THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

         During my watch today Fr Florian Racine in his book The Watchful Hour spoke about the Precious Blood of Jesus.     He quoted Ecxodus 24:8  where Moses took the blood of the sacrificed animal and poured it over that part of the altar where the Sacrifice took place and then threw it over the people.   The blood on the altar was for God and the blood on the people was to unite them to God through the Sacrifice.  

I began to think of the chalice we drink from every week   I had perceived it as just an extra to the host and therefore obeying Christ at the Last Supper.   As I thought about it I began to realise that there was so much more.   Moses had used blood to unite the people to God in the Sacrifice so was the Blood of the New and Eternal Testament something that was a unifying power.    To me receiving the Body of Christ is a very personal thing for I feel so much love and there is no way I could catch on to new ideas about Community and some kind of ignoring Christ to embrace them.    It just did not make sense.   But let us look at what blood means to people.

As people we talk about blood ties.   Many people today search for their DNA to find people related to them.   They do not call it a body relationship but a blood relationship.    The Indians of America would intermingle their blood with others in order to become blood brothers.   It is blood that keeps the body alive and the simple truth is that when the heart stops pumping blood then the body dies.   So Blood is precious and a life giving substance.    Now what happens when I receive the Precious Blood at the Altar?  

The blood of Jesus mingles with mine   Yes, he becomes my blood brother, but everyone who receives his blood is related to Him in the same way.    We are all related to Jesus and in sharing His blood we are related to one another.   We are his family.   We are his Christian family. We are all related to one another through his blood.

Deo Gratias    

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