The Life-Blood

I have had a trying bout with an old nemesis this week—anemia. It tends to pummel me in uncharacteristic ways—I sleep an awful lot, I can’t run, and I just drag through existence. If I weren’t already sold on the idea of naming my first-born child Ebenezer (even if it is a boy), I would most certainly call her Ferris, denoting the periodic abbreviation for iron, FE. I am now heartily convinced that my first-born will be named Ebenezer Ferris, an unduly stubborn-sounding name (“Stone-Iron”) to fit right in with the Cunningham (“hard-headed”) aspect of things.

Anyway, back to the life-blood. Life is in the blood. But after spending the afternoon in thoughtful discussion with Father Baker and FrancEs, I am left to ponder the more fundamental meaning of that statement besides the lessons of the past few days. Today on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Gospel of St. John pulls no punches in affirming that our life as Christians is in the blood, namely the Sacred Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And after the day’s discourse, I am left to contemplate what precisely is life-giving about that Sacred Blood, what will keep me from suffering from spiritual anemia.

Man is given life in the Creation narrative by a two-step process: first, he is formed in the image of God from the dust of the earth; second, he is given the likeness of God by having the breath of life breathed into him. It is only after this second step that man is a “living being.” The likeness of God, the breath that is breathed into the clay-man is the Holy Spirit, the Love-Person of the Holy Trinity—the love between the Father and the Son that is so real, so intense, so total, that it becomes the Third Person of the Trinity. It is the Holy Spirit in our life which actually gives us Life—hence, the Creed’s confession, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life…” I am firmly convinced that our ingesting the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ makes us targets of that likeness, that life-giving Spirit.

Better than any iron tablet, or dietary regimen, this single dose of Christ’s Divinity and Humanity allows the Holy Spirit, the Love of the Father and the Son, to sweep through us, invigorating us in to Life, animating us into Love. In the epiclesis of the Mass when the Holy Spirit is called down, the elements of a new Creation are made present—the image of God, Jesus Christ is moments from being manifest and in the meantime the congregation is slowly brought to life by the swirling, ethereal trail of the Spirit sweeping through, weaving together the many into One. Where Christ is, thereto is the Spirit; where the Image is, thereto is the Likeness; where the Son is, thereto is the Love; where the Sacred Body and Blood is, thereto is the Life.

It brings such profound implications to the utterance of St. Therese, “My vocation is love.” Our life is love—we are because God loves us. We live by that Grace, alone—the Love of God. Our lives are nothing more (nay, nothing less) than testament to the beatings of a Sacred Heart—a Heart which pumps the nutritive Blood of Life, of Love, to the Whole World.