From Richard Rohr’s, On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men:

Day 4: The Holy Grail

In culture after culture, much has been written about blood.  It holds deep, archetypal meanings in all storytelling, both as the ultimate energy of life and the ultimate symbol of death.  The Eucharist speaks to this dramatically; we are taking in the essence of another, and it speaks on a cellular, physical level. This is deeply transformative if we allow it to be. Quite simply, we become what we eat and drink.

This experience has lost some of its power. In ancient rites, men sometimes drank the blood of their elders and heroes. The Eucharist has at times become an antiseptic caricature of the original Supper, complete with lace on the altar and priests dressed in silk. This distracts us from the graphic symbol:  we are drinking the blood of our hero — Christ — and are now one with him.