Feast of the Most Precious Blood 1.7.07
Some people faint at the sight of blood. It is impossible to see blood with indifference. It has such importance. It represents, and in a sense is, life itself.
We can die from loss of blood. If we do start to bleed we instintively try to arrest that flow. We are holding on to life itself.
The loss of blood is death; the receiving of blood is life (as in a transfusion).
Today we honour the Blood of Christ. In doing that we recall how His blood was lost, and how regained – lost on Calvary; regained in the Resurrection.
The loss or shedding of Our Lord’s blood was part of His sacrifice for our sins.
He made Himself the sacrificial lamb, a perfect sacrifice both in His humanity and divinity.
It is pleasing to the Father, not only because of who/what is sacrificed, but the generous impulse behind the sacrifice.
Not many lambs will volunteer to be killed but the Lamb of God does.
It makes the sacrifice (already perfect) more impressive still.
This blood is precious because it is divine, and because it is given from a motive of love.
God is offended by human sin, but more than appeased by this supreme act of love and generosity.
It would be like breaking someone’s front window and then buying him another house (and better one) as a recompense.
We do not deserve this from Jesus, but we are grateful for it.
His death saves us from death – eternal death. He therefore wins life for us. If we do not die eternally we must live eternally.
But there is more than that. It is not just that now we go to heaven when we die. He changes us, changes the way we live, makes us more alive, starting now.
He gives us a blood transfusion when we receive Him in Holy Communion.
By our communion with His blood, we learn to become like the One we receive. That is, we become people ourselves willing to lay down our lives for others.
If we let His blood mingle with ours we are going to be changed, for the better.
Ever wonder why the Church has so many martyrs? They are the ones who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, who have learnt to love as Jesus did.
This is a natural consequence if we let things go that far. (1 John 3,16: We know the love of God in this way: because He laid down His life for us. And so, we must lay down our lives for our brothers.)
Of course we are always tempted to limit our participation in the sacrifice of Christ’s blood. We are quite happy to be forgiven; not necessarily happy to be changed.
When we are willing to die for the brethren, able to love like that, we are fully alive.
Dying for others can also mean just the daily round of doing what we have to do, putting up with others’ faults, misunderstandings, insults etc.
This is probably harder in many ways than being eaten by lions.
In any event we are enabled to love by offering and receiving this Precious gift, the Blood of Christ. And each time we hope to be more pleasing in the sight of the One we have offended, and who is calling us to union with Himself.
We offer His blood to be saved from death; we drink His blood to become more fully alive.
