I’m gonna start this post with a bit of a Holy Week spiel – and I know it isn’t the season, but bear with me.
As you may know, Holy Week and the Easter Triduum is the culminative celebration of Catholic faith. We remember the whole point of God’s incarnation: his death and resurrection. Now, over the last several years, the significance of the crowd’s responses during readings of Christ’s Passion has not been lost on me. My heart is touched and my mind is driven to ponder the things I have done that compelled our Lord to give His life for me. When I turn away from God, I deny His kingship over me, saying “we have no king but Caesar”. My sins cause me to demand Christ’s crucifixion and clamour for Barabbas to be released.
This month of the Precious Blood of Christ, I want to draw your attention to one particular response, found in Matthew 27. Pilate has just washed his hands of Jesus’ death sentence, and the crowd basically doubles down on their accusations by responding with the words “His blood be on us and on our children!” And every Holy Week, we Catholics say these very words, on Passion Sunday and Good Friday.
When we call for Christ’s blood to be on us and our children, we do two things:
- We take responsibility for Christ’s crucifixion and death (these words were often used in Hebrew culture to express just as much, with several examples in the Old Testament, including Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ezekiel, and even in the New Testament Book of the Acts of the Apostles). When we take responsibility for this, we are allowing the consequences of this, whatever they may be, to befall us and future generations. This is something I find so interesting, because in our sinful state, we condemn Christ to be crucified, and yet we are simultaneously asking for our Lord to pay the price of our sin and reconcile us to the Father through the very same action by which He is condemned. I have always said God has a thing for paradoxes and this is just another example of that!
- At the same time that we accept the consequences for the Lord’s death, we also ask for His blood to cover us and our children. When we look at the parallels between Jesus, the Lamb of God, to the description of the sacrifice of the lamb required to save the Israelites from the angel of death in Exodus, the power of Christ’s blood becomes evident – it is through His death that we can be spared from death. In His blood, we are washed clean. God sees no cause for our spiritual death as we are made perfect in Christ.
What was once a cry of political scheming, a cry that seemed on the surface to be hateful and vindictive, has become a cry of hope, a cry for mercy and for salvation.
His blood be on us and on our children.
Let the fruits of His death be on us and on our children. Let His sacrifice allow us to come to the Father. Let us be covered in His precious blood that we may be saved.
Through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, may we and our children be saved.
What thoughts come to you when you hear (and say) these words out loud? What kind of feelings arise for you? Let’s keep the discussion going in the comments!
Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!
Mom Things Through Christ 