This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.(1 John 5:6-12)
RESPONSORY
This is the one who came in water and blood, Jesus Christ. – not in water only, but in water and blood.
It is the Spirit who gives testimony, because the Spirit is truth. – not in water only, but in water and blood.
From the “Tome” of Pope St. Leo the Great (+461)
If any accept the Christian faith and does not turn a deaf ear to the preaching of the gospel, let them consider what nature it was that hung, pierced with nails, on the wood of the cross. With the side of the crucified one laid open by the soldier’s spear, let them identify the source from which blood and water flowed, to bathe the church of God with both font and cup.
Let them heed what the blessed apostle Peter preaches, that sanctification by the Spirit is effected by the sprinkling of Christ’s blood; and let them not skip over the same apostle’s words, knowing that you have been redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your fathers, not with corruptible gold and silver but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without stain or spot. Nor should they withstand the testimony of blessed John the apostle: and the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, purifies us from every sin; and again, This is the victory which conquers the world, our faith. Who is there who conquers the world save one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God ? It is he, Jesus Christ who has come through water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood. And because the Spirit is truth, it is the Spirit who testifies. For there are three who give testimony—Spirit and water and blood. And the three are one. In other words, the Spirit of sanctification and the blood of redemption and the water of baptism. These three are one and remain indivisible. None of them is separable from its link with the others.
Musical Selection
Water, blood, and Spirit crying,
By their witness testifying
To the One whose death-defying
Life has come, with life for all.
In a wat'ry grave are buried
All our sins that Jesus carried;
Christ, the Ark of Life, has ferried
Us across death's raging flood.
Dark the way, yet Christ precedes us,
Past the scowl of death He leads us;
Spreads a table where He feeds us
With His body and His blood.
Through around us death is seething,
God, His two-edged sword unsheathing,
By His Spirit life is breathing
Through the living, active Word.
Spirit, water, blood entreating,
Working faith and its completing
In the One whose death-defeating
Life has come, with life for all.
Collect
Risen Christ,
may we who in baptism die to sin,
rise again to new life
and find our place in your living body.
May the new covenant sealed in your blood
bring healing and reconciliation to this wounded world.
Alleluia. You are risen.
We are risen with you.
Praise and glory to the living God. Amen.(Book of Common Worship)