Most Precious Blood (Potentiality of His Blood) one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. 1. In speaking of whence originated the Precious Blood of Our Savior, St. Thomas Aquinas taught: it was becoming that Christ s body should be formed not from the flesh or bones of the Virgin, but from her blood, which as yet is not actually a part, but is potentially the whole (as stated in De Gener. Animal. I). Hence He [the Christ] is said to have taken flesh from the Virgin, not that the matter from which His body was formed was actual flesh, but blood, which is flesh potentially (III,31,5 reply obj.1). Thus, Christ s body is said to be formed of the most chaste and purest blood of the Virgin (reply Obj. 3). St. Thomas quotes St. John Damascene as teaching the same, namely: the Son of God, from the Virgin s purest blood, formed Himself flesh, animated with a rational soul (De Fide Orth. iii). 2. This means His Majesty s Most Precious Blood came from the Blessed Virgin s most pure blood. But notice the principle being employed by the Angelic Doctor. Blood is potentially the whole man as it is not yet incorporated into any one part of the man. That is, blood can, in some way, become any bodily part of man because it supplies each and every member. So, the whole of Christ s corporeal nature came from the Blessed Virgin s blood. It contained everything needed all the potentialities required for Christ s human nature. No wonder She had to be Immaculately Conceived and perfect in every way! 3. Some saints have located the exact origin of the Virgin s pure blood used to make the Savior s Precious Blood. St. John Eudes taught: The second prerogative of the corporeal heart of Mary is that it produced the virginal blood with which the sacred body of the God-Man was formed in the chaste womb of His Blessed Mother (The Admirable Heart of Mary, pt 1, ch. 3). 4. Ven. Mother Mary of Agreda puts it like this: At the very moment of her fiat By the intensity of supernatural affections, her most pure heart, as it were by natural consequence, was contracted and compressed with such force, that it distilled three drops of her most pure blood, and these, were formed by the power of the divine and holy Ghost, into the body of Christ our Lord. Thus the matter, from which the most holy humanity of
the Word for our Redemption is composed, was furnished and administered by the most pure heart of Mary through the sheer force of her true love (Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, no. 137, p. 110). Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us! 5. Returning to St. Thomas, let s reflect a little more on the principle he employed namely that the blood is potentially the whole (possibility of becoming each part). The blood flowing from the side of Christ upon the Cross becomes the life of the whole Mystical Body, the Church, the Bride of Christ. In this Blood we find the source of all the sacraments, including marriage something under special attack at this moment. What is more, this same sacrament of holy matrimony is also represented on another level at Calvary. 6. First, as just heard, it is in the potentiality of the Precious Blood to bring about redemption, life and healing to man and woman joined in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Listen to the allocution from the Roman Ritual to be given after marriage (even after the Holy Mass is over according to one of the rubrics): Christian marriage, since it is a Sacrament, is a true participation in the redeeming might of Jesus. As Christian spouses the very Blood of the Savior is mingled with the blood that flows through our veins. Know that you are the temple of God and that your bodies are the members of Christ. Potentiality of the Precious Blood is brought to actuality in the Sacrament. 7. Furthermore, it is present in symbol. In discussing the creation of Eve, St. Thomas, echoing the consistent teaching of the Church Fathers, describes the connection between marriage and the Blood flowing from the side of Christ: It was right for the woman to be made from a rib of man. First, to signify the social union of man and woman [i.e., their marriage] [St. Augustine: Here the Second Adam, bowing his head, slept on the Cross, that a wife might be formed for Him out of the water and Blood that flowed from His side as He slept (Matins, July 1).] Secondly, for the sacramental signification; for from the side of Christ sleeping on the Cross the Sacraments flowed namely, blood and water on which the Church was established (I,92,3). So, once again, the Precious Blood flowing from the side of Christ is potentially the whole life of the Church but at the same time is also a sign of the marriage of God with man of
the Bridegroom s love for the Bride. The potentiality of life for the whole is connected to a marriage bond between God and Man in Christ as well as the marriage of Christ with His Church. Hmmm. How does this help us overcome the attacks on marriage at this time? 8. At one time, the Pharisees questioned Our Lord as to Whom He was, saying: Who art thou? He responded: The beginning, who also speak unto you (Jn. 8:25). In a similar way, St. Paul refers to Christ as foundation: For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus (1Cor 3:11). 9. At another time, in speaking of marriage and divorce, again with the Pharisees, He said, Have ye not read, that He Who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? (Matt. 19:4). When questioning Him further about Moses allowing divorce, He taught: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so (19:8). From the Beginning. Marriage between man and woman is from the Christ, the Beginning, from the foundation of the world!!! He is the marriage between God and man an indissoluble bond made possible by the power of the Holy Ghost. What does this mean for us!? 10. The marriage bond is fundamental to the very construction of Universe itself to Creation and to Redemption (i.e., re-creation). It is primordial from the beginning. It is the cause of the battle and fall of the devil, who somehow was shown the marriage of God and man in Christ the marriage of Christ and His Bride, the Church, typified by the Woman the Blessed Virgin Mary. This first battle, taking place in the heavens, raged around a marriage of God and man that required human blood to make it possible. What is more the same devil is overcome by the Blood of the Savior (taken from the Woman) Blood that is the life of the Church. As the Apocalypse says: they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb (Apoc 12:11). Blood is what links them all together. 11. Perhaps turning to another Old Testament scene can deepen our understanding of what is at stake here. To signify the power of this outpouring of Blood and Water from the side of Christ, Moses was instructed by God to strike the rock in the desert to refresh God s chosen people. Later Moses was told he need only speak to the rock and it would produce the same refreshment. But Moses, angered by the people s
hardness of heart, struck the rock once more and then a second time to force it to produce. He was punished for this. He could not enter the Promised Land. Today, many do not want to accept marriage as it has been given to us from the beginning and are striking the rock again (1 st Synod) and again (2 nd Synod), under a spell of madness, seeking a different outcome. They want divorced and remarried, and even other perverse unions, to be accepted and legalized due to the hardness of modern man s heart. They want these violations of God s law to be allowed, even applauded! But they will only be punished they will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land! They will not be healed! 12. In other words, these other potentialities of marriage being sought by various modern churchmen and worldlings are not present in the Blood flowing from the side of Christ. It is was not shed for these types of unions. They are not possible in this BLOOD. These are lifeless propositions and, once again, promise only to keep anyone supporting them from entering the Promised Land! 13. Moses could only enter the Promised Land over a 1000 years later when Our most merciful Lord brought him to Mt. Tabor to discuss the blood letting He, the Son of God, was soon to endure on Calvary and for what purposes His Blood was to be shed possibilities it offered. Surely they reflected upon the true marriage contained in that Blood! How It alone, shed from the foundation of the world (Apoc. 13:8), makes true marriage possible marriages that mirror His indissoluble bond of love for His Mystical Bride! 14. Not accepting the whole for which this Blood was poured out, is to seek another beginning to seek another Christ to strike at the rock again! It is an attempt to introduce a dualism in the Church as Pope Boniface VIII pointed in Unam Sanctam! Paraphrasing his profound words, whoever resists this truth thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1] that God created male and female, man and woman, Adam and Eve. 15. Thus, we are forced to conclude: to give this Precious Blood in Holy Communion to an adulterer to anyone in a perverted union, is to attack
the very foundation of the world to attack the Beginning to cut at the intimate bond of Christ and His Bride. It is to take sides with the demons in their primordial battle in the heavens. To give officially, that is, with Church approval, participants in these unlawful marriages and unions, Holy Communion is satanic. 16. Consider this most sobering prophecy that seems to touch on this very matter: On Christmas, 1816 the mystic Blessed Elizabeth Canori Mora saw Our Lady, who appeared extremely sad. Upon inquiring why, Our Lady answered, Behold, my daughter, such great ungodliness. Blessed Elizabeth then saw apostates brazenly trying to rip her most holy Son from her arms [they wanted a different beginning a different marriage between God and man than that which was given through the Virgin s most pure blood]. Confronted with such an outrage, the Mother of God ceased to ask mercy for the world, and instead requested justice from the Eternal Father. Clothed in His inexorable Justice and full of indignation, he turned to the world. At that moment all nature went into convulsions, the world lost its normal order and was filled with the most terrible calamity imaginable. This will be something so deplorable and atrocious that it will reduce the world to the ultimate depths of desolation (as quoted in A Century Before Fatima, Providence Announced a Chastisement, TFP.org, 10 April 2007). 17. St. Augustine: The Blood of Christ is salvation for him who desires IT, punishment to him who does not (Matins for Precious Blood, Lesson ix). They want different bloods but we cannot be a child of God through any other bloods as we read in last Gospel at Mass (qui non ex sanquinibus). Only through this WORD made flesh can we become sons of God. 18. O, Lord, mark us with Thy Most Precious Blood so that this destroying angel will pass us by. Sacred Heart of Jesus, head waters of the Precious Blood, be our salvation! Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, Holy Marriage, as it was IN THE BEGINNING, is now, and ever shall be, the Mystical Bond of Christ and His Church without end. Amen.