REFLECTIONS TODAY
Gospel • John 19:31-37
The brutal act of smashing the legs would be an act of mercy, for it hastened the death of the crucified man who could agonize for a much longer time. Since Jesus is evidently dead, his legs are spared. John presents Jesus here as the new Passover Lamb. The bones of the lambs slaughtered for the Passover meal were not broken (Ex 12:46). To administer the coup de grâce, a soldier thrusts his lance into Jesus’ side and immediately blood and water flow out. A testimony of a witness is underlined not just to point to the fact but to the deeper meaning of it.
A Scripture passage is being fulfilled here: “They will look upon him whom they have pierced” (v 37). The text from Zechariah (12:10), fully stated, contains a hint of conversion, that the view of the flow of blood and water that the soldiers witness will lead them to “mourn for him as one mourns for an only child…”
Since patristic times, Christian tradition has seen in the flow of blood and water a sacramental reference to the Eucharist (“blood”) and Baptism (“water”). This venerable tradition is carried in the Preface of the Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: “For raised up high on the Cross, he gave himself up for us with a wonderful love and poured out blood and water from his pierced side, the wellspring of the Church’s Sacraments, so that, won over to the open heart of the Savior, all might draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.”
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024.” E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.