Dear friends in Christ
July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus; in the Roman Calendar July 1st was kept as this feast. Westminster Cathedral is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood and within the interior there are various allusions to this dedication, such as the use of the red marble. The Blood of Jesus which was shed in His Passion, and flowed-down from the Cross, are reminders of the price of our Redemption. God could have taken away our sins in any way He chose, but He wished to pay in this way. As St John Henry Newman writes in his Meditations on the Way of the Cross: The Eternal Father determined not to pardon us without a price, in order to show us a special favour. He condescended to make us valuable to Him. What we buy we put a value on. He might have saved us without a price—by the mere ‘fiat’ of His will. But to show His love for us He took a price, which, if there was to be a price set upon us at all, if there was any ransom at all to be taken for the guilt of our sins, could be nothing short of the death of His Son in our nature. O my God and Father, Thou hast valued us so much as to pay the highest of all possible prices for our sinful souls—and shall we not love and choose Thee above all things as the one necessary and one only good? (Twelfth Station)
In Holy Communion we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This truth has been taught by the Church from the beginning and was expressed explicitly by the Council of Trent in 1551 in the thirteenth session cf http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch13.htm
At Mass we adore Jesus as present as truly as He was during His earthly life, with all the merits of the Passion being present, and as He lives gloriously now in Heaven. If there had been only one soul on earth in need of salvation, Jesus would have shed His blood for them. The fact that we all benefit from this act of His redemption in no way dilutes or lessens the infinite power of Christ’s Precious Blood. Many Catholics are in the habit of praying the Anima Christi as thanksgiving after Holy Communion; it is an excellent prayer and one which is the substance of the hymn, Soul of My Saviour:
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds hide me.
Permit me not to be separated from you.
From the wicked foe, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me
and bid me come to you
That with your saints I may praise you
For ever and ever. Amen.
Msgr Kevin Hale