When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Hebrews, 9)
The image above is the powerful witness of an age: our own time, in which God wished us to live. It is a statue of the Risen Lord, sprinkled with the blood of Martyrs killed on this Easter Sunday by terrorist explosions against Catholic churches in Sri Lanka. Over 150 dead so far, and scores of injured, in these churches filled with Catholics joyfully celebrating the greatest of Feasts, and in other targets in the country.
We know that these Holy Martyrs are in heaven with Our Lord and all His Saints right now. We know that they were welcomed by the Most Holy Trinity with immense jubilation: they gave their blood for Christ. They joined their blood with the Holy Blood of the Lord. They know God fully now, they see Him face to face, they will rise again in the end of time, for life eternal.
And yet, we know that so many families in the Catholic communities of Sri Lanka will be changed forever by this heinous attack! So many mothers without children, so many children without parents, so many families without their main breadwinners that may fall into great poverty and need! May Our Risen Lord have mercy upon them! May Our Blessed Mother cover them with her mantle! May their Martyred family members intercede for them, so that they will be strengthened in the certainty of the Resurrection of the Flesh and of Everlasting Life with the Lord Jesus Christ!
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. (Job, 19)
