Wise Blood

Seeking wise blood in believers and in the Eucharist

06/03/2018

Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Many years ago I read one of the most bizarre novels written by one of the most brilliant Catholic authors of the last century, Flannery O’Connor. The name of the novel was Wise Blood. The real meaning of the story, however, lies hidden, buried beneath layers and layers of symbolism, and I still don’t understand most of it. The basic plot revolves around a World War II veteran named Hazel Motes, who returns to his hometown in Tennessee to find his family homestead abandoned. His war experiences have embittered him to life and now he’s an avowed atheist. So much for the theory that “there are no atheists in foxholes”! As a matter of fact, Hazel begins a street ministry preaching anti-religion, trying to convince people religion is a sham and there is no God.

Hazel’s path, however, is continually crisscrossed by people with highly symbolic names that slowly help him to a spiritual awakening. The first character he meets is Enoch Emory, who teaches him about the notion of “wise blood,” meaning that Hazel’s own heart, which pumps his life blood, has a wisdom that doesn’t require religion or God (he’s talking about his conscience). You might remember Enoch was a patriarch mentioned in Genesis 5:24 who was taken to heaven before he died. Next a young fifteen year told girl comes into Hazel’s life named Sabbath Lily, whose name obviously evokes Sunday (Sabbath) and purity (Lily), and Hazel is irresistibly drawn to her like to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In a fit of rage, however, Hazel kills a competing street preacher, and feeling deep remorse and guilt, does penance by wrapping barbed wire around his body and blinding himself with quicklime. Finally, Hazel is saved from his anti-religion by a lady named Mrs. Flood, and dies in her arms, and her name is reminiscent of the ancient flood recorded in Genesis 9 that washed away sin and disbelief.

What does all this have to do with the title of the book Wise Blood? I have no idea! But here’s my best guess. Somehow, blood carries a certain wisdom, which is the knowledge and awareness of sin and the subsequent need for salvation. Maybe that’s why so many sins we commit infect the blood. Pope Benedict XVI insisted, “The organ for knowing God is the heart.”  Notice he didn’t say the organ for knowing God is the mind. The heart, in other words, is the throne of faith and a Christian heart is pumping the blood of a believer, the wisest of all blood.

I believe there is a kind of crimson cord that stretches from the beginning to the end of the Bible and that is blood. Blood builds a kind of bridge between sin and salvation: blood is shed in sin but blood is also shed when we are saved, as our three scripture readings attest. In Exodus 24 Moses sprinkles the people with the blood of sacrificed bulls, because they had worshipped bulls in Egypt. The bull’s blood was “wise blood” because it reminded them of their sin. The Letter to the Hebrews 9 says Jesus entered heaven “not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood.” The “wise blood” of Jesus gives us knowledge of eternal mysteries hidden in heaven. And at the Last Supper in the gospel of Mark, Jesus takes a cup of wine and pronounces “This is my Blood of the covenant” and commanded his apostles to partake of it. Why? So that they would have Jesus’ own “wise blood” so that they, too, would live by faith, true wisdom.

On this Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, let me suggest how you, too, can have a little more wise blood in your veins. First of all, try to seek the wisdom of your parents. After all, their blood flows through your whole body. Learn from them, listen to them, and laugh with them (don’t laugh at them). Someone sent me this little joke about not laughing at parents. A man recalled sadly, “My dad died last year when my family couldn’t remember his blood type in time for paramedics to save him. As he died, he kept insisting for us to ‘be positive, be positive,’ but it’s so hard without him.” Parents are not perfect, but they have the wisdom of hindsight, so try to get an infusion of their wise blood.

Second, seek “wise blood” in the Scriptures and in the saints. Pay close attention to that crimson cord running through the Bible, the intimate connection between sin and salvation in the blood, and realize that someone we, too, must make sacrifices to expiate sin and receive salvation. The saints, too, especially the martyrs who shed their blood bear powerful witness to Jesus. They believed that faith was worth any price, even the price of their own life. That is wise blood.

Thirdly, never miss Sunday Mass, and the opportunity to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. I know it’s summertime and we want a break from the routine of school and work. And that is both good and healthy. But don’t take a vacation from your vocation by skipping Mass. Your heart is the one muscle that never gets to relax, because if it ever took a vacation – even for a few minutes – from pumping blood to your body, you’d die. So, pour “wise blood” into your heart by receiving Communion frequently. Keep your hearts muscle strong because it is the organ for knowing God.

My friends, do you have any wise blood? Here’s how you can tell if you do. First, wise blood makes you aware of how sin and salvation are found in the blood, like Hazel Motes learned. Second, you’ll frequently seek the wise Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion every Sunday, or more often. Wise blood is the best blood type that you can possibly have, even better than “be positive.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!