July 14th Sanctification by the Precious Blood
The Precious Blood does more than wash
away the sins of men and restore them to friendship
with God. This is but the commencement
of its work of love and mercy. It has in it unlimited
power to carry them on to the heights of
sanctity, to engender in them every virtue, to implant
in their souls all the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
So we read in the Apocalypse that the Lamb of
God has not only washed us from our sins in
His own Blood, but also made us to be kings and
priests to God. Through the Precious Blood, then,
are bestowed on me not only cleanness from my
past sins, but graces to make me beautiful in the
sight of God.
How does the Precious Blood win these graces for us? It appeals to the love of God, and reminds Him that, as He has given us the surpassing gift of His own Son to be sacrificed for us. He must with Him also freely give us all things. In that one gift all else is contained, and we have a sort of claim to whatever we want from the hands of God. The Precious Blood of Christ also obtains our sanctification by the merits that it won for us. Each drop that was shed was enough, and more than enough, to purchase graces without limit or end. All the actions of our Lord had an infinite value by reason of His infinite dignity. How much more the shedding of that Blood, which, in itself, calls for the highest adoration, inasmuch as It was the Blood of God Himself, and He had communicated to It the glory of His Divinity by reason of the Hypostatic Union. |