The Power of Christ's Blood
From the Catecheses by St. John Chrysostom , bishop
(Cat. 3, 13-19; SC 50, 174-177)
...
If we wish
to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient
account of its prefiguration in Egypt. Sacrifice a lamb without
blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors. If
we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast
could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the
saving power lies not in the blood itself but in the fact that it is a sign of
the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the
doors he did not dare to enter, so much less will the devil approach now when
he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips
of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you
desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from,
how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel
records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came
and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and
blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood of the holy
eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the
sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with
the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
There flowed
from his side water and blood. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery
without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to
you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist.
From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, the cleansing
water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the holy
eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the eucharist flowed from his side,
it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve
from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of
the first man and makes him exclaim: Bone from my bones and flesh from my
flesh! As God then took a rib from Adam`s side to fashion a woman, so
Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God
took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us
the blood and water after his own death.
Do you
understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he
gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being
and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so
does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has
given life.
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