Sermon for the Feast of the Precious Blood
Are you squeamish? Do you have trouble watching horror films, or feel unwell whenever you see an injury?
The abnormal fear of blood is called haematophobia, but is there anything abnormal about being troubled by the sight of blood. Surely, it’s a natural fear to have. The sight of blood is the sight of something on the outside that should be on the inside. When we see blood, we see with it injury, pain and suffering. When someone bleeds badly, it is as if their very life is draining from them. Indeed that is how the Hebrews see blood. In blood is life, and this is why Jewish meat must be prepared in a kosher fashion: no blood must remain in the meat.
This is because God tells Noah, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Thus, we see that we are not to consume the life of animals for to do so would make us like animals. Our Lord reminds us that it is very true that we are what we eat. This is a bit problematic if you enjoy a bit of black pudding for breakfast.
[PAUSE]
You can see, then, how much of a scandal it is to the scribes and Pharisees when Jesus suggests that unless we drink of His blood we shall not have life within us. If you think about it, perhaps the scribes and Pharisees have a point: if God tells Noah in the dim and distant past not to consume the blood of animals, and this is something that the Jews have kept faithfully, why on earth should things be different now? Surely sin is sin. If God is Eternal, then what is not God is also Eternal. An act which is sinful from the Beginning of Time must be at the End of Time too.
This is true, but notice how Noah can, in theory, eat pigs which cannot be kosher. The law that prohibits eating of pigs comes into effect at the Exodus. The point that God is making is that there is no sin in consuming blood in the act, unlike murder when the act itself is sinful. The only sin that can be committed for Noah to eat black pudding here is being disobedient to God.
What changes between Noah and Now is due to the presence of God Himself.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord Jesus Christ gives human beings that which they have never had before. They are offered His own blood to drink, and in so doing find themselves receiving the very life of God. This is why the Mass is called Holy Communion. In eating the Body of Christ and drinking the Blood of Christ, we are bound up together in the life of God Himself. We share the process of living with Him. This cannot come about through the blood of animals. In rejecting the blood of Christ, the Scribes and Pharisees reject the life of God because they are restricted to only to what is visible. They see only the blood of animals and men, they cannot discern the Blood of God.
In Christ, the old food laws are fulfilled and are no longer binding because we are unified to Christ in His Blood. We drink the blood under the appearance of wine so that no-one need to fear drinking the true Blood of Christ. Christians are not vampires – and we have actually been accused of being so on the account of our Faith.
Because of the importance of the Blood of Christ, it is important that the Church offers the Chalice to all who approach the altar rail. While it is fine and praiseworthy to receive the Body of Christ alone, you are allowed to drink the Blood of Christ, too.
[PAUSE]
The appearance of blood is always shocking, and it has to be said that we should not approach the Chalice without remembering how much of a shock it is to drink the Blood of Christ. We need to approach remembering His suffering and pain on the Cross and remember that this pain and suffering He was ready and willing to undergo for us so that we might have life in Him. So, do drink the Blood of Christ if you will, and find that refreshment of His life running through your being just as the blood runs through your veins, and be not afraid!
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