Vigils Reading – Easter Wednesday

From the Catechesis of

ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

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If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to

the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a Lamb without

blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were

to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could

possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving

power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s

blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he

did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he

sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of

believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it

came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The

gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier

came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water

and blood. Now the water was a symbol of Baptism and the blood, of the holy

Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred

temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the

lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over

this mystery without thought, it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will

explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized Baptism and the holy

Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from Baptism, “the

cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and

from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist flowed9

from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had

fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the

story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh

from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so

Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God

took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us

the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and

what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought

into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood

and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom

he himself has given life.