When I was in medical school studying human physiology, I was fascinated by the power and vitality of the heart. Here was the singular organ of the body pumping volumes of blood each moment to every smallest part. So long as a tissue had a blood vessel perfusing it, it would partake of that flow of life from the heart.
The Heart
This imagery of the heart and life offers us a lens by which to enter the letters of St. John. Today’s first reading echoes with a refrain of life, and indeed, “eternal life.” John offers to us the images of “blood and water,” invoking the power of faith which “overcomes the world,” and the gift of eternal life God grants through His Son. How do we begin to bring all these glimmers of truth into focus? And how does the image of the heart draw everything together?
Eyewitness to the Cross
To answer these questions, let us first consider the power of St. John’s testimony. When we read his letters, we are right there listening to the apostle who stood at the foot of the Cross in real-time, and the one who discovered the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. The tangible reality of both Jesus’ death and resurrection had been burned into the memory of this apostle. It is through the intensity of that experience that John’s testimony derives its strength, declaring again and again the transcendence of Christ.
Reading his words in this light, we perceive a dynamic at work. A victory over the world has been won. Those graced with faith, who have come to believe the testimony of Christ, are no longer enslaved to the things of the world—the things that pass away and die—but now partake of eternal life. A gateway has been opened up. The souls who believe in Christ also live in him, receiving a flow of life from Him. Just as tissues of the body receive blood from the heart. Indeed, we discover this access point in the very Heart of Christ, pierced by a Roman centurion’s lance. John recounts this episode with fervent emphasis, insisting upon the sudden flow of blood and water from Jesus’ pierced Heart. That moment now takes on iconic importance as he attests to the divine reality of Christ. “This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.”
The Pierced Heart
John invites us to meditate upon Christ’s pierced Heart as the source of life which now feeds us. It is a potent image to take to prayer. We who believe in Christ receive the flow of eternal life from His Heart. For not only is our faith anchored in truth, the tactile reality of what John witnessed with his own eyes, but it bears supernatural fruit. Christ brings new life to us.
Remarkably, the gift of eternal life begins even now for the Christian disciple who comes before the Heart of Christ with open hands.
In a world enshrouded in the darkness of things that pass away, St. John proclaims the good news of eternal life through faith in Christ. The very wound that seemed at first a sign of defeat, the piercing of His Heart, becomes a mark of victory. The outpouring of blood and water which we receive in the sacraments then nourishes us with supernatural life. How this ought to tantalize our hungry souls, longing for the food which lasts! Let us then take solace and strength in these words of St. John. John, the apostle who stood at the foot of the Cross. He who learned in his bones the unshakable truth of Christ’s pierced Heart. For this is he who came by water and blood; and whoever has the Son has life.
