July opens habitually with the feast of the most Precious Blood; hence many keep it as "the month of the Precious Blood", a practice approved and indulgenced by holy Church. Let us then take this July recollection as an occasion to renew the fervour of our spiritual life by recalling to mind some of the many stimulating thoughts about the Precious Blood which occur so often in liturgy and prayers. . . Devotion to the Precious Blood (considered in general, apart from specific acts of a separate devotion) underlies and permeates our whole spiritual life: it is bound up especially with our reception of the Sacraments, with our devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart, and is intensely productive of unbounded confidence and generous self-sacrifice. . . .
"REDEMISTI NOS DEO IN SANGUINE TUO EX OMNI TRIBU ET LINGUA ET POPULO ET NATIONE"
The divine Redemption. . . and its price. . . and its universality! I behold Christ hanging on the Cross of Calvary, and see countless multitudes, during twenty centuries, passing under that Cross and being cleansed in the Blood that flowed from it. I am there now in my turn: with exultant joy and gratitude I look up to my Saviour who has redeemed me at "so great a price", with ardent longing also that each and every soul now passing along with me under the Cross may be saved in that Blood: "tantus labor non sit cassus!".
For all eternity we shall sing, with the multitude of the redeemed of every race, tongue and nation, the "new canticle" of praise and gratitude before the Lamb who has been slain in sacrifice and has ransomed us with His blood and made us a kingdom and priests to our God: see Apoc. 5:8-14.
"TE ERGO QUAESUMUS TUIS FAMULIS SUBVENI QUOS PRETIOSO SANGUINE REDEMISTI"
What boundless confidence must animate me in all my needs, in all my prayers for self and for others, when I can present to Christ, as title-deed for His favours, His previous, far greater, gift to us of His own Precious Blood? "Dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me." How could I hesitate, then, to trust His love and implore His help, even if mine are the direst needs and the most wretched poverty; for mine also are the "investigabiles divitiae Christi"?
"ME IMMUNDUM MUNDA TUO SANGUINE"
The first step towards sanctity: humbly to confess my utter unworthiness, the miserable state of my soul infected with so many vices and passions. But, along with this, an ardent supplication, full of faith and hope, for the cleansing of my soul in that Precious Blood "cujus una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere"... May these be my feelings when I kneel at the foot of the crucifix for my confessions, in all my examinations of conscience, whenever I am aware of deliberate faults or infidelities. Jesus is longing to apply to me the power of the blood He shed for me. "Blessed are those who have washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb" (Apoc. 22:14 ).
"UNUS MILITUM LANCEA LATUS EIUS APERUIT ET CONTINUO EXIVIT SANGUIS ET AQUA"
One drop of His Blood would have been sufficient to save the world. . . but not to satiate His love for me! So He willed that through the open wound of His side the last drop of His Blood be shed for me . . . Have I shed the first drop of my blood for Him? What violence have I done to myself at least to avoid sin, resist temptations, conquer my passions?
How soon perhaps I feel it is too hard! Yet "nondum usque ad sanguinem restitistis "! . . . And what are my practices of penance to expiate my sins and others' sins? my generosity in sacrificing self in the performance of pastoral duties? . . .
"HIC EST ENIM CALIX SANGUINIS MEI"
I may feel at times that my spiritual life would be a very different one, had I been present at the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary? . . . But so I am, every morning, at the altar!
Do I not hold in my hands and offer to God the chalice of benediction containing the Precious Blood shed on the Cross? If my mind and my heart were alive to this reality, when my lips utter the stupendous words of the "Mysterium Fidei" - "Hic est enim calix Sanguinis Mei", what an invitation to sacrifice and immolation would every Mass not bring to me? . . . It did so for the Saints. Read, for example, some entries of the spiritual diary of St Francis Borgia (as burning as they are laconic): "During Mass, at the Chalice, longing to give my blood for Christ.". . . "At Mass, Our Lord gave me devotion 'in calice et sanguine'. I have wished for the love of the Cross:" ... During Mass at the Chalice I have asked for the chalice." ... "At Mass I have prayed 'ut audiam quid loquatur in Sacris'. And I am without wounds." - The hand of the Lord is not shortened: if I were to go to the altar after careful preparation only, and offered holy Mass with sustained recollection, would the Precious Blood at times not speak to me also? . . .
"SANGUIS CHRISTI INEBRIA ME"
Seeing the lavishness with which Christ has given His Blood for me, in His Passion and at every Consecration and holy Communion, what other response can I give than St Francis Xavier's: "Sicut Tu amasti me, sic amo et amabo Te"? This spells heroic love, and heroism is so foreign to my slothful, commonplace and self-indulgent life!... Then I will ask, eagerly, that Christ's Blood may communicate to me something of the fire that consumes the Sacred Heart from which it flowed, "intoxicating" me with His love: "Sanguis Christi inebria me". So that I may go forth in life, not with the cool calculating egotism which the world and the devil and the flesh teach me, but as one obsessed with a great passion, captivated by an overpowering love, living no more for himself but for the one who has conquered his heart... "Pro omnibus mortuus est Christus, ut et qui vivunt non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est."
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Adapted from Alter Christus, Meditations for Priests by F.X. L'Hoir, S.J. (1958)
Meditation 43.
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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood.
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