Traditionally, the month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, but perhaps this spiritual dimension may seem distant from our daily lives and therefore, in some way, incomprehensible. It is not so: the spirituality of the Most Precious Blood touches, transforms, and enriches our lives. Let us discover why!
Let us begin with Jesus
The Blood of Christ was shed for everyone, for the liberation from and atonement for sins. Through his passion and death, Jesus himself took on all our sins and, in his Blood violently shed, revealed the nature of sin, the true face of evil: the attack on and injustice against humanity and therefore against God.
On the cross, Jesus passes through injustice to bring justice; he takes on the burden of sins to make love overflow, pursuing the logic of forgiveness.
The Blood shed by Jesus has given us his Spirit, which is Love, and in this Spirit we love him and one another. The certainty that we live by and in this Spirit enables us not to be afraid or become discouraged by the hardships of life: we have become children of God, and we truly are. This same source of spiritual life, besides giving us the enthusiasm to live, commits us to fighting evil, every form of alienation and oppression, acting with complete justice and love.
We live each day in Love
That is why the Blood of Christ is the center of human history and of our personal history; it is the source from which the Christian draws to live each day’s reality with enthusiasm, the ordinary daily life that is often hard and harsh. The enthusiasm comes from knowing and feeling that they are loved by God himself, loved unconditionally, to the point of giving his life.
The Blood of Christ urges us to act with seriousness and responsibility in the present, because it is here and now that our salvation is taking place.
Every person has a sacred value
The blood of Christ directs our gaze toward the humanity he loved and redeemed. At the thought that he gave his life for everyone and for each person, we are invited to rediscover the sacred value of every person. “In the family of God, where all are children of the same Father and, because grafted onto Christ, children in the Son, there are no ‘throwaway lives’. Everyone enjoys equal and inviolable dignity. Everyone is loved by God; everyone has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who died on the cross and rose again for each one. This is why we cannot remain indifferent to the fate of our brothers and sisters” (Pope Francis).
Loved immeasurably, let us love without counting the cost
Christ suffered for humanity, but he continues to suffer in humanity. This is the challenging message he left us in the Gospel, when he foretold that we would be judged on love and asked whether we had concretely been able to encounter and serve him in those who are hungry or thirsty, naked or sick or in prison (Mt 25:31-46).
A spirituality of the blood of Christ cannot fail to radiate into the realm of fraternity as well. More than ever, we need men and women who, in the name of Jesus, place themselves fully at the service of their brothers and sisters, with the audacity of a love that does not count the cost, ready to spend themselves in the gift of life!
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