A Retired Rector's Reflections

While working as the senior prison chaplain in a maximum security prison I overheard a prisoner ask an evangelical visitor to the prison chapel if she was a Christian. ‘Yes,’ came the reply, ‘born again, Spirit filled and washed in the Blood.’ Curious (as indeed was I), the prisoner asked ‘How do you get washed in the Blood?’ I decided to overcome my curiosity and stepped out of hearing range, but reflected on how that phrase ‘washed in the blood’ was singularly uncomfortable in that setting.

July is in Catholic tradition the Month of the Precious Blood. A devotion that has usually passed me by. This month, though, I have been giving it a little more thought, partly as I hold the phrase in my mind and see horrific images from Gaza, and remember the terrible images of the Hamas attack of October 7th 2023.

We say ‘blood is thicker than water,’ and talk of ‘life blood,’ and ‘blood lines.’ We know from the study of genetics that many characteristics of our blood are inherited genetically. Our blood groups have a Mendelian pattern , that is they are inherited by a single gene. Blood is an essential of human life, and something we share with our fellow human beings, and so, of course, with saints and indeed with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Last month, June, the month of the Sacred Heart I reflected on what, for me, is the beautiful image of the Sacred Heart beat beating through our universe. Combining the images of the Sacred Heart and the Precious Blood I am inspired at the thought of the precious blood of Our Lord, ‘The Blood of Christ,’ uniting us with himself and all the people of the earth, including indeed those fellow human beings whose blood is spilled violently. As the Sacred Heart beats though the whole of creation so, I believe the precious life blood of Christ, eternal divine love, flows over us and through creation. In that sense I believe we all are washed in the blood.

“Precious is the blood of Jesus, when to weary souls applied, fount of joy, of fullest blessings, none its healing are denied. Oh! The precious blood of Jesus.” (words from the 19th century hymn ‘The Precious Blood’ by J C Berkey)