A reading from the First Letter of St. Peter
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:1-9)
RESPONSORY
The price of your redemption was not something of fleeting value like gold or silver,
but the costly shedding of the blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish.
– Through him, in the one Spirit, we can approach the Father.
The blood of Jesus Christ washes away all our sins.
– Through him, in the one Spirit, we can approach the Father.
From “The Treasures Which We Have in Jesus Christ” by St. Vincent Mary Strambi (+1824)
Look at the Lord on the cross. Look at the great Priest on the altar, offering himself as a victim pleasing to the heavenly and eternal Father, Look at the Bridegroom of our souls on the nuptial bed, inviting us to unite ourselves lovingly with him. Look at our teacher instructing us from the pulpit of love. Look at the divine Word-made-man, bathed in blood for our salvation: He wore a cloak that had been sprinkled in blood and his name was the Word of God. Look at the cross, the source of all blessedness, deserving of all our love. Look at Jesus. I seem to see him with a hundred bloody wounds. He hangs, I would say, rather from sorrow and pain than from nails. Although his agony and torment are crushing enough already, they increase the closer he approaches death. The angelic doctor, Saint Thomas, notes that in every case of death by crucifixion the suffering is extreme and protracted. The pain keeps increasing as the victim slowly dies. How much ore terrible must have been the pain in Jesus’ body, for he was a young man and was already so racked with pain as to seem the image of pain itself. Ah, Jesus most afflicted, how much you have suffered for us. Most loving Lord, you are tormented in every part of your body; there is no soundness left in you. His lacerated back scrapes against the rough-hewn wood and shrinks from the harshness of this deathbed. His arms, forcibly stretched out, ache violently, and his head throbs from the wounds made by the piercing thorns. His feet trembled spasmodically against the nails that torture and immobilize them on the gibbet, while his hands writhe from the intensity of the pain. Indeed, his whole body is overwhelmed in one dreadful torment. I stop here at the foot of the cross. I come close to it; I embrace it. I kiss it, especially where it is drenched most liberally with the blood of the Crucified. With humble and tender love I ask my loving Lord: Why such a painful deathbed? Why all these added sufferings when have already been immersed in a great sea of suffering? My brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the Lord, let us plunge into the boundless ocean of God’s love. The apostle Sant Paul, our guide and instructor, says that Jesus, dying on the cross, wanted to show the ardor of his love for us. The Crucified is a furnace of love flaming out on every side. How many are the wounds, which are so many apertures through which the fire flares; how many of the blood lacerations, which are so many mouths crying out: Love, love! The Crucified is a book written in letter of blood, teaching us God’s love. The more severe and numerous the wounds and bruises, the more Jesus would have us realize the immense scope of God’s love. God-made-man suffers for love of us; so that we may be aflame with love for him, he uses every expedient to make us attentive to his love.
Almighty and eternal God, you have appointed your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be appeased by his Blood. Grant we beg of you, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation, and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life, so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Feast of the Precious Blood; Traditional)