Blood that speaks eloquently

Hebrews 12:18-19,21-24; Psalm 48 O GOd, we ponder your mercy within your temple; Mark 6:7-13

What beautiful readings today to get us moving in the right direction.

St. Paul in the letter to Hebrews expounds on the the reality of Christ as the new theophany of God. Unlike in the Old Testament in the ancient days when God would appear in a frightening form of light and thunder as a darkness enveloped a mountain, God appears in a different way,a more perfect manifestation has come in the person of JEsus Christ.

No longer in dense cloud of fear but now in the warmth embrace of arms outstretched for all.

In Christ, in this new manifestation of the presence of God we now have access to "mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of ABel."


There it is! What beauty!

All of that has been made accessible to all of us through the simple and yet profound encounter of Christ in the world. His simple yes to the Father for our sake and for the sake of Love.

Why did Jesus say yes to the cross? Because he did not want nor could he betray love.

The psalmist portrays the most perfect sentiment as we stare into the heavenly reality opened to us through Christ. As we glimpse a piece of eternity, what is our response but , "'O God we ponder your mercy within your temple!"

"As we have heard so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, In the city of God; God makes it firm forever."

It is for all of this, that Jesus gathers the disciples and sends them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick-no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They could wear sandals but not a second tunic.

The only thing they carried with them was the authority over unclean spirits.

No material things could ever substitute for that authority.

But how far have we fallen today. We have lost sight of the gift for the sake of the many things we fill our life with. We substitute all that stuff and have forgotten the one thing that we carry with us in faith that matters most, the presence of Jesus empowering us to cast out unclean spirits.

Today we should rediscover the spirit of detachments to things, rediscover the virtue of poverty, where we depend on God more and less on stuff that fills our cabinets and keeps us weighed down.

We let stuff clutter and the blood of JEsus that speaks eloquently can no longer be heard through us as we journey forth unto the unknown. True poverty is about making sure that what is heard is the blood that has been shed, a blood that speaks of God's plan, God's justice. Where Abel's blood cried for vengeance and justice, Jesus' blood does not cry for vengeance or justice but reveals it, proclaims it, offers it anew to all.

This blood speaks eloquently of God' sjustice that has been revealed in his mercy! For God Mercy and Justice embrace in Christ.