IHS
Precious Blood of Our Lord (Sixth Sunday after Pentecost)—1 July A.D. 2018
Ave Maria!
[ Ordinary of the Mass ]
[ Latin & English Text ]
“[I]f the blood of goats and bulls … sanctify the unclean … how much more will the Blood of Christ …Who offered Himself unblemished unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”[1]
Today we offer Holy Mass in honor of the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’ll talk about the shedding of our Lord’s blood in a moment, but it will be beneficial to see how God prepared His people for the eventual coming and blood shedding of His only Son.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were instructed to be vegetarians:
And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:[2]
Only after the Flood, did God allow Noe and his descendants to eat meat:
And every thing that moves and lives shall be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: Saving that flesh with blood you shall not eat.[3]
We will see (later in the Old Testament) that the Jews took particular care to drain the blood from any animal they were about to eat. And, even then, the meat tends to be rather well cooked, to eliminate anything that might be called blood.
Blood was life—a sacred thing to be treated with the greatest respect—especially the blood of humans! God continued to address Noe:
For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man. Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God.[4]
But the blood of clean animals might be offered to God at His altar.
Therefore they killed the bullocks, [and killed the rams and killed the lambs] and the priests took the blood, and poured it upon the altar.[5]
Before bringing plagues on the Egyptians, God instructed the Jews living in their midst to mark their doors with the blood of the sacrificial Passover lamb, so that they would be protected:
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.[6]
Later on during the Exodus, God directed Moses to sprinkle the people with the sacrificial blood (much as we use holy water at the Asperges before High Mass!) as a sign of His love and protection
And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.[7]
God explained the need for blood sacrifice to make atonement for sins:
Because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul.[8]
Bishop Sheen described the Temple sacrifices as “a river of blood.” This would be quite correct, as the blood of many entire animals was poured out at the base of the altar—the numbers multiplied substantially at feasts like Passover and Pentecost. There is an elaborate drainage system that routes the blood to pits in the ground:
... the blood of the sacrifices at the altar, when poured at the base, drains down into the SHISSIN [conduits] and empties into the Kidron brook. [The deposit in the brook] is then sold to gardeners as a fertilizing agent.[9]
These countless animal sacrifices, spanning centuries from the time of Abel the Just to the Temple in Jerusalem are all forerunners of the one sacrifice truly important to mankind. In the fullness of time, Jesus Christ, as both priest and victim would offer Himself to His Father for the redemption of mankind! Later on in the Epistle we just read, Saint Paul tells us: “without [the] shedding of blood there is no remission.”[10]
We always speak about the “Sacrifice of the Cross” and the “unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross in Holy Mass.” But let us recognize that crucifixion can be completely bloodless! The victim dies of asphyxiation—indeed, he can be tied to the cross with ropes (no nails!)—and the result will be the same. So, let us spend a few moments examining the ways in which our Lord’s death was a Sacrifice of His Precious Blood.
If we “begin at the beginning” we will recognize that the source of the Precious Blood is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary conceived the baby Jesus when she was “overshadowed by the Holy Ghost.” Everything material in the Child came from the body of Mary. When He was born on Christmas day, He had a fully functioning circulatory system, charged with that Precious Blood. It may be slightly inaccurate to say that the Blood of Jesus was the Blood of Mary—but it cannot be too far from scientific truth.
Yet, by virtue of the “hypostatic union,” which unites God and man in the person of Jesus Christ, we can unequivocally say that the Precious Blood is the blood of God! In the same way that we can say that God is present in every tiny particle of the Blessed Sacrament, we must agree that He is present in every drop of His biological or sacramental Blood.
On the eighth day after His birth, Jesus Christ shed the first drops of His Precious Blood in the Jewish ritual of circumcision. Although He had been sent for the redemption of all mankind, Jesus was born to that people who acknowledged His Father as their God. While they would later reject Him, He and His family made it clear that they did not reject them. This first loss of blood was the peoples’ assurance of His continued love.
In order for Him to take on human nature, Jesus and His Mother required the protection of the carpenter Saint Joseph. It is inconceivable that Jesus did not shed a few more Precious drops as his foster father’s apprentice. This should be a divine encouragement to all of us who have to get out of bed in the morning and go about our daily duty—even if we occasionally skin our knuckles.
About a year before the Crucifixion, Jesus told His followers that He was going to give them His living Body and Blood to eat and drink—a promise on which He made good on the night before He died. By virtue of Holy Mass, we share these gifts across wide stretches of space and time.
You are all familiar with the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Stations of the Cross, so you know the horrible blood lettings associated with Jesus’ death—His sweating blood in His agony in the Garden; the scourging at the pillar with whips designed to cut and rip the flesh; the crowning with thorns; the wound caused in His shoulder by the weight of the Cross; the various falls along the way; the ripping of his skin when they stripped Him of His garments; His being nailed to the Cross; and finally, the Centurion opening His side and letting our Blood and water.
Personally, I find it hard to meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries—perhaps you do too—nonetheless this meditation is something that we must do regularly. The Son of God spilled His Divine Blood so that we may have eternal life—He requires that we merit that life by our Faith and our keeping His Commandments. We have been redeemed, literally, with the Blood of God! It would be terrible ingratitude to let Him down.
“[I]f the blood of goats and bulls … sanctify the unclean … how much more will the Blood of Christ …Who offered Himself unblemished unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
NOTES:
[1] Epistle: Hebrews ix:11-15 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=65&ch=9&l=11-#x
[2] Genesis i:29 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=1&ch=1&l=29-#x
[3] Genesis ix: 3-4 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=1&ch=9&l=3-#x
[4] Genesis ix: 5-6 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=1&ch=9&l=5-#x
[5] 2 Paralipomenon: xxix:22 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=14&ch=29&l=22-#x
[6] Exodus xii:13 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=2&ch=12&l=13-#x
[7] Exodus xxiv: 8 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=2&ch=24&l=8-#x
[8] Leviticus xvii:11 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=3&ch=17&l=11-#x
[10] Hebrews ix:22 http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drl&bk=65&ch=9&l=22-#x
