Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
and indeed, it is in the crucifixion of Christ that all present in the Holy Land,
especially the chosen people, should have known.
For as we learned from the readings in the Old Testament,
that from the very beginning God begins to call his chosen people out of Egypt,
this sign of the shedding of blood becomes most important,
for the blood is to be sprinkled over the lentils of the doorpost
to signify that the blood of Christ,
would be sprinkled from the Mount of Calvary,
and when Christ would institute the temple worship,
he would give Moses a plan that would call for untold amounts of sacrifice.
Sheep after sheep, goat after goat, pigeon after pigeon,
all sorts of animals would be sacrificed,
that is, their blood shed,
and each and every one of them in some way signified
one aspect of the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
But sin,
often blinds us,
and it would blind most of the people at the time of the crucifixion,
and so they would neither recognize Christ as the Messiah,
or deliberately deny he was,
and also they would not prepare their hearts for that most profound of all teaching,
that this Messiah,
this Messiah who is shedding his blood on the cross of Mount Calvary,
is also the very Son of God,
co-equal with the Father in all things,
and hence,
God himself.
And so,
our Lord came in order to shed his most precious blood,
in order that we may have the mysteries of our salvation unlocked.
In today's gospel reading,
the apostles are instructed to go to the man with the water jug,
that is, symbolic of our baptism,
which is a baptism in the blood of Christ,
which alone can purify us from our sin.
And so,
our baptism is an entrance into the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
that shedding of the blood of the Savior for the salvation of all mankind,
and we too are called to cooperate in his mission of saving all,
that is,
washing all clean in his blood,
and it is only the blood of Christ that is the sacrifice pleasing to the Father,
for the sin of mankind was an infinite offense,
and it was only an infinite sacrifice that could appease the wrath of God our Father.
And so,
in the sacred humanity of Christ,
we have the infinite sacrifice given for sin,
but also,
we are instructed of a most extraordinary thing,
that this blood shed by Christ was blood fashioned in one sense by human hands,
that is,
it was fashioned by the Blessed Virgin Mary,
for she, as it were,
provides the flesh for the incarnation of the Son of God.
And so truly,
we have that mystery of the two hearts,
the sacred heart of Jesus,
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
united for the same purpose.
And so it was that on Mount Calvary,
Our Lady would sacrifice her maternal rights over the blood of Christ,
and allow the crucifixion to go forward for the sake of all mankind.
And so,
when we reflect upon the blood of Christ,
we reflect upon all of those mysteries of our salvation,
most especially that mystery of the union of the two hearts,
and we must always and everywhere reflect,
that our Lord could have came and saved us,
with the shedding of the tear,
or the spilling of the drop of blood.
As Saint Alphonsus de Liguori points out,
that Christ's blood was first shed,
when that babe came forth from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
in the cave at Bethlehem,
in which he submitted that sacred humanity,
to the vermin that was in that cave,
that is,
the fleas and all those others,
that feed on the blood of their victims.
And so,
Christ begins,
to suffer,
to shed his blood,
the moment he comes forth from the womb,
in order to signify,
that time,
when he would truly shed all of his blood,
for the sake of humanity.
And so,
in the pouring out of that most precious blood,
for the sake of mankind,
he shows the depth and the profundity,
of his love for fallen man.
For it was not by a single tear,
or a single shedding of one drop of his blood,
but it was the shedding of the entirety of that blood,
that course through the sacred humanity of Christ,
by which we are saved.
And each and every one of us,
has the right to claim all of that blood,
for ourselves and also,
we claim it as the human family.
For he shed it,
for the human family as a family,
and for each individual member of that family.
And so,
our salvation truly,
has been purchased by a most precious price,
that is,
the blood of Christ.
And so,
let us resolve this day,
on the feast of the precious blood of Jesus Christ,
to earnestly learn our faith,
and strive with every fiber of our being,
to put it into practice.
For every suffering,
every trial,
every tribulation,
endured for the love,
of the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus Christ,
becomes a form,
of the shedding of our own blood.
For it is a constant dying,
and ultimately,
that is,
what truly signifies a death has occurred.
Either when the blood,
ceases to course through the veins,
by the stopping of the heart,
as that most sacred heart,
would stop beating at one time on Mount Calvary,
or it is,
or the loss of blood,
that causes our natural death.
But we are not to see in this,
that it was a natural death,
that caused,
that was a natural cause,
that caused the death of the Savior.
And indeed,
it was his own will.
And so,
when all that precious blood,
saved that bit,
that remained in the sacred heart,
had been given up in love,
for the sake of humanity,
the sword of Longinus would pierce that heart,
and the final precious drops,
that were in the sacred humanity of Christ,
would pour forth.
There, they all were gathered,
by the Mother of God,
in order to be distributed,
to all the children of Adam and Eve,
until the end of time.
And so,
let us have constant recourse to her,
who has been entrusted,
with the entire order of mercy,
that is,
with the sacred blood of her most precious son,
so that we may acquire from her the graces,
those graces necessary,
to understand the depth of the love of Jesus Christ,
and the shedding of his blood,
and the graces that we need,
in order to put that most profound mystery,
into practice,
in our own life of faith.
And so,
this day we reflect upon,
on much that we have to be grateful for,
and much that we have to do.
And so,
let us strive each and every day,
to take up our cross daily,
offering ourselves to him,
who offered himself to us,
by that most profound act of love,
shedding his blood,
in order that we,
at the end of our lives,
may be offered to,
and accepted by the Father in heaven.
Amen.