Weekly Bulletin

 Lifted Up

"The Son of Man must be lifted up... so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." (John 3:14-15)

To gaze upon the Cross with reverence is a profoundly counter-cultural act. In the Roman world, the cross was not a sacred symbol but a grotesque instrument of state terror—a means of erasing enemies from memory and from life itself. Crucifixion was meant not only to kill but to humiliate, dehumanise, and obliterate. The bodies of the crucified were discarded without honour, their names forgotten, their legacies crushed.

And yet, in a stunning reversal, the early Christian community gradually came to see this instrument of annihilation as the sign of God’s enduring love.

In this passage from John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of being “lifted up”—a phrase that refers not only to his physical elevation on the cross but also to the spiritual exaltation of that very moment. Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert so that the Israelites might look upon it and be healed, so too must Jesus be lifted up—so that all who look to him with faith may be healed from sin and death.

This “lifting up” is not about glorifying suffering for its own sake. Rather, it is about the transformative power of divine love. In Jesus, God enters into the very heart of human pain, rejection, and mortality. The cross becomes the place where death is not the end but the threshold into life eternal.

 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” (John 3:16), reminds us that God's motive is not condemnation, but love: The Cross, once a tool of destruction, becomes the sign of that gift. It is not the violence of the cross that we venerate, but the love that willingly bore it.

To revere the Cross today is to proclaim that God can bring redemption out of what seems irredeemable. It is to say that even the darkest places in our lives can become sites of grace. It is to believe that nothing—not even death—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Based on: Gospel Reflection, by Greg Sunter

 May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved……….forever!  
_________________________________________

When on the cross the struggle sets in between life and death, the Roman soldier will strike the Heart, as the source of life, to force it to let go of any life that might still be in it. The life of Christ has already left that refuge! But from that adorable Heart, torn by the lance, from which life had gone, another life appeared for us.
The Word, coming from the Heart of his Father, made the world emerge from nothing; and from the Heart of the incarnate Word, pierced on Calvary, I see a new world emerging, the world of those he has chosen. And this creation, so fertile, full of grandeur and inspired by love and mercy, is the Church, the mystical body of Christ, which makes the new creation present on earth until the end of time.

Jules Chevalier msc Le Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, p.145ƒ., Paris 1900.

.

_________________________________________

St Bonaventure makes us appreciate first the beauty of the grace and the sacraments flowing from the fountain of life that is the wounded side of the Lord, “In order that from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross, the Church might be formed and the Scripture fulfilled that says: ‘They shall look upon him whom they pierced’, one of the soldiers struck him with a lance and opened his side. This was permitted by divine Providence so that, in the blood and water flowing from that wound, the price of our salvation might flow from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling the Church’s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like a cup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal”.

Pope Francis. Dilexit Nos: He Loved us, #107

On the Human and Divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ

________________________________________________

Lord, open our eyes to see Your presence in all creation; may we care for, respect, and protect life in every form. Guide us to contemplate the world with gratitude and hope, finding You in the beauty of all that exists.

_________________________________________

By remembering your faith community in your Will, you contribute to the spiritual legacy that has enriched your life. Your bequest ensures the continuation of the traditions, teachings, and support that have shaped your journey.