In the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” there is a scene, after Christ has been horribly scourged, that shows His Mother, Mary, wiping His blood off the floor. To Catholic eyes this scene is about more than a mother’s love. After the horror and extreme violence of the whipping, during which we wince right along with Mary as the blood of our Divine Savior spatters everyone and everything, the transition to a shot of a grieving mother on hands and knees going through blood-soaked rag after blood-soaked rag in an attempt to wipe up every last bit of her Son’s Precious Blood is profoundly moving. But there is more than a mother’s love at work there. She seems not just to be cleaning but to be preserving. There is a sense that the very Blood is precious, even sacred.
Later after Jesus has died on the Cross, a soldier drives his lance into His side. Out pours the blood and water, showering him in a type of baptism.
What is it with Catholics and the blood of Christ? Why does the priest say “May the blood of Christ bring us to everlasting life?” A bit morbid is it not?
No. If we are to be Bible-believing Christians, we do well not to forget the following line from Romans: “we are justified by His blood,” or this from the Letter to the Hebrews: “and so Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His blood, suffered outside the gate,” or this from John: “and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
Devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus reminds us at what price our very souls were bought. Precious indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment