An Issue of Blood
A battle took place this week. A battle between good and evil. Last Tuesday, the good people of this country went to the polls, confident in their ability to turn the tide of evil that threatens us all, as we were told by all the experts that a red wave, nay, a red tsunami, would wipe out the woke bands of Satan’s warriors who had been tyrannizing the people of this land. Well… something went wrong with these predictions as those same bands of Satan’s warriors also voted. Reality replaced the illusions we had been fed, and all those good people woke up on Wednesday morning feeling let down and deflated. their hopes dashed.
Each of us deals with this in his own way. Some desperately try to find evidence of voter fraud, others are angry enough to demand revolution, probably most are simply discouraged and turn off the TV for a few days, nursing their wounds and making an extra martini or two. What do you expect to hear from me today? Words of comfort? Encouragement? Much as I would be tempted to spew forth my own opinions, I know that these opinions aren’t worth any more than the hundreds of others that the TV pundits and experts are also spewing forth. Besides, really, what does politics have to do with our faith? So instead of giving you the usual advice to not let your heart be troubled and to just pray your Rosary so we can defeat Satan at the next election, allow me instead to simply put before you today’s Gospel as our signpost into the possibilities of a better future.
“And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood for twelve years.” This poor woman had a terrible ailment and another gospel, St. Mark’s, tells us that “she had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.” Let’s compare this poor woman to our nation. We could compare her to the Church or even to the world at large, but let’s just focus today on a comparison today between her disease and the politics of Washington as they afflict our nation. Her disease is that she is constantly losing blood. And this surely is the disease of our nation.
The fact is, we need blood to survive. And if we lose a substantial amount of that blood, our lives will end. Blood, you see, fulfills three essential functions in our body. Let’s examine these three functions and apply to our country the consequences of what happens if we have a major issue of the blood that performs these functions. What happens if we lose too much blood?
The first of these functions is transportation. Blood transports a lot of different elements to the different systems of the body. It supplies the tissues with oxygen, through the hemoglobin which is carried in the red cells, and it supplies food to the organs, nutrients such as glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids which are dissolved in the blood. Interestingly enough, while blood is red, when you deprive the body of blood and the oxygen it carries, the reaction of the body is that it turns from red to blue! But what is it that feeds the nation’s collective soul? Is it not, surely, the foundation of truth and sound moral values that allow the United States to maintain its role as a city shining upon a hill. Only insofar as we remain one nation under God will we preserve our moral identity as a beacon of truth and light. But our nation is no longer one, but divided. Democrats are trying to turn us all blue by removing from our country the oxygen of truth and the food of morality. They reject the notion that we are “under God” and under his laws, and indeed they try to obliterate all the laws of God from our way of life.
The second function of blood is protection. Blood, specifically the white blood cells, serves as the body’s defense. It’s a key part of our immune system that helps fight against disease-causing bacteria and viruses; it seek outs and destroys abnormal or cancerous cells in our body. Instead of protecting us from harm, Democrats deliberately remove all elements of safety from our nation, exposing us to invasion through our open southern border, forcing dangerous vaccines on us whether we want them or not; they open our jails and asylums, filling the streets with violent criminals and the mentally ill; they force inflation on us by spending money we don’t have and reducing families to poverty; they want to raise our taxes and hire thousands of armed IRS agents to bully us into submission. The list goes on and on, but nowhere in their agenda can we find any sign that they want to protect us. On the contrary, they want to destroy our fair elections so we can’t even protect ourselves by voting any more. And of course, they want to take our guns away so that we can’t defend ourselves in the street.
The last, but no less important function of the blood is to keep things relatively stable in the body. On a cold day, for example, the blood is routed to our inner core to keep our body as warm as possible. And again, it’s interesting that when our blood is unable to keep us warm enough, we again turn… blue! Where today, we may ask, is the nation’s blood that provides stability in times of stress and disorder? It is obvious that Democrats do not get on well with the idea of stability. Their progressive agenda is designed rather to first reduce the nation to chaos so they can impose their own version of stability based on the tyrannical imposition of atheistic and Marxist one-party rule.
In short, we are losing the life-giving blood of our nation. The United States has an issue of blood like the woman in today’s Gospel, and like her, must turn to the Precious Blood of Christ in order to be saved. For she said, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” Without Christ, it’s no wonder that our once-healthy country is becoming sick and diseased, and that it is slowly turning from red to blue. What is this Blood of Christ and where are we to find it? Here, finally, are my words of comfort to you, for “This is the cup of my Blood, the new and everlasting covenant, the mystery of faith.” Here at Mass you will not only find, but actually receive, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ our Lord. In this and other traditional Catholic churches that have the true Mass, you will find the battered but still intact remnant of that new and everlasting covenant between God and man. We resemble the patriots who looked beyond the bombs bursting in air to see that the flag was still there. Our Mass is still there. And we must fight in whatever way God proposes in order to defend our Mass. It is under attack, even from the man who blasphemously pretends to be the Vicar of Christ. And if we are unable to find comfort in the works (or the votes) of man, if we are unable to place our confidence in human society and its imperfect governments and rulers, we, whether as individuals or as a nation, can still reach out and touch the hem of Christ’s garment, the Mystical Body of Christ, and hear the words of its founder, our Lord Jesus Christ, to this woman with the issue of blood, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.”