God’s Friday is a remarkable day to deeply ponder the fact of Jesus death on the cross and his shedding his blood for us. Christians believe that what is called Good Friday is the day of our salvation. The Byzantine tradition calls it \u201cHoly and Great Friday,\u201d but \u201cGood\u201d Friday is an appropriate name for it. It is a day of sorrow, however, and it is a holy day.<\/p>\n
For, despite the pain and suffering of our Lord, this sacrifice was \u201cgood\u201d for the salvation of all. There are many layers of meaning to this feast.<\/p>\n
As Fr. David Petras reminds: “Jesus replaces the Passover Lamb, he becomes our food and drink. He establishes a spiritual kingdom as we are united in the one body of our Lord, and in the sacrifice of his blood. This is the fulfillment of all sacrifices, whose purpose is to unite God and us mortals, and to unite us to one another.”<\/p>\n
From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
\nThe power of Christ’s blood<\/p>\n
If we wish to understand the power of Christ\u2019s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. \u201cSacrifice a lamb without blemish,\u201d commanded Moses, \u201cand sprinkle its blood on your doors.\u201d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere flowed from his side water and blood.\u201d 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, \u201cthe cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,\u201d 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: \u201cBone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!\u201d As God then took a rib from Adam\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
God’s Friday is a remarkable day to deeply ponder the fact of Jesus death on the cross and his shedding his blood for us. Christians believe that what is called Good Friday is the day of our salvation. The Byzantine tradition calls it \u201cHoly and Great Friday,\u201d but \u201cGood\u201d Friday is an appropriate name for … Continue reading The power of Christ’s blood<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[2029],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37089,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37084\/revisions\/37089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}