Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered this homily on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ June 2.
One of the pro-life activities accepted by almost everyone is that of donating blood. Since my blood type is the universal donor for plasma, I gave five gallons of plasma, donating plasma once a month for years, until I was rejected for visiting too many foreign countries.
I regret not being able to donate because the gift of blood is the gift of life and it is a way of expressing gratitude to God for the good health he has given me, while at the same time being a good steward of this gift for the benefit of others who need blood or plasma.
Though giving blood is not fun — the needle stings — it is good that we are not paid for donating, which would cheapen the whole event. You and I are not for sale, but we give of ourselves gladly.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and today I would like to speak about Jesus’ gift to us of his precious blood in the Eucharist. We think of blood as just one very important component in a living body, but to the biblical mentality the blood was itself alive and was what gave life to the body. Indeed, spilled blood remained alive even after the person had died.
After Cain killed Abel, God said that Abel’s still-living blood cried out from the ground for vengeance. That is why kosher rules forbid eating anything with blood in it — no blood sausage!
Blood is life and life belongs to God. The blood of the Old Covenant, which Moses sprinkled on the people at Mt. Sinai, established a living and irrevocable bond between the people and God, a still-living blood covenant that extends to all subsequent generations since every Jewish child is born in the blood of a mother who shares in this bond, extending back through an unbroken chain of mothers all the way back to those who were present when the Old Covenant was first established in blood.
At the Last Supper Jesus has this understanding of blood as life when he establishes the New Covenant in his blood. In drinking his blood, we become blood brothers and sisters of Jesus — and consequently, also of each other — bound to him and each other deeply, Jesus’ very life now flowing in our veins.
Like with Abel, this blood remains alive even after the death of Jesus’ body. And regardless of our parentage or genetic makeup, we become one family in Jesus because we have the same blood flowing in our veins. And since Jesus is divine as well as human, his blood is divine — immortal — which is why the Eucharist is the sacrament of eternal life.
Abel’s blood lived for awhile after his body died, but since Jesus’ blood is divine, the life it contains — and in which we share through the Eucharist — will never die.
Some people are givers and some are takers. Many people are not eligible to give blood and they give life in other ways. But there are also other people — even some who are pro-life in other respects — who are in good health and could donate blood, but don’t because it’s a hassle or even “because there’s nothing in it for me.” Yet you can be sure that they will not hesitate to receive a transfusion if their own life depends on it.
In a few minutes you and I will receive the precious blood of Jesus, who unites us with himself and each other, thereby establishing a living bond among us, Jesus’ very life flowing in our veins. Jesus was the greatest giver of all; he gave himself completely for us and for all. Let us thank the Lord for his many blessings, and filled with his life, let us pray that in imitation of Jesus and united with him, we too may become persons who give of ourselves for others, to the greater glory of God. Jesus gives us his precious blood, his very life; he wants our life in return.
