St. John Chryostom on Good Friday
Here is a beautiful reflection from today's liturgy of the hours by St. John Chrysostom, explaining how Jesus' death on the Cross and the sacraments are connected.
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From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
The power of Christ's blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we
should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt.
“Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its
blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the
blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with
reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood
itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those
days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not
dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he
sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the
lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this
blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross,
flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was
dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side
with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the
water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The
soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred
temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with
the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved,
do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another
hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood
symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments
the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives
rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy
Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from
his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he
had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when
he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from
my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s
side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his
side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep
sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after
his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his
bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the
same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman
nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ
unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has
given life.