A recent visitor to St. James asked if we were a Catholic Church. She was confused because the cross behind the altar did not have a corpus (the body of Jesus) on it as is customary in Catholic churches. (Our processional cross does have a corpus to honor liturgical tradition.) Our custom as a Missionary Servants is to have a “rough hewn” cross as a sign for our presence. Fr. Judge, our founder, wanted every Missionary Servant to imagine taking our place on the cross to be joined with the suffering of Jesus. In this he was echoing St. Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. From the earliest reflections on the suffering and death of Jesus, there arose a realization that it was not simply the physical agony which pained him but the sinfulness and godlessness of the world. We see that sinfulness is war, poverty, illness, racism, hatred, despair, etc. Like St. Paul we understand that this suffering has a claim on us since we are followers of the crucified one. We are nailed to that suffering and must play our part to help bring about resurrection.
JULY32022
By Church Staff
