The Blood which Christ shed on the cross speaks of God’s infinite, preferential and freely-given love for every human being and for all of creation.
We grow in our awareness that this is true in our concrete, everyday experiences because Christ is near to each person through other people and events. Accepting God’s infinite love and letting it permeate into our hearts begins a love relationship with God. Thus each of us, in feeling loved, is able to love the Redeemer in return with the same love received from Him. This is the faith experience that is a love relationship with Love.
The Blood of Christ establishes unity in humanity and calls us to create harmony among the differences.
This truth calls us to appreciate multiculturalism and to deepen our knowledge of the variety of nations, people, and various languages that have been made one through the Blood of Christ. In our oneness we become a prefiguration of the harmony of the redeemed people described in the Book of Revelation: Christ’s Blood has produced the miracle of unity in diversity. Diversity is often perceived as a threat because we are facing a fork in the road: acceptance or rejection. Racism and opposition are generated along this second path. Dialog and understanding are the only ways to live in harmony and belong to the human family.
Every human being is “Worth the Blood of Christ.”
The value that God places upon us is so much more superior than what we attribute to ourselves. We need to recover the value of our very person and that of our neighbor, not only to rejoice in our belonging to God, but also to be able to use all the talents we have received on behalf of others “worth the Blood of Christ.” The more we recover our value as a person, the more we will be able to be and to stand before every person with an attitude of welcome which should distinguish our human relationships.
The Blood of Christ is a message of liberation from all forms of slavery.
Every person has rights and responsibilities. Our first right is that of being recognized and respected as a human being. Striving for the respect of the human dignity of each person in our world is a priority for today. One person’s overpowering or bully of others is a manifestation of the evil that invades the world in the forms of power, domination and corruption. To be prophets of the Blood of Christ in this world means to be on the side of the oppressed and to create ways for each one’s voice to be heard in a peaceful but decisive way as Jesus modeled in the Gospel.
One way the Adorers try to live this message of liberation is in their ministry on the front lines of counteracting the evil of human trafficking.
The Blood of Christ is a guarantee of women’s dignity.
In many parts of the world women are considered inferior and many limitations are placed upon them. Women are exposed to various kinds of violence and, in some situations, risk their lives to escape danger and death.
Often in the social systems where the idea of women’s inferiority is strongly rooted, there is a real and concrete marginalization based on cultural religious values. The women themselves share in these religious values and thus contribute to the nourishing and preservation of the very tradition that denigrates and enslaves them.
The redemptive message of Christ’s Blood can be a help for these women and all women throughout the world to regain their dignity and rights, including that of contributing to the development of a world culture of love and peace.
The Blood of Christ commits us to defend and care for the value of human life in all the moments of its growth.
Human life and the dignity of persons are becoming more and more perceived as relative goods. The lives of the healthy that have no physical and mental defects are the only lives of value. The tendency is to see physical and mental limitations, weakness, deformities, advanced age and being unborn as valid reasons for terminating life.
Easy access to abortion, the regulation of the number of children per family in poor countries and experimentation on embryos speak to the relativity of life. Reasons of economy, politics, corruption, etc., justify the silent elimination of many people. Christ continues giving his blood today as a sign of Divine Life given for love of each person, especially the defenseless.
The Blood of Christ calls us to be with the poor “as the poor” with an attitude of those who walk along side of them rather than tell them what to do...
The poor were always Jesus’ preferred people in the Gospel. Jesus addressed this good news to them - they would be the first recipients of salvation. The Blood of Christ is above all for the poor.
Poverty is not just an economic disadvantage; it is also a deprivation of fundamental rights to health care, education, housing, food, one’s own opinion, etc. Poverty results in forms of exclusion. Poverty is knocking on our doors under various guises: food crises, violence, homelessness, trafficking of human beings, modern slavery, child soldiers, and marginalization of women, children, immigrants, minorities…. Our commitment is that of striving to eliminate all forms of poverty from the face of the earth with the power of Christ’s Blood which is love.
The Blood of Christ is reconciliation where conflict is the greatest.
Interpersonal divisions and conflicts have always been a part of human life in society. Conflicts between married couples, between parents and children, among siblings, between employees and employers… There are various reasons: emotional, psychological, poverty, different interests, choices, demands of rights, etc. Often the weakest succumb.
Today international conflicts between nations and increasing unevenness in the distribution of the goods and resources of the world evoke many global situations of conflict and war.
Christ’s Blood is a source of reconciliation. We are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation in our global world.
The Blood of Christ brings about the building of peace.
Violence is present under many forms today and every part of the world experiences it. Some experience it in the internal and external wars within their country; others through the use of violence in attempts to control or gain power or as an expression of anger. Masses of people experience terrible hardships as a result of violence. The Blood of Christ, in its message of love, reconciliation and harmony teaches that peace is a good acquired through the commitment of each person to walk along the way of Jesus.
The Blood of Christ restores the beauty of the first creation.
The face of this earth itself is increasingly becoming polluted because of the lack of care we have for it. It is important to feel responsible and to care for the earth we occupy because it is part of the harmony of the cosmos created by God and redeemed in the shedding of Jesus Blood.
The Blood of Christ gives meaning to suffering and death.
The Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ passion, death and Resurrection remind us that the experience of suffering and death comes before the resurrection. The spirituality of the Blood of Christ brings the wisdom and promise of the cross to a culture that has a difficult time giving meaning to suffering and death and often does not even want to talk about any of these realities.
The Blood of Christ is a message of unity within all Christian denominations and with other religions.
Today we are still experiencing the scandal of the divisions among Christian denominations. Rebuilding and praying for the unity for which Christ prayed is a must from which no Christian can exclude oneself. Dialog, mutual understanding and relationships marked by benevolence and trust are some of the ways for reaching a peaceful and fruitful union among Christian denominations.
The Blood of Christ is also a bridge between the religions of the world.
The Blood of Christ reminds us that we are loved by God, created and called to life through love. Our life is precious and our presence and activities in the world are indispensable for building a different world order based on love and unity.
Our mission is that of struggling with Christ against every form of evil to be able to bring about on earth “that beautiful order of things which Christ came to establish with his Blood.” (St. Maria De Mattias)