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year. The more perfect tabernacle to which the author refers is the
heavenly realm, which is not made by human hands. By means of this
passing through, the perfect high priest Jesus cleanses us from sin,
offering us eternal redemption, which enables us to worship the
living God.
Because blood carried the life principal of a being (human or
animal), blood was to be avoided at all costs. The high priest of
Judaism offered the blood of bulls and goats in the sanctuary. In
contrast,
Christ offered his own blood once for all, thereby entering
into the true sanctuary of Gods own holiness. We note that Christs
redemption cleanses our consciences from dead works to worship the
living God. This means the one who believes that he/she is redeemed
from sin by Christ forever after possesses a clear conscience and no
longer has to worry about doing this or that to make up for sins. Christ
did that once for all by shedding his blood. This becomes a central
focus therefore of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Catholic who scurries away from the cup because it
represents some new thing into the Mass misses altogether the
reason the precious blood of Christ was restored to the Eucharist. It
was done not only to present a fuller symbol of the sacrament of the
Body and Blood of Christ, but to impress upon us all, the nature of our
belief in Christs redemption. Pity the poor folks who refuse to
acknowledge this as they hurry by the cup without at least pausing to
acknowledge that the cup contains the very means of our redemption.
Fr. Lawrence Hummer