The Church's Life Blood

Our lives depend upon the coursing of our blood through our bodies to supply our cells with oxygen. No blood flow, no life, that’s the way it is. And that’s Biblical, of course, as it is written, the life of every creature is its blood.

So it’s perfectly understandable to sanctified reason that the Blessed Sacrament should be at the very center of the Church’s worship and life. Or should I say, at the heart. The life blood of the Church is the Blood of Christ coursing through the veins of her members. It’s not merely for our meditation that we receive the Sacrament, though it is that much, for we ought to ponder these things in our hearts. But were it merely for pondering, then it might as well be a symbol, as the Calvinists foolishly believe.

Rather, it truly is the Blood of Christ that we receive at the altar, for His words are very clear, as Luther insisted.

And since this is so, it stands to sanctified reason that the Holy Sacrament actually sustains the Church, just as the blood in our natural veins sustains our bodies, apart from our thinking about it.

What we are free, then, to think about, is that our life is hid with God in Christ and in His sacred Blood even apart from and independently of the fact that we think about it. So sure is the salvation of the faithful! It does not depend on them at all; it only depends upon Christ and His Blood. And this is what faith believes.

And, we hasten to add, this is why we need the Sacrament every week, as every Sunday the Heart of the Church beats again.