generous women that "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Apoc. xiv. 4). As the holy women in the Gospel ministered to the Saviour, so these minister to the least of His brethren to-day. They teach our children to know, to love, and to serve God. They adopt our orphans and cherish them with maternal love. Like true angels of charity they minister to the sick and the dying, and they shelter even the aged and the outcast and serve them with filial love. We read in the life of the great St. Francis Xavier, Apostle of India, that he said, when he learned that a child he had baptized had died: "If I had no other recompense for all my labors, privations and prayers than the assurance that a single soul, redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, has been saved, I would consider my life well spent."

Ah, my dearly beloved brethren, only when we consider the importance of salvation in the light of faith do our souls appear in their true perspective. In the balance of eternity the things that end with time dwindle into insignificance. God and the soul remain. God is eternal; the soul is His immortal image. We now have time, grace and opportunity to save our souls. If now we hearken to the voice of Christ we shall be happy for all eternity; if not, it were better for us if we had never been born. Judas was destined to save countless souls as an Apostle. By betraying his Master for a few pieces of silver he lost his own immortal soul. On the other hand, the good thief heard the Master's voice only when he saw Him dying at his side. Others had witnessed stupendous miracles, he beheld the Redeemer lay down His life for the human race and humbly begged to be remembered. His faith was rewarded by the promise of Paradise. My friends, what are we prepared to do for our eternal happiness? If there be anyone among you, my hearers, who is not seriously looking toward that end or who has turned away from it, let him take to heart, the warning of St. Paul, who exhorts us that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil, ii. 12.) "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2).

Almighty, and everlasting God, who hast appointed thine only- begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be reconciled unto us by His Blood, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, that the power thereof may here on earth keep us from all things hurtful, and the fruit of the same may gladden us for ever hereafter in heaven Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

John the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly fixed His throne, Paul has prepared the Bride; this their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously on the cycle. The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; whilst the Bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the sacred cup of the nuptial-feast.

This gives the key of today's solemnity; revealing how its illumining the heavens of the holy Liturgy, at this particular season, is replete with mystery. The Church, it is true, has already made known to the sons of the New Covenant, and in a much more solemn manner, the price of the Blood that redeemed them, its nutritive strength, and the adoring homage which is its due. Yes; on Good Friday, earth and heaven beheld all sin drowned in the saving stream, whose eternal flood-gates at last gave way, beneath the combined effort of man's violence and of the love of the divine Heart. The festival of Corpus Christi witnessed our prostrate worship before the altars whereon is perpetuated the Sacrifice of Calvary, and where the outpouring of the Precious Blood affords drink to the humblest little ones, as well as to the mightiest potentates of earth, lowly bowed in adoration before it. How is it, then, that Holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail, in a particular manner, the stream of life ever gushing from the sacred fount? What else can this mean, but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the mystery? The peace which the Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of its wave bearing back the sons of Adam from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed, and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the Sacred Table outspread before them, on the waters' brink, and the Chalice brimful of inebriation; all this preparation and display would be objectless, all these splendours would be incomprehensible, if man were not brought to see therein the wooings of a love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other. Therefore, the Blood of Jesus is set before our eyes, at this moment, as the Blood of the Testament; the pledge of the alliance proposed to us by God (Exod. xxiv. 8; Heb. ix. 20); the dower stipulated upon by Eternal Wisdom for this divine union to which He is inviting all men, and whereof the consummation in our soul is being urged forward with such vehemence by the Holy Ghost.

"Having therefore, Brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the Blood of Christ," says the Apostle, "a new and living way which He hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, let us draw near with a pure heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised. Let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and to good works (Heb. x. 19-24). And may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great pastor of the sheep, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Blood of the everlasting Testament, fit you in all goodness, that you may do His will: doing in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen!" (Ibid. xiii. 20, 21)

Nor must we omit to mention here, that this feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of Holy Church, in our own age. Pius IX. had been driven from Rome in 1848, by the triumphant revolution; but the following year, just about this very season, his power was re-established. Under the aegis of the Apostles on June 28th and the two following days, the eldest daughter of the Church, faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the Eternal City; and on July 2nd, Mary's festival, the victory was completed. Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the City and to the world the Pontiff's gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the sacred Liturgy, the memory of these events. On August 10th, from Gaeta itself, the place of his exile in the evil day, Pius IX, before returning to re-assume the government of his States, addressing himself to the invisible Head of the Church, confined her in a special manner to His divine care, by the institution of this day's Festival; reminding Him that it was for His Church that He vouchsafed to shed all His Precious Blood.

Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his Capital, turning to Mary, just as Pius V. and Pius VII. had done under other circumstances, he, the Vicar of Christ, solemnly attributed the honour of the recent victory to Her who is ever the "Help of Christians," for on the Feast of Her Visitation it had been gained; and he now decreed that this said Feast of July 2nd should be raised from the rite of double-major to that of second class throughout the whole world. This was but a prelude to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already in project, whereby the crushing of the serpent's head would be completed.