With the month of July, we enter the heart of this summer of 2021, in which there is a desire for rebirth and freedom; we feel the need to “breathe again” after such a difficult year!
In this time of well-deserved rest and recreation, let us not forget, however, to raise our eyes to heaven, to offer our thanks each day to the Lord of life, setting aside some time for meditation and prayer.
Indeed, the Church opens this month with the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Christ, which reminds us of the love with which Jesus loved us, a love that led to the gift of his life: «This first day of July is consecrated by Christian devotion to meditation on the Blood of Christ, the price of our redemption, the pledge of salvation and eternal life. Great is the mystery of the Blood of Christ! The sign of “shed blood,” as an expression of life given in a bloody manner as a testimony to supreme love, is an act of divine condescension to our human condition. God chose the sign of blood because no other sign is so eloquent in indicating the total involvement of the person.
And there are many “good works” that meditation on Christ’s sacrifice inspires in us. Indeed, it urges us to give our lives for God and our brothers and sisters without holding back, as so many martyrs have done. How can we fail to recognize anew the value of every human being, when Christ shed his blood for each person, without distinction? Meditation on this mystery urges us, in particular, toward those who could be cared for in their moral and physical suffering but are instead left to languish on the margins of a society of affluence and indifference» (cf. Pope John Paul II, July 1, 2000).
And it is precisely in the footsteps of Christ’s blood, that is, the total gift of himself, that the saints we remember this month made their lives a masterpiece of self-giving to others and of love: Saint Camillus de Lellis (July 14) devoted himself to the sick; Saint Maria Goretti (July 6) bore witness through her life and forgiveness to her faithfulness to Jesus; Saint Veronica Giuliani (July 9) allowed herself to be consumed by love for Jesus, as did Saint Charbel (July 24), who lived in close contact with his Lord in seclusion.