July 24, 2012 -- THE OFFERING

We give you thanks Almighty Father, for what you have done, are doing, and will do through your Word and your Spirit:

The creation of the world,

The patience and longsuffering with humanity,

The promises and the covenants,

The sending and returning of your Beloved Son,

The pouring forth of your Holy Spirit upon all peoples, nations, tongues and tribes,

And the worship that all creation offers to you.

Father, may we offer to you an acceptable offering, oblation, in union with Christ’s body and blood, offering to you what is your own.  May we offer to you the body and blood, the soul and divinity of your dearly Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

God of creation, may we offer to you the first fruits of the bread and wine, through the first fruits of the risen Christ, through his power and presence in the Holy Spirit.  May we offer to you our whole heart, mind, soul and strength (Mk 12:28-34), as a holy, living, reasonable, spiritual and perfect sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2).  

Father, may we praise you through, with and in the glory of your name that you have caused to dwell among us through the working of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory of the kingdom is yours Almighty Father, both now and forever.  Amen!

July 21, 2012 -- THE LUMINOUS CROSS

Fermi Bubbles

THE LUMINOUS CROSS:

Beginning as early as perhaps the 1st century CE, a belief appears in early Christian literature, outside of the New Testament, that the second coming of Christ would be preceded by a heavenly sign or in other words, a heavenly phenomenon.  The tradition concerning this heavenly phenomenon itself shows signs of development from the Didache up until Cyril of Jerusalem’s, Catechetical Lectures.

Perhaps the earliest appearance of the heavenly sign is found in the Didache, which is dated sometime between 50-150 CE.  Before the second coming of Christ, “there will appear the signs,” this begins first with,

the sign of an opening in heaven (πρῶτον σημεῖον ἐκπετάσεως ἐν οὐρανῷ), then the sign of the sound of a trumpet, and third, the resurrection of the dead—but not of all; rather, as it has been said, “The Lord will come, and all his saints with him.” Then the world “will see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven” (Did. 16.6-8).¹

The second text the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Peter, which is considered by some to be the oldest Christian apocryphal apocalypse, is dated to sometime around 135 CE.  Clement of Alexandria quotes portions of the apocalypse.  There is an Ethiopic version in modified form and also survives in other scattered fragments.  According to the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Peter,

the coming of the Son of God shall not be plain (i. e. foreseen); but as the lightning that shines from the east unto the west, so will I come upon the clouds of heaven with a great host in my majesty; with my cross going before my face will I come in my majesty; shining sevenfold more than the sun will I come in my majesty with all my saints, mine angels (mine holy angels). And my Father shall set a crown upon mine head, that I may judge the quick and the dead and recompense every man according to his works (Apoc. Pet.).²

The third text, the Epistle of the Apostles (or Epistula Apostolorum), is an early apocryphal Christian work from an unknown author.  It was most likely written in Greek; but, it only survives in Ethiopic, Coptic and Latin fragments.  In the Ethiopic Epistula Apostolorum, the Lord says,

I say to you, I will come as the sun which bursts forth; thus will I, shining seven times brighter than it in glory, while I am carried on the wings of the clouds in splendor with my cross going on before me, come to the earth to judge the living and the dead (Epistula Apostolorum 16).³

The forth text is the Apocalypse of Elijah, which appears to be both a Jewish and Christian writing, is dated sometime from 150-275 CE.  It was most likely composed in Greek; but, it exists today in Coptic and Greek.  The Apocalypse of Elijah states,

when the Christ comes, he will come in the manner of a covey of doves with the crown of doves surrounding him. He will walk upon the heaven’s vaults with the sign of the cross leading him. The whole world will behold him like the sun which shines from the eastern horizon to the western. This is how he will come, with all his angels surrounding him (Apoc. El. 3.2-4).⁴

The fifth text is from Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures, dated to around 380 CE.  According to Cyril, the cross shall,

appear again with Jesus from heaven; for the trophy [the Cross] shall precede the king: that seeing Him whom they pierced, and knowing by the Cross Him who was dishonored, the Jews may repent and mourn; (but they shall mourn tribe by tribe, for they shall repent, when there shall be no more time for repentance;) and that we may glory, exulting in the Cross, worshipping the Lord who was sent, and crucified for us, and worshipping also God His Father who sent Him, with the Holy Ghost: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen (Cyril, Catechetical Lectures 13.41).⁵

Cyril will later refer to the “sign of the Son of man in heaven,”  saying that the true sign of Christ is “the Cross,” “a sign of a luminous Cross” that shall go before the King.  The sign of the Cross shall be “a terror to His foes,” but, “joy to His friends” (Cyril,Catechetical Lectures 15.22).

If the Didache is dated to the 1^st century CE, then the earliest surviving early Christian writing, outside of the New Testament, simply refers to the heavenly sign as an “opening in heaven” (πρῶτον σημεῖον ἐκπετάσεως ἐν οὐρανῷ).  It is only in the EthiopicApocalypse of Peter from the 2^nd century, and Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures from the 4^th century, that a luminous cross in the heavens is explicitly described as preceding the second coming of Christ.  Perhaps, the phenomena of "opening in heaven" or "expanding in the heaveans" is closer to the original (LFL). 

Ad Trinitas



End Notes

1 Michael William Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Updated ed.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999), 269.
2 Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 511. Edited by LFL.
3 New Testament Apocrypha (vol. 1; rev. ed.; ed. W. Schneemelcher; trans. R. McL. Wilson; Westminster: John Knox Press, 1991), 258.
4 James H. Charlesworth, vol. 1, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983), 744.
5 Philip Schaff, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. VII (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997), 93. Edited by LFL.