The Roman Catholic Church, celebrated on July 1 is the Solemnity of the "Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ." This feast, celebrated in Spain in the 16th century, was later introduced to Italy by Saint Gaspar del Bufalo and extended to the whole Church by Pope Pius IX in 1849.
Meaning of the Feast Day
In Catholic belief, the Blood of Christ is precious because it is Christ's own great ransom paid for the redemption of mankind. As there was to be no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, Catholics hold that the "Incarnate Word" not only offered his life for the salvation of the world, but he offered to give up his life by a bloody death, and to hang bloodless, soulless and dead upon the Cross for the salvation of humanity. Jesus is said to have given his life - his blood - for the sake of all humanity, regardless of any religious division or difference in belief, atoning for every form of human sin. The Feast of the Precious Blood is a call to repentance and reparation.
The special reason underlying devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ is the fact that we were redeemed with the Precious Blood. The Precious Blood of Christ, shed unto the last drop during the Passion, is the price He paid for our salvation.
The Blood of Christ is true sacrificial Blood shed to ratify the New Covenant. As the Covenant on Mount Sinai was ratified by sprinkling the people with the blood of the Covenant (Ex. 24:8), so by the will of God and according to His Divine plan, the New Covenant required dedication by the blood of a victim, Jesus Christ. His Blood was far more excellent than the blood of sacrificial victims of the Old Covenant to cleanse and purify the tabernacle and its vessels. St. Paul says: "For Jesus has not entered into a Holy of Holies made by hands, a mere copy of the true, but into Heaven itself, to appear now before the Face of God on our behalf; ...once for all at the end of the ages, He has appeared for the destruction of sin by the Sacrifice of Himself... Christ was offered once to take away the sins of many." (Heb. 9:24-28)
Our Lord's words of Consecration over the chalice were: "Take ye all and drink of this; for this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the New and eternal Covenant, which shall be shed for you and for many, unto the remission of sins, in remembrance of Me."
The Precious Body and Blood of Christ is offered in the Mass as the Sacrifice of Christ's Mystical Body, a sacrifice in which each of us participates in virtue of our membership in His Mystical Body, the Holy Catholic Church. The Precious Body and Blood of Christ received in Holy Communion gives food, drink, refreshment and health to the life of the soul. The Lamb of God, slain for the sins of mankind, is the sacrifice and the banquet of the Christian soul, the very strength and inspiration for Christian living. Thus devotion to the Most Precious Blood encourages a greater love for the Mass.
This Blood of Christ is real drink (2), and, together with His Flesh, is food for our eternal life. () Jesus promised the Eucharist in these words: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has life everlasting and I will raise him up on the last day. For My Flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me and I in him." (John 6:54-57).
And St. Paul says, "For as often as you shall eat this Bread and drink the Chalice, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats this Bread or drinks the Chalice of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and the Blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of the Chalice; for he who eats and drinks unworthily, without distinguishing the Body, eats and drinks judgment to himself." (1 Cor. 11:26-30) "The Chalice of blessing that we bless, is it not the sharing of the Blood of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16)
The Effects of Christ's Blood
Devotion to the Most Precious Blood rests on basic truths of Christianity. Mankind's fall from supernatural life in the Garden of Eden; man's utter inability to reinstate himself in God's friendship and grace; Christ's superabundant satisfaction for the sins of all men through the shedding of His Most Precious Blood; mankind's opportunity of reunion with God, both in this life and particularly in the next, through the application of the merits of the Precious Blood to souls - such fundamental truths should be emphasized in our age when men tend to glory in their material successes, unmindful of their total dependence upon God.
In the New Testament, and especially in the Epistles of St. Paul, there are many effects ascribed to Christ's true and bloody sacrifice.
By or through His Blood we have the forgiveness of sins. "In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Eph. 1:7) "For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer sanctify the unclean unto the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the Blood of Christ, Who through the Holy Ghost offered Himself unblemished unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:13-14)
And St. John says, "And they overcame Him through the Blood of the Lamb and through the word of their witness, for they did not love their lives, even in the face of death." (Apoc. 12:11) "...the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7) "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." (Apoc. 7:14) "To Him Who has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and made us to be a kingdom, and priests to God His Father--to Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Apoc. 1:5-6)
By and through the Blood of Christ we have eternal redemption. "But when Christ appeared as High Priest of the good things to come, He entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands (that is, not of this creation), nor again by virtue of blood of goats and calves, but by virtue of His own Blood, into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb. 9:11-12). (While this redemption applies to all men without distinction, it must be remembered that all men do not thereby automatically attain salvation.)
We are justified and saved from the Divine wrath through the Blood of Christ. "Christ died for us. Much more now that we are justified by His Blood shall we be saved through Him from the wrath. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." (Rom. 5:9-10) (Here it is important to recall that salvation applies only to those men who cooperate with the graces of Christ's redemption, by living according to His teachings, and thus saving their souls.)
The Church was purchased by the Blood of the Savior. "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock in which the Holy Ghost has placed you as Bishops, to rule the Church of God, which He has purchased with His own Blood." (Acts 20:28)
People are sanctified through the Blood of Christ. "And so Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His Blood suffered outside the gate." (Hebr. 13:12) This sanctification refers, of course, to the constant growth in virtue which is the sure vocation of every true child of God: "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
By the Blood of the Cross of Christ reconciliation and peace were effected with the Father. "For it has pleased God the Father that in Him all His fullness should dwell, and that through Him He should reconcile to Himself all things, whether on the earth or in the heavens, making peace through the Blood of His Cross." (Col. 1:19-20)
In the Blood of Jesus we are incorporated in Christ by membership in His Church. "But now in Christ Jesus you, who were once afar off, have been brought near through the Blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13)
