During July, we celebrate and reflect on the Most Precious Blood of Christ.
The human race in the West has long progressed from the days of public sacrifice—of animals or humans. If any of us were to witness such a ritual today, we would be horrified. Yet this practice was normalized for much of human history. People had a deep sense of owing a debt to God or to the “gods” they worshiped.
Our first parents, on the other hand, walked with God. They did not experience the need to appease Him, but rather had a right relationship with Him—one in which they participated in the life of God as co-creators and stewards of creation. To give God His due, they had only to take possession of the inheritance He had generously laid before them. Sadly, we all know how that ended. They chose to reject their inheritance for death. Or at least, that is what God said would happen: “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:17, RSV). Yet they lived—or so it seems. The Lord, in His generosity, did not completely abandon creation; He left a remnant to be saved. The Lord is generous, and He is just. Humanity did undergo a death—the death of the spirit. Their relationship with God died. The reciprocal relationship with God was chasmed and could not be bridged by man. God must condescend, or man would perish.
The grace that united us to God also united us within ourselves—body and soul. This same grace united us to God’s work of creation. Now that the life of grace has died, our bodies cease to be a holy dwelling place of God's breath and instead become a divided kingdom of unruly members. Our home and inheritance have become a burden—a force against which we contend, not as masters, but as outcasts.
God, in His desire to have His children back, demands a portion of the inheritance be given back to Him in atonement for our transgressions. He orders that food and animals be consumed by His justice rather than He consume His children. What God desired for His children as a gift, He now demands as recompense. As He says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, because of the life” (Leviticus 17:11, RSV). The life His justice requires from us, He settles to be substituted by the creation He loves less. Justice must prevail.
However, God is not satisfied with justice alone, for He is a God of life and love. “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son. Anyone who believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life” (John 3:16, RSV). God desires to have us back. He desires our hearts to be united with Him again. His divine justice is how He draws us out of death and into life—into Himself.
The bloody sacrifice of the Cross is the sacrifice once for all, and the Precious Blood poured out gives saving power to all the Sacraments. Through the Blood of the Lamb, every Sacrament we receive restores our inheritance sevenfold. We are assumed into the Body of Christ; therefore, we become sons and daughters of God—“and if children, then heirs” (Romans 8:17, RSV). We enter into the sonship of Christ and, therefore, into His inheritance. Just as our blood circulates within our body, bringing oxygen to every region, the Blood of Christ flows through His Body, bringing the Holy Spirit to every member. “The Life is in the Blood.”