“And almost all
things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood:
and without
shedding of blood there is no remission.”
Today is the octave day of
Christmas. You probably know that the Church celebrates Her major
feasts on the feast day itself, and then for the following seven
days, making eight in all—an “octave.” More
specifically, today we celebrate the Circumcision of the infant
Jesus, following the covenant God made with Abraham, on the eighth
day of a little boy's life.
The covenant established Abraham's descendants as the specially
chosen people of God, out of which people God would send the Redeemer
promised immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve.
The fact of our Lord's circumcision according to the covenant
demonstrates the fulfillment of God's promise in His Son Jesus
Christ.
On this day we also honor,
especially, the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary. At
one time the Church in Rome offered two Masses on this octave day;
one of the Circumcision and one in honor of Mary as Mother of God.
Today the two are combined. If you read through the Mass and the
Office, you will find numerous references to the birth of Jesus, to
His Circumcision, and to His Holy Virgin Mother.
Saint Paul tells us that
circumcision was a sign of Abraham's justification before the Lord:
Abraham believed in what God revealed to him; his faith was credited
with justification (which means that God would be pleased with the
good things Abraham did); and Abraham was given the ritual of
circumcision as a token of his faithfulness and justification.
In the Mosaic Law, the shedding
of blood is a very serious thing. It is never done intentionally
except in the sacrificial worship of God. Even natural flows of
blood make a person ritually “unclean” while they are
taking place.
A woman is “unclean” after childbirth, for it is marked
by blood. The Jewish manner of preparing meat to eat requires that
as much of the animal's blood be drained and discarded as possible.
One was not supposed to “eat” blood. Blood represents
life, and is therefore sacred before the Lord. It has very specific
and restricted use in Jewish ritual.
It will seem curious, then, from
our point of view, to know that that blood of sacrificial animals was
offered to God by pouring it out before the altar, or sprinkling it
on the altar. Even the people might be sprinkled with blood as a
ritual purification.
Saint Paul tells us
“without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen used to speak of the Bible as a “river
of blood,” going back to the fallen Adam and Eve in the garden.
When they sinned “the eyes of them both were opened: and when
they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig
leaves, and made themselves aprons.”
But before expelling them from the garden, “the Lord God made
for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them.”
The animals gave up their lives and their skins as a direct result
of the sin of Adam and Eve.
After the birth of
Cain and Abel, as young men, both offered sacrifice to God. Cain
offered the produce of his field, but Abel offered animals out of his
flock. God was pleased with Abel's offering of blood in sacrifice to
Him, and is thus referred to as “Abel the just.”
After the flood abated, “Noe
built an altar unto the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that
were clean, offered holocausts upon the altar. And the Lord smelled
a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake
of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to
evil from his youth....”
Noe's sacrifice seems to have appealed to God in favor of mankind.
Abraham was directed to
sacrifice his son Isaac—his willingness to obey God without
question not only spared Isaac, but we hear God say: “By my
own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake: I will
bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and
as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the
gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
It was by means of the
sacrificial blood of the lamb that God deliverd His people from
captivity in Egypt: “the whole multitude of the children of
Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening. And they shall take of the
blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper
door posts of the houses.... And the blood shall be unto you for a
sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and
shall pass over you: and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.”
Today we commemorate the first
shedding of blood of the True Lamb of God. Mary would have been
there with Joseph, and she would have freely given her Son over to
the mohël, or,
perhaps, Joseph may have performed the ritual himself. The custom
was that the parents would then give the child his name, but both
Mary and Joseph knew that this name had been provided beforehand by
God. As today's Gospel indicates, “his name was called JESUS,
which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.”
Ultimately, Mary would surrender
this same Lamb of God when He, although sinless Himself, took the
transgressions of mankind upon Himself to die in the Sacrifice of the
Cross. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin.”
I have long believed that the
Jewish prohibition of “eating” blood existed in the mind
of God from the time of creation. Blood was to be something
absolutely special, and representative of perfect holiness. God knew
from all eternity that one day His Son would announce: “Amen,
amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise
him up in the last day.”
What had been forbidden has become of obligation—not the blood
of calves and bulls and heifers, of course, but the all holy blood of
Christ, which we receive in Holy Communion, the unleavened bread and
wine of the Passover, changed into the substance of the body and
blood of the perfect priest and perfect victim, true Son of Mary and
true Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is by virtue of this
Sacrifice, renewed every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that
we have the forgiveness of sins. The priest who hears Confessions
would have no power to forgive sin were it not for the connection
between the Cross and the altar. He is able to take our sins and
place them upon the victim-Christ, precisely because he takes the
place of Christ—an alter-Christus, another Christ, as he offers
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in union with Christ on the Cross.
The blood of our Lord's
Circumcision is the blood that was shed at Calvary. Even today, but
a week after Christmas, we look forward to the days before Easter, to
Holy Thursday and Good Friday, when our Lord's precious blood was
shed under far less joyous circumstances.
“Almost all things,
according to the law, are cleansed with blood:
and without
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”
ENDNOTES
Regína sacratíssimi Rosárii, ora pro
nobis!
