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Month of the Precious Blood (Day 21)

July 21, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Day 21

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:7-16)

RESPONSORY

That he might sanctify the people with his own blood, Jesus suffered without the gate.

-- Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

-- Let us go forth therefore unto him without the gate, bearing his reproach.

From “Divine Intimacy” by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen (+1953)

That blood which the Word, when He became incarnate, took from our human nature, He gave back to us—every drop of it—as the price of our redemption. And He gave it back, not as if constrained by anyone, but freely, because He willed to, because He loved us. “Christ . . . has loved us,” says St. John, “and washed us from our sins in His own Blood.” All the mysteries of our redemption are mysteries of love; and, therefore, all urge us to love. But the one on which we meditate today is especially moving, since it makes us consider the redemption from its most terrible aspect: the shedding of the Blood of Jesus, which, from Calvary, flowed forth to crimson the whole world, to sprinkle all souls. Christ has redeemed us, “neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own Blood,” St. Paul exclaims….This is a great truth which, if really understood, would more than suffice to make us genuine saints. We must have a “sense” of Christ’s Blood, that Blood which He shed to the last drop for us, and which, through the Sacraments, especially Penance, continually flows over our souls to cleanse them, purify them and enrich them with the infinite merits of the Redeemer. “Bathe in His Blood, immerse yourself in His blood, clothe yourself in the Blood of Christ,” “was St. Catherine of Siena’s continual cry.

St. Paul earnestly invites us to correspond with Christ’s gift. “Jesus . . . that He might sanctify the people by His own Blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore to Him. . . Bearing His reproach.” If we want the Blood of Christ to bear all its fruit in us, we must unite our own blood with it. His alone is most precious, so precious that a single drop is sufficient to save the whole world; nevertheless, Jesus, as always, wants us to add our little share, our contribution of suffering and sacrifice, “bearing His reproach.” If we are sincere we will have to admit that we do all in our power to escape Christ’s shame and disgrace. A lack of consideration, a slight offense, a cutting word, are all that it takes to arouse our passions. How can we say that we know how to share in Christ’s humiliations? Behold our divine Master treated like a malefactor, dragged amidst the coarse insults of the soldiers outside the gate of Jerusalem and there crucified between two thieves! And we? What part do we take in His Passion? How do we share in His reproach?

To redeem us, “Jesus ... endured the Cross despising the shame...: and “you,” St. Paul reproaches us, “have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Can we say that we know how to struggle “unto blood” to overcome our faults, our pride, our self-love? Oh! How weak and cowardly we are in the struggle, how self-indulgent and full of pity for ourselves, especially for our pride! Jesus, Innocence itself, expiated our sins even unto a bloody, ignominious death! We, the guilty ones, far from atoning for our faults unto blood, cannot even sacrifice our self-love. The blood which flows from sincere, total renunciation of self, from humble, generous acceptance of everything that mortifies, breaks, and destroys our pride : this is the blood which Jesus asks us to unite with His! The Precious Blood of Jesus will give us the strength to do so, “for the soul which becomes inebriated and inundated by the Blood of Christ, is clothed with true and genuine virtue” (St. Catherine of Siena).

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