Today is a grace filled day. Not only do we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but the month of July also is the month dedicated to His Most Precious Blood. As I reflected on what this means to some extent, for I will never be able to wrap my earth~bound mind around it completely, I began to see the deep connection between these two feasts. The precious blood of Christ that spilled from His own human, Sacred Heart~all I can see in that is His profound love for each of us.
This thought was made even clearer and became more humbling when I read a transcript of a conference given by Fr. John Hardon. In his opening remarks, he explains what Christ being the Lamb of God means for us, that because Jesus was God and without sin, the only way He was capable of dying was to be slain; He would not otherwise have died a mortal death because He was sinless! I am not sure this is something we often realize or reflect on, at least I haven't until reading Father's words.
Today is also the First Friday of the month (more grace!)which is part of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. As we celebrate today's feasts with grateful and joyful hearts, let us also perhaps meditate on Jesus' Passion and Death~the Lamb of God who was slain not because of His sin, for He was sinless, but ours. During His Passion and Death He shed every last drop of His Precious Blood from His Sacred Heart for love of you and me.
Here is a brief excerpt from Father Hardon's conference:
Is Jesus as the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God not only because He sacrificed Himself, He is the Lamb of God because He continues sacrificing sacred heart precious bloodHimself in an unbloody way in every Mass He offers. And while His sacrifice is completed, ours must go on...Having said that, Father Gerald identifies the second primary foundation for the imitation of Christ as the Precious Blood of Jesus. The moment we say that Christ is the Lamb of God and explain that the Lamb of God was slain for our redemption, having further recognized and this is crucial - we further recognize that Christ, though Man, would not have died naturally because, unlike us, He was not a sinner. His death had to be inflicted outside of Himself. In a word, the Lamb of God - watch the verb - had to be slain in order to die. Moreover, Christ being the sinless Lamb of God, having no sin on His soul which would have deserved death, his mortal Body, mortal because He wanted it to be mortal, could only die by the Blood separating from that Body. Christ's Body was deprived of its Soul when the Blood left the Body. All of this, therefore, is locked up in realizing that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who by shedding His Blood, redeemed the world.
Karin,
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect post for the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. That it is the month devoted to the Precious Blood also And that it's a First Friday makes this feast day very special. How perfectly lined up!!
Do you know that it never crossed my mind about Jesus not dying unless He was slain? It makes sense - He didn't have a fallen nature like us. I found Father's words fascinating!
A strange thing happened to me this morning. I was driving over to give a young woman a bag of food, she's homeless with a 3-year-old but stays in a shelter most of the time and I found a "Holy Card" on the floor of my car. It had a picture of the Immaculate Heart on it and had a prayer on the inside. The part that gave me chills was that when I read the back of the card it had been made by a Community of the Sacred Heart that helps homeless women and children. Weirder still is the fact that I had never seen this card in my car before! True story! I had written about her in my post on the homeless the other day and had been praying for her and trying to think of ways to help her. Anyway, I stuck the card and a pair of Rosary beads in the bag with the food. For me, this was definitely one of those God-incidences.
Thanks for the great post, Karin, and may Our Lord bless you in a special way on this day :)
Mary,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing story about the prayer card. God-incidence-definitely, and His angels hard at work.I also think that the rosaries with the prayer card in the bag of food gives a whole new meaning to "comfort food" :) I will keep this woman and her little one in my prayers.
Many blessings and graces to you as well on this awesome day of feasts dedicated to Our Lord.
Karinann, I read your post and it inspired me to skip the Quick Takes idea and continue on with more reflection on the Sacred Heart and Precious Blood of the Lamb of God!
ReplyDeleteMary, I absolutely love your God-incidence . . . it is miraculous and wonderful. I am going to hold onto this and retell it to my children on the way to the waterpark now.