The Marvelous Origins of the Caravaca Cross

So the priest asked the sacristans to set up for Mass, very similar to this except for forgetting the acolyte candles and the processional cross they forgot the Crucifix for the altar. Mass had already been set up, everything was arranged and the priest began the Mass. Only when he went up to the altar he realized, oh the sacristans forgot the cross. He continued with Mass and he came to the great Sanctus of the Mass when the priest will say Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. He's repeating the great prayer that St. John heard in heaven that repetitious prayer to the Blessed Trinity by all the angels": Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. At that time in the Mass all the angels gathered, heaven opens and the angels descend by the millions to adore Christ reenacting His sacrifice on the altar.

What happened in this town called Caravaca around 1225, the priest started saying the Sanctus and at that moment the heavens opened and two angels at the view of everybody including the muslims. The whole town was there, all the muslim soldiers were on guard watching. Everyone was a little afraid because they knew the muslims could slaughter them any minute and they were pretty defenseless because the strong men had already been out in the fields far away battling. Two angels carried down on the altar a big crucifix. It's called the Cross of Caravaca now. You can still go and see in that town this crucifix that was laid there by the angels. The priest continued with Mass and at the moment of the consecration all the Catholics knelt down, the bells rang, the big bells of the Church rang and they adored the Living God. Not on a wooden crucifix but on the altar really reenacted. The bread and the wine are changed into His body and blood. The separation of the body, in the consecrated hosts and the blood in the chalice, that separation just like with any of us if we separate our blood from our body you're dead. The Mass shows visibly the death of Christ on the altar. That's why this separation.

St. Thomas will say when the priests breaks the host off and drops the particle into the chalice that also symbolizes when Christ died on the cross, His soul descending into limbo. So anyway the Mass continued and the people received what they thought would be perhaps their last Holy Communion. After the Mass the general of the muslims came and he was very deeply moved by this miracle that everyone witnessed. He asked about the Catholic faith and the teachings of the scriptures and the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Holy Bible as opposed to the Koran. The priest explained the very simple truths of the Catholic faith and the muslim expressed the desire to embrace this faith. Knowing that by doing this his soldiers could turn on him and kill him any moment. In fact the whole army with him joined in the conversion and the people were spared. That Cross of Caravaca you can still see it today. That Cross of Caravaca actually was on the chest of Blessed Junipero Serra. He had a great devotion to this miraculous Cross of Caravaca.

When he came up from the Franciscan monasteries in Mexico when he came up into California and converted these Indians and founded over 20 missions all along the west coast of Calif. These missions you can still see and you can go to the tomb of the great Fr. Junipero Serra and kneel down and pray at his very tomb of other Franciscans. Some of them were martyred as well. He always had with him that Cross of Caravaca. the whole mentality of these great missionaries of course was to convert all these people of Tennessee, Kentucky, California. From the east and the west, north and south to the holy Catholic faith to come to adore our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the protestant Jesus Christ, not the distorted Jesus Christ. Because Christ founded 7 sacraments, not four or three. The protestant denominations will reject several sacraments; pick and choose. Christ taught one true Church not many many and not one nebulous Christianity but a real Church, a real hierarchy- pope, bishops, priests which are to teach the Catholic faith and hand down to sanctify souls by the sacraments and punish when needed by excommunication or condemnation of errors or heretics. All the sacraments and all the contents of the teaching of the faith. This is why the missionaries came. Fr. Junipera Serra on the west coast, the great missionaries in the northeast the great St. Isaac Jogues, John Brebeuf from Canada. In Florida you had the great Franciscan missionaries who were the first to encounter a football game. The Indians were playing football in Florida but it was a football game where they left many dead on the field. It was a bloody game. The Catholic priests tamed them. They said play the game, train for war but you don't need to kill each other. Same with St. John Brebeuf, the Indians there in the north played lacrosse and in this game it lasted 30 miles. It was an actual war training game and after every lacrosse game which could last for weeks there were always dead bodies on the field. Sometimes they would even use a human head for the ball. It was actually St. John de Brebeuf himself who tamed the Indian and said, you don't need to play and kill each other to train. Play the game and play as men among you but not as murderers among you.

So you see the spirit of the Catholic Church which doesn't suppress the human nature but elevates it. It teaches the true charity which is the whole theme of this Gospel that our Lord taught in a parable. The whole theme is summed up in a few words. We must forgive. We must forgive all who have injured us, all who have hurt us, all who have spoken evil against us, all who have taken us to court, all who have vandalized our property. The response that we're commanded to have is to forgive. That means to forgive with our heart and leave the vengeance, leave the justice to God's hand. When we take justice in our own personal hands that offends God very much, especially if it's out of hate and revenge. Of course, open brackets, the Catholic Church obviously respects the teaching of self defense, the defense of the family if you're under attack or the defense of a nation under attack. There is a reason for just war. Our Lord is speaking when it's one on one we must forgive. When it's individual and individual we must forgive. For many people this is hard. For some it's the hardest thing in their life to forgive injuries done. It's a grace we must pray for to easily forgive, and leave in God's hands the justice. How good God is to us, the example in that first servant. He owed millions of dollars. We're all debtors to God says St. John Chrysostum. We're all debtors by original sin, by our own sins we owe God. By one mortal sin says St. Alphonsus, one mortal sin is so serious, not even all the fires of hell in it's eternity can sufficiently punish in justice the gravity of one mortal sin. The goodness of God is shown in this parable because the man was begging mercy. 'Have mercy on me. I can't pay this, don't sell my wife, don't sell my children as slaves, which in the Roman times was very common. You didn't pay your debt that's what happened. So the Master, the good King that is Christ Himself is quick to forgive. But the parable ends with that same servant who is owed a smaller debt by one of his workers. He smashes him and chokes him and puts him in prison and he's cruel to him. When the King hears this he punishes that bad servant. The point of the whole parable is God has been so good to each one of us by our baptism, by so many confessions where we're washed by Christ's blood and so many communions, by knowing and professing the true Catholic faith. This is such a gift from God, such a treasure and if I will not forgive my neighbor and if I in my heart, this goes for me too, if I in my heart hold hatred of someone and with vengeance on someone and want retribution - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, I will not get to heaven. Christ will say, I don't know you.