By Fr. Michael French
The month of July has traditionally been a time to remember Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood. Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ has grown up in the Church’s history, along with devotions to the Sacred Heart and Holy Name of Jesus, to form three core devotions centered on the Incarnate Christ. Devotion to the Holy Cross seems to be one of the earliest that formed, and, together with the more recent devotion to the Divine Mercy, both touch on aspects of the other three core Christ-centered devotions. Taken together, all these devotions form a rich testament to the historical formation of the Church’s gaze on Jesus Christ.
Can we Adore the Precious Blood of Christ?
The Most Precious Blood is familiar to us, inasmuch as we encounter it at each Mass sacramentally under the appearance of wine. However, in devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ, we must meditate both on the Blood in the Eucharist, and on the Blood of His sacred humanity shed in His Passion. It is the same Precious Blood that was shed in His Passion, that is now present in the Eucharist in each Mass. The Son of God assumed a human nature with real Blood from the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that Blood is still united with His divinity now in heaven.
It is important that we adore Christ’s Precious Blood, not only in the Eucharist, but also in His Passion. The question is, when his Blood was shed in His Passion and fell on the streets, when it became separated from His Body, can we rightly still adore it? Did the Blood that came out of his Body remain separated from Him? The cogent position would be that Christ’s Blood, which fell on the streets, was indeed adorable, because it always remained united with His sacred humanity. Therefore, when He rose from the dead, all the Blood that was separated from His Body was miraculously reunited to it. This is an aspect of the Resurrection that is easily missed. Christ’s Blood was essential to His humanity, and so the Blood did not lose its union to His Person just because it exited His Body.
Therefore, all the Blood that separated from Christ’s Body was reunited with Him, regardless of what it had fallen on, in the miracle of the Resurrection. Any indications of Blood that still may remain, for example, on relics of the nails, the Shroud of Turin, the Scala Sancta, or any other objects, are but material elements worthy only of our veneration, but not worthy of our adoration. Since all that was essentially the Blood of Christ was reunited in His sacred humanity, these relics, at best, contain only a material trace of where the Blood once used to be in His Passion.
Why Devotion to the Precious Blood Matters
We do indeed adore the Most Precious Blood as it lay on the ground in His Passion. We also adore the Blood that was first shed in His circumcision, which also
would have been miraculously reunited to His risen Person. But now in our day, we adore His Blood as it is all united, only in the Person of the Son of God in heaven, and present in the Eucharist. Whatever was not taken back to His Person in His Resurrection was not part of His nature.
As Scripture attests, the life of a thing is in its blood. And we receive our new life of grace in Christ through the sacrifice of His Blood. As St. Paul says, “The redemption in Christ Jesus was an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom 3:24-25). One drop of His Precious Blood would be enough to redeem an infinity of worlds. With what wonder the angels must have watched, when the shed Blood was reunited in His Resurrection. Since His Blood has such power, let us adore it, because He has given it to us. For whenever we receive the Eucharist in the form of the sacred host, we are also receiving His blood, because the whole Christ is present in each host. Let us not be afraid, then, of what will happen to our blood, because our life resides in His saving Blood.
Experience the Power of Faith at Champion Shrine
Find refuge and spiritual healing on the peaceful, sacred grounds where the Blessed Mother appeared to Adele Brise in 1859, The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
Champion Shrine has been designated as a pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year! From the Walk to Mary in May, to the Assumption on August 15, to the Solemnity of Our Lady of Champion on October 9 – there are wonderful opportunities to pilgrimage to Our Lady’s Shrine this year to obtain special graces.
Be sure to save the date for a special Jubilee Mass at the Shrine on July 20, celebrated by Bishop David Ricken!
Start planning your pilgrimage today at ChampionShrine.org/visit.