IV. A WOUND IN CHRIST’S SIDE REVEALS THE HEART OF JESUS IN ITS PRECIOUSNESS.
That spear did, as it were, break the alabaster box and let out the sweet perfume. What, then, was there in the Savior’s heart? Men carry in their hearts that which is dearest. The true man is what he is at the heart’s core. What was our blessed Redeemer’s life-thought—the compelling motive of His life-work? Upon what did He most of all concentrate the desires and affections of His heart? See you not that when pierced, there flowed forth blood and water?
Those two things, then, must have been the nearest to the purpose of His heart. Hence I discern that in my Lord’s heart, there was, first, a strong determination to purge sinners from their guilt by His blood. The atoning Sacrifice is not merely the hand blood of the Savior’s work, nor is it merely the foot blood of the Savior’s journeying through the vale of tears—it was His heart’s blood, indicative of heart-work—it was the blood of Redemption shed for us. He loved that work.
He was straitened till He could accomplish it. And let me tell you it is Christ’s joy to wash you from your sin! Start not back because your conscience is troubled. He has opened a fountain for your uncleanness—in the very midst of the house of David has He opened it. He delights to take away your guilt— ------------
Moreover, Beloved, in Christ’s heart there was the water as well as the blood. He would have His people sanctified as well as pardoned. He would deliver them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin! I believe this is very near Christ’s heart. That He may present His Church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is His design as well as His desire.
His Spirit is working to this end. That He might not allow so much as a single stain to rest upon the nature of His people is alike the pleasure and the purpose of Christ! He has put their guilt away by the Sacrifice of Himself. This is done. Yet He continues to demand their self-sacrifice, that He may put away their evil propensities, the fruit of their first father’s fall. My Soul, glorify the pierced heart of Christ! Give Him to see in yourself the effect of the water that flowed from His heart!
“Be you holy,” He says, “as I am holy.” “Be you perfect,” He says again, “even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” Deny the flesh with its affections and lusts! Separate yourselves from sinners! Avoid partaking of other men’s sins! Like Christ, be you “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” This can only be effected by the Spirit’s vital application of the Savior’s atoning death.
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When they came to Jesus, however, it was clear to them that there was no need to break His legs, for He was already dead. As a result, one of the Roman soldiers thrust his spear into the side of our Lord, from which there immediately flowed blood and water (Jn 19:34). The soldier pierced the Heart of Jesus with his lance.
The blood and water which flowed from the Pierced Heart of Jesus is the sign of His life with us in the Church. Once risen from the dead and seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, Christ has never ceased to pour out, from His glorious Pierced Heart, the grace of the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. The Preface for the Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus expresses the ancient symbolism of the water and the blood:
"Lifted high on the cross, Christ gave His life for us, So much did He love us. From His wounded side flowed blood and water, The fountain of sacramental life in the Church. To His open side the Savior invites all men, To draw water in joy from the springs of salvation" (The Roman Missal).
The flow of water and blood from the Pierced Heart of Jesus also reminds us of our Lord’s words regarding the source of salvation in His Heart:
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, Let him drink who believes in Me."
Scripture has it:
"From within Him rivers of living water shall flow" (Jn 7:37).
Our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us to remember always the many ways in which Christ has poured out and continues to pour out His love for us in the Church from the moment of His death on the cross. ---
The outpouring of Christ’s Life for us, represented in the blood and water which flowed from His pierced Heart, continues in the Church, especially through the sacraments. The Church has always seen in the water and blood which flowed from the Pierced Heart of Jesus a sign of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, by which we come to life in the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our souls, and by which the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us is nourished by the Heavenly Food which is the true Body of Christ.
