Thursday, July 18, 2019

15th Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, 19-07-19

Exodus 11:10 -12:14 / Matthew 12:1-8

The sight of blood is never a pleasant sight. Whether the blood is in the tube as when it is collected for testing or in a translucent packet as for blood transfusion, the sight of blood can be quite squirmish for some people.

More so when blood is being splattered when an animal is slaughtered, or when there is a serious accident and the blood is oozing out from the victims, it can be quite a terrible sight.

In the biblical sense, blood is not just a fluid that is contained in the body of a human being or an animal.

It is a sign of life from God. When Abel was killed by Cain, his blood cried out to God (Genesis 4:10)

In the 1st reading, the blood of the lamb that was slaughtered by each household on that first Passover in Egypt was to be smeared on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten.

Because that night, the Lord will go through the land of Egypt and strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike, and deal out punishment to all the gods of Egypt.

But the blood of the lamb shall serve to  mark the houses that the Israelites live in, and when the Lord sees the blood, the Lord will pass over them and they shall escape the destroying plague that the Lord will strike the land of Egypt.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood on the Cross to save us.

At every Mass, the blood of Jesus marks us with salvation and washes away our sins.

Let us meditate deeply on the Cross, and may the blood that Jesus shed to save us always remind us of the new life that we have in Him.