Consecration of the Precious Blood
St. Thomas says that the formula of the consecration of the precious Blood expresses the mystery of our souls’ ransom and redemption better than does that of the Lord’s Body because the shedding of blood is truly what best expresses our Redemption. Here below, Our Lord’s sacrifice especially has for us the value of an immolation in reparation for sins, for His Blood flows in reparation for our sins. Undoubtedly, He is also rendering great glory and thanksgiving to His Father, but as regards us, it is especially the 8 aspect of reparation that is inscribed on the Cross. It is clear that our eyes can see the blood that flows from the pierced hands, heart, and feet and from the crown of thorns. The blood that flows from every part of Our Lord’s body signifies repar ation for sin; that is obvious.
Now this reparation must continue so that it can be applied to each of our souls, and this is what happens during the sacrifice of the Mass instituted by Our Lord. Hence the separate consecration of the Body and Blood: this double consecration of the Blood under the species of wine, and of the Body under the species of bread signifies the Lord’s death. The separation is a sign of the sacrifice, though in reality the Body and Blood of Our Lord, His Soul and Divinity, are present under both species because now Our Lord can no longer separate His Blood and His Body; He can no longer die. Thus it is a mystical separation, and this separation is willed by Our Lord. Our Lord willed that this separation occur. The separation is mystical, but the sacrifice is real. This sacrifice is the continuation of Our Lord’s sacrifice. Our Lord made the consecration of His Body and then of His Blood in order to signify His death for our sins, the fruits of which are abundantly bestowed on our souls.
The form of consecration of the Blood expresses the manner in which we participate in the Passion. The first words, “This is the chalice of My blood,” sig nify the conversion of wine into blood, and the words that follow designate the virtue of the Bloodshed in the Passion, the virtue which is at work in this Sacrament. This virtue makes us obtain the eternal heritage. According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we “hav[e]...a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ” (10:19), and to designate that, it is said “of the new and eternal testament.” Henceforth, there is an eternal testament. By the blood of Christ we participate in an eternal testament, a testament that shall extend to heaven.
What does this Blood signify? It was not simply to shed blood that Our Lord came on earth. It was because this Blood is char ity. The Holy Ghost made the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ flow; it is His love. It is the sign of His charity for us. That is what Our Lord’s Blood is; the effusion of Blood signifies that Our Lord pours forth His love in us, His Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit leads us to God, it inclines us to do our duty, to keep the law of God, which is nothing else than the law of charity, a law of love: love God, love your neighbor–that is our law. The Blood of God is nothing other than a source of love.
It is also the sign of penance, the sign of sacrifice. Hence forth, God wanted it so, we can no longer love without self-sacrifice. Indeed, to love, we must efface ourselves, forget ourselves. So long as we still love ourselves with a disordered love, so long as we still seek ourselves, charity is not in us; we are full of egoism, we seek only our selves, our own advantages, our own self-love, and our own pleasure. That is what St. Paul tells us: “Charity seeketh not her own, is patient, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things” (I Cor. 13:4-7). This is what charity is; this is what Our Lord’s Blood gives us, signifies for us, and produces in us.
Excerpt from the Mass of All Time
Reading Suggestion:
The Summa of Archbishop Lefebvre.
Covers the origins of liberalism, the subversion of orthodoxy by Vatican II, the decline of the missionary spirit by dialogue, the bad fruits of post-Conciliar reforms, and his vision of res toration. Most importantly, the Archbishop explains how the revolutionaries in the Church managed to dethrone Christ the King, both ecclesiastically and temporally.
264 pp. Softcover.
ISBN 935952055
SEASONS & liturgy
by Father William MacGillivray