Precious Blood

Recently I had an experience at Mass that I thought would be valuable to share with you. But before I share the experience, I want to set the stage, at whose center is Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, our redeemer.

If you watched the movie, The Passion of the Christ, by Mel Gibson, you might remember the harsh portrayal of what Jesus may have suffered at the hands of the Romans in his final hours. It is difficult hard to wrap our heads around this image of Jesus, fully human, fully divine, sinless, “led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7) suffering for us. Some have challenged that others throughout humanity have suffered more gruesome, more torturous, longer ordeals and deaths. And yet, this suffering, Jesus’ passion, was deemed the perfect suffering for our redemption.

Regarding the immensity of Jesus’ suffering, I share these thoughts (click to read more).

In the Mass, we celebrate the sacrifice of Christ. It is made present to us every time Mass is offered. We are brought into the reality of the passion in those moments. The body and the blood of Christ are the reality of Christ glorified, precious beyond our comprehension. If we truly understood, we would beg to stay longer and crave to return as if our life depended on it, and it does, truly.

© Lamps-A-Glow, Inc.

I am a cantor and am blessed to be in fairly close proximity to the altar. Generally standing slightly behind the altar itself, I get a closeup view of the consecration every time I serve. Sometimes it takes my breath away. On one particular occasion, the Eucharistic ministers and I had taken our places behind the altar to receive the Eucharist. We received the Body of Christ. As the deacon was distributing the precious blood, just to my right, the chalice slipped and began a freefall toward the floor. Miraculously, the deacon was able to catch the chalice before it hit the floor but not without much of the precious blood splashing across the floor tile of the sanctuary space, splattering even my shoes and my legs.

The world froze. The deacon took one purificator, then another, and another to cover the spilled precious blood. There was too much. Our priest removed his chasuble and laid it across the precious blood. Communion was distributed and the Mass brought to a close. I am not sure if the congregation was even aware or how long the pause was.

After the priest processed out, we began to collect the precious blood, eucharistic ministers, the deacon, and then later the priest on hands and knees, wiping the precious blood off the floor with purificators and blessed water. An observer remarked that the scene was reminiscent of the scourging of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s passion movie.

Mary wipes up Jesus’ blood.

After the scourging of Jesus, Mary comes on the scene with cloth, presumably to comfort her son with clean garments. Distraught at the sight of Jesus’ blood spilled all over the area of the scourging, she uses the cloth to soak it up, to collect what she can, to regard it with the dignity he and it so deserved.

I hope that we treated the precious blood that spilled at that Mass with the same dignity. It may not have been the same gruesome picture of the sacrifice those 2025 years ago. Nevertheless, his blood was spilt then and was spilt at this Mass, as it is at every Mass offered throughout the world and throughout the church. I think about this experience often. It brings me to tears, not of sadness nor joy, rather of the gravity of what we are privileged to take part in every time we attend Mass.

It is difficult to express in words. I hope this resonates with you at some level either now or at some time in the future, and that your love of the Eucharist is fortified..

Bernadette Harmon  2025-09