Let's
All be an instrument of Peace!
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Everywhere
- In any condition
- At any time |
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A reading from the instructions
of St. John Chrysostom to catechumens
Do you wish
to know of the power of Christ's blood? Let us go back to the ancient
accounts of what took place in Egypt, where Christ's blood is foreshadowed.
Moses said:
'Sacrifice a lamb without blemish and smear the doors with its blood.'
What does this mean? Can the blood of a sheep without reason save man
who is endowed with reason? Yes, Moses replies, not because it is blood
but because it is a figure of the Lord's blood. So today if the devil
sees, not the blood of the figure smeared on the doorposts, but the blood
of the reality smeared on the lips of the faithful, which are the doors
of the temple of Christ, with all the more reason will he draw back.
Do you wish
to learn from another source the power of this blood? See where it begins
to flow, from what spring it flowed down from the cross, from the Master's
side. The gospel relates that when Christ had died and was still hanging
on the cross, the soldier approached him and pierced his side with the
spear, and at once there came out water and blood. The one was a symbol
of baptism, the other of the mysteries. That soldier, then, pierced his
side; he breached the wall of the holy temple, and I found the treasure
and acquired the wealth. Similarly with the lamb. The Jews slaughtered
it in sacrifice, and I gathered the fruit of that sacrifice - salvation.
[CONTINUES
ON PAGE 2]
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