Message from Augie

We distance ourselves from The Blood of Christ in the Eucharist in various ways, intentional or not.  Yet to drink the cup Christ drank is central to our faith.

       “Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on people?   OMG!  Peoples faces  grimaced with disgust.   When teaching religious education, the splashing of blood and slaughter of heifers and goats, for ninth graders to comprehend was just not acceptable.

         We talk about “the bread” on this feast day.  But, what about the blood?

The Hebrews sacrificed an animal for its blood.  Blood was life.  Life was from God.  Sprinkling with blood was to purify, to set things right and to atone for sin.  To sin meant to throw things out of kilter, to break a relationship, to miss the mark of what we should be or do, to sever a bond.  So the blood was for cleaning  things up.  But why did they need to do that?

At  the core of Jewish theology is the “BIGNESS” of God.  God is untouchable.  God is inaccessible.  The God who is holy is so pure that sin cannot even be looked upon.  We who are sinful, therefore, have no Access to the Almighty.  The atonement of blood made things right again when people messed up and strayed.  Think of the psalms:  “Create in me a clean  heart, O God.”

The reading from Hebrews also talks about this cleansing of blood.  But goat and bull blood are temporary.  Jesus shed his own blood so that we would be made clean eternally.   Clean so that we could draw near to God.  He said , ”This is my blood,”  then took a cup.  And they all drank  from it.  Did they, like my CCD students maybe think twice before drinking?

SO THE QUESTION:    WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR WORLD VIEW IF WE GROW BLASÉ ABOUT THE “BIGNESS” OF GOD?