Carry the gospel with you

Gospel reading of the day:

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus in this passage from the gospel makes reference to the narrative in Numbers 21:4-9. In that passage, the Israelites who have been stricken through the bites of serpents who look upon a bronze serpent raised up on a post, are healed through their gaze upon the serpent. In the same way as the bronze serpent, Jesus is lifted up on the cross. And we, stricken by the bites that are just the ordinary course of life, who look upon our Lord lifted on that cross are healed through our gaze upon the one affixed to the post.

Saint of the day: The Feast Day of the Exaltation of the Cross traces its roots to c. 326 AD when the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, journeyed to Jerusalem to look for the real cross. An old Jew named Judah told her that the Cross was buried under the Temple of Venus that Hadrian had built on Golgatha. Helena ordered that the Temple of Venus be torn down and the ground under it excavated. Having done that, they found three crosses. John Chrysostom (4th Century) in Homily LXXXV on John 19 stated that they suspected which cross was the real one: first from its lying in the middle (John 19:18), and second from the title written by Pilate (John 19:19).

But they still needed to dispel all uncertainty as to which, if any, was the real one. At that moment a funeral procession was passing by; Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem suggested that they place the crosses one by one on the dead man. When they placed the first two on him, nothing happened. When they placed the third on him, he was restored to life. After that, they placed it on a sick woman and she recovered. Patriarch Macarius then raised up the cross for everyone to see and all the people sang, “Lord have mercy” with tears and joy. Empress Helena then had a silver casing made to contain the Cross.

In the early 7th Century, the Persians conquered Jerusalem and carried off the Cross to Persia. Fourteen years later, the Greek Emperor Heraclius conquered Persia and brought the Cross back to Jerusalem and placed it in the Church of the Resurrection on Golgatha. September 14th, then, celebrates both the occasion of the finding of the Cross by Helena, and its return by Heraclius. The Eastern Church began celebrating the Exaltation of the Cross in the 4th Century. The Western Church eventually did so also after the 7th Century.

The Exaltation of the Cross is a feast day that is not celebrated much in the West today, however. Some Western Churches celebrate Holy Cross Sunday in mid September using the Gospel lesson for the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross and the Epistle for the feast day of the Exaltation. But this is not commonly done. Lutherans sometimes use the Epistle lesson for the Sunday after the Exaltation for Reformation Sunday in November. In both cases, the ideas are expressed that the Cross has become more than just a piece of wood that the Lord died on. However, the Word of the Cross is not emphasized in either case as it is in the Eastern Church. In the West, both Holy Cross Sunday and Reformation Sunday are one day events. In the East, the celebration of the Exaltation of the Cross takes in two Sundays (before and after) with a major feast day in between. In addition to the above, taking up one’s cross is also the theme of the 3rd Sunday in Lent (The Adoration of the Cross) and All Saints Sunday (the 1st Sunday after Pentecost.)

Spiritual reading: The study of the cross reveals horizons so clear that they are lost in infinity. (Rafael Arnaiz Baron)

Pastoral letter from the CACINA bishops

PASTORAL LETTER TO BE READ IN ALL THE PARISHES OF THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA ON THE FEAST OF PENTECOST IN THE 2009TH YEAR SINCE THE INCARNATION

Wherefore, if Holy Scripture proclaims that God is love, and that love is of God, and works this in us that we abide in God and He in us, and that hereby we know this, because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is God, who is love.

Peace! Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 On Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit with her seven-fold gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (or courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts come to us with an invitation to prayerfully continue the discernment process we began at this year’s General Assembly. The gifts come to us with an invitation to life and challenges us, like the members of the early Church, to say yes to all God has in store for us. This Spirit of God comes to us with the surging power of love, which has the power to disorient us and shake us out of our complacency.

St Augustine reminds us that it is this unceasing love at the heart of the Trinity that descends on us at Pentecost and imbues us with this same love which unites the Trinity, and has the power to unite us a Church in our witness to the world of this ancient message of God’s all inclusive love.

At our recent General Assembly the Holy Spirit moved us to renew our commitment to proclaim to the whole world that God’s love is non-discriminatory, that we of CACINA are inspired by the Holy Spirit, in this time and place, to proclaim a message of peace and welcome home to people who are searching for an authentic Catholic expression of faith.

We are moved by the Holy Spirit at this Pentecost, with faith and courage, with understanding and piety, with counsel and knowledge, and with wisdom and fear of the Lord to go out to the whole world with this message of God’s powerful and disorienting love.

At this Pentecost, we of CACINA are:

• inspired to strive to be a holy people and to bring his holiness to fruition in our individual lives and our parish communities;

• called to receive this grace and to share it with all whom we meet;

• challenged, like Peter and John, to proclaim the healing power of the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6), to say to the disinvested, come home, and to the oppressed that there is liberation in CACINA’s expression of our theology; and most importantly,

• commissioned to be living witnesses to the power of God’s love moving in our Church and our lives.

At this Pentecost let us renew or covenant to each other, to our Mission, and to our Church. Let us hold the world and each other in our prayers and ask for the grace of the seven-fold gifts to truly live our anthem: “All are welcome, All are welcome, in this place.”

Given Under Our Seal and Signature
On the Feast of Pentecost, Anno Domini 2009
The College of Bishops of the Catholic Apostolic Church in America.