What an enormous and truly awesome topic! It boggles the mind. Here, we merely scrape the surface.

 The Blood of Jesus is not merely ordinary blood. As scripture states in a number of places, the life is in the Blood. A quick response might be “Of course, blood circulation is necessary for life.” True, but there is a deeper meaning.   All that Jesus is, all that He has done is contained in His Blood. His entire life is telescoped in His Blood.   All that He is as a human being we find in His Blood.

 And also, all that we are is in our blood. And that means that the life of each ancestor in our bloodline has left residue, good and bad, in our present blood. Inner healing warriors know this. Healing the Family Tree ministries know this and deal with the bloodline. The medical profession, too, relies on information from family history.

 As Roman Catholics we believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus.   Mary was conceived without sin. Yes, scripture says, “We all have sinned….” All human beings pass on sin to their offspring. But at the moment of conception when Mary was about to absorb the sin and garbage from her bloodline, God intervened and applied the merits of Jesus in advance. The sin from Her bloodline that was rushing toward Her was blocked and never touched Her.

 For God, all time — past, present, future — is telescoped into a single point, so He allowed His Son to “pay in advance.” But payment did take place; and Mary was redeemed by Her Son. (There is scriptural evidence of this, especially God’s word to Satan in Genesis, but let’s not go there now. One quick point: Much of what God did in the Old Testament was also payment in advance.)

 Mary thus started a new bloodline! And Jesus picked up the sinless blood of His Mother Mary. And He picked up all that she is, because “life is in the Blood.” This woman who is so honored in the word of God, has had an awesome impact on all that Jesus is. Mary had a vital role in the fact that Jesus grew in age and wisdom before God and man.

 That is why one can deeply appreciate Mary only if one first has an intimate knowledge of Jesus. Otherwise, Jesus and Mary are in competition with one another! When competition happens, Mary, as Mother, can easily become the sentimental favorite.   And that causes Her great anguish, because Her whole life was and is focused on bringing people to Her son, Jesus, not to Herself: “Do whatever He tells you.”

 Scripture tells us that in Jesus Christ, we are a New Creation! And being in Jesus we have His life — and His Mother is also ours.

 Not surprisingly, it is Jesus Who eagerly shares with us His intense love for His Mother. He owes so very much to Her! And so do we. He wants us to be as much in love with Her as He is. He wants us to love Her with His very own love — which He gives us as gift! And that is why we so honor Mary. “All generations will call me blessed.”

 We desperately need a Theology of the Blood.

 These are Mini Teachings, so we stop here.