}}}}-- Fr. Conrad Saldanha
A mother
once shared with me about the changed behavior pattern of her son after his
marriage. She said that he has married a woman who has great love for wealth,
money, rich living and who has managed to keep him under her thumb and control.
This has resulted in a changed behavior pattern in him whereby he now lets out
his frustration and anger on his parents.
One
practical angle of the consequence of sin which we normally avoid in our
deliberations is this; the so called weak in society can be more seductive
instruments of sin if their weaknesses are not in submission to God’s saving
action.
The weak
woman can be more dangerous in manipulating the strength of the strong man to
her advantage and cause further unrest in society. As in the first instance
at Genesis so also it is now.
In a family
where kids grow together, the smallest can manipulate the parents in various
ways, for eg. influencing the parent in punishing the elder child. The fruit of
such subtle common and everyday action steeped in self preservation and
survival, which we may sometimes call the politics of daily life, is that it
results in making a scapegoat of the more upright.
What would
happen if there was no law and order and it was a free for all society? We
would be no different from the savages and the barbarians. Perhaps still worse
without religions which inculcated the element of fear in people!
Jesus
changed the rules of the game totally. In him we see what humans are capable of
in their sinful manipulative behavior. The most innocent man in human
history has been condemned to death. Will it be any different if he would come
again, after having learnt the lesson from our ancestors and from the
Bible? No, a majority would still do it. An innocent threatens and intimidates
us more than a criminal and a manipulator. Dealing with a weak brings out the
best from our criminal store house than when dealing with the strong. Just a reflection
on the unharmed aborted babies is a visible proof of the criminal behavior of
the civilized humanity. An honest and simple man is much more a threat than a
dishonest man and if there was no law then we would even eat them raw.
Blood for blood was the Old Testament
law: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. It only leaves room for dishonest lies
and manipulation for survival with twists and turns. Yet that was the best till
a more sure faith was revealed in Christ Jesus.
In the
death and suffering of the most truthful man in the history of the human race
we see the consequences of degradation of humanity due to sin. We may come up
with pleasant theories and sit in judgment even over God. How can God demand
blood if he is a loving God? Yet, He doesn’t require blood for his sake; he
requires it for our sake. So that by the blood that we shed by our sinful
manipulative and selfish action, we who deserve death by his justice, may now
be atoned for and receive his mercy. So that, especially the weak, poor and
outcast, who seeks his salvation, may find it.
Jesus is
God’s permanent and once and for all solution for the human race heading
towards the omega point of disintegration and death.
It is as if
God saying: “I need to see the blood of my Son in order that I may have mercy
on the human race who sin against me and one another. Christ is the mediator
between God and man, who entered God’s presence on behalf of humanity by his
own blood so that he could plead for us before his Father in heaven for mercy
and forgiveness. The Father seeks to reach out to us in love exactly in the sinful
situation in which we are. When we see him coming and respond to his saving
help then can we have life through the redemptive action of Christ’s blood shed
for us.
As for men,
it is poured out for many as a sin offering. It becomes a reminder and
atonement for our sins. Take and drink and take and eat are indication that we
are the ones who are the actual beneficiaries, even if we don’t understand the
full significance of what Christ has done for us. So at every Eucharist we
partake of the cup and eat the flesh. This Eating and Drinking is also a
participation in the life of Christ and the Trinitarian life of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
“For the
life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev 17:11, 14) One significant element of
the offering of the blood was atonement and this atonement warded off death and
curse and evil and restored life. “..for it is the blood that makes atonement,
by reason of the life.” (Lev 17:11)
Thus the
price that Scripture talks about and which Jesus paid was not to the Devil but rather
a price that he had to pay in fulfilling the Father’s will which included his
plan to save us. It could also be put as
the price that Jesus paid in order to redeem us. It is more an expression of a figure of
speech that communicates the extent to which Jesus sacrificed and offered
himself in order to save us. The Devil gains nothing whereas it is all to the
advantage of “the humanity” who believes and accepts God’s offer of Salvation.
This is why Jesus sent his disciples to the ends of the earth, so all those who
believe in Him may not perish but may be the recipient of God’s mercy through
the great outpouring of His precious blood.
This great
offering of the blood gives us life and life in abundance. (Jn. 10:10) It was
life that we required to overcome our weakness to sin and the fear of death. So
too we needed a sure hope of life not only after death, but even here on earth.
Jesus did it for us by making us participants in the Sacred Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity; the very life of God, which is eternal.
It is easy
for the devil to live on dead creatures i.e. creatures separated from God by
virtue of their resistance to accept his salvation. The devil can thus deceive
and prod them who lack the will to resist in order to cause them to further
rebel and sin. But he who has the life of God has the same power over sin and
wrong doing as Jesus. This process is gradual and works best when we cooperate
with his grace.
This can be
best explained through the allegory of the sick body which is captured by the
sin of germs and bacteria’s. The Doctor does not give the medicine to placate
the infection and germs. On the other hand he could kill the germs by giving
them an appropriate dose of antibiotics. Another way a wise doctor can deal
with it, is to work out a programme of removing the deeper causes and
underlying causes which normally has to do with the mental and dietary regimen
and thus build the immune system of the patient which in turn takes over to
push infection out of the system. Similarly,
Christ has strengthened us and does that at every Eucharistic banquet with his
Body and Blood so that the hold the evil one has over us is reduced and
vanquished. Unfortunately, many of
us do not realize the full significance of Christ’ action in the Eucharist and
hence fail to avail of the full benefit of this elixir of life.
The devil
reaps where he does not sow and reaps on the life which God has provided the
human race. Satan and the army of evil angels sought the blood of Jesus too and
were instrumental according to the will and plan of God in the Crucifixion.
They through the hands of wicked men crucified Jesus who laid down his life
according to his own free will.
Was the
blood offered to Satan and did he get it, though he sought it in keeping with
his blood thirsty nature? No, what Satan sowed and labored for he couldn’t reap,
he is a cursed being equally in the fray. His gain became a curse for him. He
would not even dare to see the most precious blood of Jesus that hangs like a
curse or a noose for him. Satan flees at the very sight and the naming of
the precious blood of Jesus. It makes him tremble and shake the moment the
most sacred blood of Jesus is proclaimed.
Therefore,
the Devil is not appeased by Jesus in any way but Jesus by offering his Body
and blood, the perfect nourishment to those who receive him in a worthy manner,
has strengthened us in every way. Jesus keeps doing it at every Eucharistic
meal with the Word, Sacrament and the believing church in the power and
manifestations of the Holy Spirit. This
is the very life of God which we have and which we walk in and made possible by
Jesus by ransoming us by his blood.
The real
beneficiaries are we who believe and accept this plan of God’s salvation. The blood of Christ then becomes a sanctifying
instrument through the forgiveness of sin.
Just as the body in an infection has the capacity to fight and overthrow
the infection through proper palliative care likewise the redemptive action of
Christ Jesus becomes a constant strength for the soul to overcome the
temptation and vile of the evil one. We are fortified at every Eucharist to go
out in his name and be victorious if only we know and receive his redemptive
action in a worthy manner.
Those in the ministry of deliverance and
those who often find themselves in great oppression can now hope for a greater
fruit by seeking to avail of the power unleashed by the blood of Jesus on the
cross.
Prayer: Lord, cover me with your precious blood, so
that I may always be under your watchful and protective eye and that your angel
of life, seeing this seal of protection, ward off every evil force that strives
against your plan for me.
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