THE CHURCH WAS BORN ON GOOD FRIDAY

 THE CHURCH WAS BORN ON GOOD FRIDAY

Rev Fr Utazi Prince Benignus Zereuwa

Updated June 1 2022

Memorial of Saint Justin the Martyr

SCRIPTURAL TEXT OF REFERENCE

“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:33).

INTRODUCTION

The Church is the family of God; she is the body of Christ. Because the Church is truly a body, she has a birthday, but because she is not a material body but a mystical one, the manner of her birth is likewise mystical. Unlike humans who can point to a single birthday, the Church can point to several. With the help of the Church Fathers, we will see that, in varying ways, the beginning of time, Good Friday and Pentecost, could all be called the birthday of the Church. Even though the stress is more on Good Friday.

Nevertheless, according to Ladis J. Cizik, it is not Traditional (as in Catholic Tradition) to celebrate the ‘birth of the Church’ on Pentecost – 52 days after the Church was born on Good Friday, as unanimously taught by the Fathers of the Church… The Church was not born on Pentecost. Ladis Cizik will lament thus: “Puffed up with sinful pride, Modernists continue to hold forth that they, now in modern times, know better than the Fathers of the Church. Thus came the lamentable novelty that the Church was born at [on] Pentecost.” This error that the Church is born on Pentecost has entered into various books of the church, some versions of catechism and articles written by Priests even. 

THE CHURCH IS BORN FROM ETERNITY

Many people may be surprised to hear that the Church started from time immemorial. However, ancient sources suggest this. One of the sources is the Shepherd of Hermas, a work from the 2nd Century, which contains a vision of an older woman representing the Church. When the shepherd asks why she is aged, he is told: “Because she was created before all things; therefore is she aged, and for her sake the world was framed.” The Church Fathers confirm this view.

For Saint Clement, the Church existed before the sun and the moon. In his own teaching, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus spoke of the Church before and after Christ. How could there be a Church before Christ? Saint Augustine throws light on this thus: Just as the arm of a baby might be born before his head, so the Church was born before Christ, the Head. Therefore, all the ancient patriarchs, prophets and faithful children of Israel formed part of the Church. The Church was born at the beginning of time because there was never a time when God was not working to bring humanity into His family.

THE CHURCH IS BORN FROM THE SIDE OF JESUS CHRIST

If one day is to be considered the proper birthday of the Church, then that day is Good Friday. It means that the birth of the Church of God on earth took place in different stages, according to the Divine Plan. On Good Friday, God gathered sinful humanity to Himself once and for all. As Paul writes of Jesus Christ thus: “Through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). The one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church was born from the self-gift of Jesus, and we see this in the blood and water that gushed forth. What do blood and water have to do with the Church? St. John Chrysostom said, “Water and blood symbolize baptism and the Holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments, the Church is born.”

The Church is born on Good Friday because it was when God definitively united all of humanity to Himself and gave us the sacraments through which we enter into His family even now.

THE CHURCH IS BORN FROM THE SPIRIT

Again, we can say that the Church is born on Pentecost Day. But remember that this Pentecost Day has been the Festival of Harvest (also Festival of Week of Weeks, also called Shevout), celebrated by the Jews across the globe. On this period,  all the Jews gather in Jerusalem. The apostles were already there praying. After the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, Peter preached to those gathered and 3,000 were baptized. It was then that the mission of the Church was revealed to the world. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit began visibly uniting all of humanity into one body, and the Church was first seen in her sacramental fullness.

To celebrate the birthday of the Church, then, we can look to three moments: the beginning of time, when the Church was conceived in the mind of God; Good Friday, when the Church was born from the heart of Jesus; and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first visibly sent the Church on a mission. All three understandings help us appreciate how the plan of God for our sanctification continues to unfold through the Church.

During one of his catechesis, Saint Pope John Paul II teaches that the Church, which had just been born in this way on the day of Pentecost by the work of the Holy Spirit, was immediately revealed to the world. It is not a closed community, but an open one--it could be called a community thrown wide open--to all the nations "even to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Those who enter this community through Baptism become, by virtue of the Holy Spirit of truth, witnesses of the Good News and are ready to pass it on to others. It is therefore a dynamic, apostolic community, the Church "in a state of mission." (Saint Pope John Paul II. The birth of the Church at Pentecost. Catechesis no. 5)

However, there are strong voices and evidence and facts that the birthday of the Church is on Good Friday.

SAINT AUGUSTINE IN SUPPORT OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

Saint Augustine of Hippo (d. 430 A.D.) was a bishop who earned the titles of Latin Father and Doctor of the Church. Augustine elucidated: according to Saint Augustine, “When [Christ] slept on the Cross, He bore a sign, yea, He fulfilled what had been signified in Adam: for when Adam was asleep, a rib was drawn from him and Eve was created; so also, while the Lord slept on the Cross, His side was transfixed with a spear, and the sacraments flowed forth, whence the Church was born. For the Church, the Lord’s Bride, was created from His side, as Eve was created from the side of Adam.” (Expositions on the Psalms, On Psalm 127, 4)

This teaching of St. Augustine, referring to Adam as a foreshadowing (‘type’) of Christ, in regards to the birth of the Church on Good Friday, is also reflected in the words of other Fathers of the Church, including: Tertullian (d. 223 A.D.), Origen of Alexandria (d. 254 A.D.), St. Ambrose of Milan (d. 397 A.D.), and St. John Chrysostom (d. 407 A.D.). The details of their clear teaching can be found in my previous article, published in 2018: “The Church was NOT Born at Pentecost”.

Again, Saint Augustine writes, explaining one of the significance of the cross on Good Friday thus: “There [the cross] it was that the gate of life was opened, from there the sacraments of the Church flow; without these one does not enter true life (Saint Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel 120, 2).”

ORIGEN AND SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

For Origen, Christ has flooded the universe with divine and sanctifying waves. For the thirsty he sends a spring of living water from the wound which the spear opened in His Side. From the wound in Christ's side has come forth the Church, and He has made her His Bride. 

On his own part, Saint John Chrysostom, the great “golden mouth” and Bishop of Constantinople, writes in his instructions to the early Christians taught thus: “The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the side of the Lord, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own.”

Saint John Chrysostom mentions two important Sacraments of the Church here: Baptism and Holy Eucharist. These were the hinges of the faith of the Church.

POPE PIUS XII IN SUPPORT OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

In his 1943 Encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ) number 28, Pope Pius XII confirmed: “That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the Holy Fathers who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living. … One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will easily discover the reasons on which it is based.” 

This venerable teaching went unchallenged within the Catholic Church up unto the time that the seeds of Modernism started to sprout at the end of the 19th century. Prior to that time, the teachings of the Fathers of the Church were passed on and cherished from generation to generation. Then, the impious Modernists began their vile quest to demolish all the traditions and teachings that Catholics had held as treasured and true.

Pius XII continues, “St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of Our Lord, said there ‘was effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that as Our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom’” (ibid.). Temple sacrifices were now replaced by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, an unbloody re-presentation of the once-for-all Sacrifice of the Lamb of God on Calvary. 

Mystici Corporis Christi number 31 says: “With the rending of the veil of the temple, it happened that the gifts of the Paraclet, which heretofore had descended only on the fleece, that is on the people of Israel, fell copiously and abundantly (while the fleece remained dry and deserted) ON THE WHOLE EARTH, THAT IS ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (emphasis mine), which is confined by no boundaries of race or territory” (n. 31). Jesus had warned the Jews: “Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43).

Now, I will ask this question: how can the Church be born on Pentecost Day when Mystici Corporis Christi number 31 tells us that the Holy Spirit came upon the Church? Do you get the sense now!!

SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II

In his General Audience in 1979, Saint Pope John Paul II said, year after year, she spends also that period of ten days from Ascension to Pentecost in prayer to the Holy Spirit. In a certain sense the Church prepares, year after year, for the anniversary of her birth. She was born on the cross on Good Friday—as the Fathers teach; she revealed this birth of hers to the world on the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles were "clothed with power from on high" (Lk 24:49); when they were "baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). "Ubi enim Ecclesia, ibi et Spiritus Dei; ubi Spiritus Dei, illic Ecclesia et omnis gratia: Spiritus autem veritas" (Where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace: the Spirit is truth.") (St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, II, 24, 1: PG 7, 966.)

 The Holy Spirit thus initiated the mission of the Church, which was established for all people. But we cannot forget that the Holy Spirit was at work as an "unknown God" (cf. Acts 17:23) even before Pentecost. He was at work in a special way in the old covenant, enlightening and leading the Chosen People on the way which brought ancient history to the Messiah. He was at work in the messages of the prophets and in the writings of all the inspired authors. He was especially at work in the Incarnation of the Son. The Gospel of the annunciation witnesses to this, as does the history of the subsequent events connected with the incarnate Word's coming into the world and assuming human nature. The Holy Spirit was at work in the Messiah and surrounded the Messiah from the moment when Jesus began his messianic mission in Israel. On the day of Pentecost, Christ, who was now glorified after completing his mission, made "streams of living water" well up from within himself. He poured out the Spirit to fill the apostles and all believers with divine life. They were thus able to be "baptized in one Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor 12:13). It was the beginning of the Church's growth. (Saint Pope John Paul II. The birth of the Church at Pentecost. Catechesis no. 3).

Saint Pope John Paul II continued his catechesis thus: As the Second Vatican Council writes: "Christ sent from the Father his Holy Spirit, who was to carry on inwardly his saving work and prompt the Church to spread out. Doubtless, the Holy Spirit was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified. Yet on the day of Pentecost, he came down upon the disciples to remain with them forever (cf. Jn 14:16). The Church was publicly displayed to the multitude, the Gospel began to spread among the nations by means of preaching, and there was presaged that union of all peoples in the catholicity of the faith by means of the Church of the new covenant, a Church which speaks all tongues, understands and accepts all tongues in her love, and so supersedes the divisiveness of Babel (AG 4)". (Saint Pope John Paul II. The birth of the Church at Pentecost. Catechesis no. 4).

POPE BENEDICT XIV IN SUPPORT OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

Pope Benedict XIV wrote in Ex Quo number 16: “The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and that they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.” People who participate in ‘Seder meals’ are thus put on notice to cease this non-Catholic practice.

MEDIEVAL THEOLOGY ON THE BIRTH OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

Medieval theology is consistent with the Patristic doctrine concerning the birth of the Church from the Savior’s side on the Cross, as evidenced by two related works of art entitled “The Creation of Eve” and “The Birth of Ecclesia.” These instructive teaching tools are found within the pages of the French Gothic “Bible Moralisée” (1225-1249 A.D.), housed in Vienna.

Bible Moralisée Codex 2554, Folio 2v, National Library of Austria in Vienna

In the Crucifixion medallion we see our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, dead on the Cross.  Out of the Sacred Wound in His Side, made by the lance of the Soldier, we behold a young woman being born. She is holding a chalice in her hand and wearing a crown on her head. She is being received by God the Father. There are four men witnessing this birth from what appears to be a church building. They are wearing various forms of ecclesiastical garb. In another rendition of this image, there are more than four such men looking on.

Bible Moralisée Codex 1179, folio 3v, National Library of Austria in Vienna

The depiction of witnesses dressed in ecclesiastical garments of different kinds can represent the Fathers of the Church and others who testify to the unchanging truth of the birth of the Church at Calvary and the coinciding marriage of Christ to His Bride, the Church (Ecclesia).

In order to properly interpret the image of the Crucifixion, another small medallion is placed just above it. It depicts Eve being taken from the side of Adam. Pairs of animals of the creation of God are looking on. The face of God the Father receiving Eve, is the same as that of Adam, and identical to that of Christ and God the Father in the Crucifixion scene, to teach that Adam was made in “the image of God” (Gen 1:27).

In keeping with Biblical teaching and Catholic Tradition, we are visually instructed by comparing both images that Jesus Christ is the New Adam (cf. Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45). Just as the bride of the first Adam was taken from his side as he slept, so too is the Bride of Christ, the Church, taken from the Side of the Second Adam as He slept the sleep of death.

Violence is done to the Biblical and Traditional Church teaching of Jesus being the Second Adam by those who declare, whether innocently through unawareness or knowingly with malice, that the Church was born at Pentecost. Likewise, the Traditional Catholic belief of the Church as the Bride of Christ is also cast aside by those who disregard Tradition to bake birthday cakes for the Church at Pentecost. The Church, as the Bride of Christ, was born from the side of the Second Adam on Good Friday, from which further sound Traditional Catholic theology follows. This theology is negatively impacted by those who erroneously celebrate the birth of the Church at Pentecost.

In the images of the birth of the Church, the crown on the head of the Bride depicts the Jewish tradition of a crown being upon the head of the bride at an ancient wedding ceremony. The bridegroom would also wear a crown at the marriage ceremony. Jesus wore a Crown of Thorns on Good Friday, His wedding day with the Church.

The Chalice filled with the Precious Blood of Christ, held by the young woman (Ecclesia), hearkens back to the Wedding Feast of Cana, where Our Lord miraculously changed water into wine. Providing for the wine at a Jewish wedding was the responsibility of the bridegroom. The New Testament frequently refers to Jesus (the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity) as the Bridegroom (cf. Matthew 9:15, 25:1-13; Mark 2:19-20; Luke 5:34-35; John 3:29; Revelation 18:23), His Bride being the Church (cf. Ephesians 5:22-32; Revelation 19:7-9, 21:9-14). In the Old Testament, the covenant relationship between God and His people, sealed with the blood of animals, is also referred to in terms of a marriage (cf. Isaiah 50:1,54:5-10, 62:4-5; Jeremiah 2:1-2,32, 3:6-10,20,  31:31-34; Ezekiel 16:8-34, 59-60; Hosea 1:2, 2:7, 14-20, 9:1; Joel 1:8).

VENERABLE ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH IN SUPPORT OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

Of the birth of Eve in the Garden of Eden, with a reference to Good Friday, Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich, a religious sister and an acclaimed mystic, described the following vision: “… I saw Adam reclining on his left side, his left hand under his cheek.  God sent a deep sleep on him and he was rapt in vision. Then from his right side, from the same place in which the side of Jesus was opened by the lance, God drew Eve. I saw her small and delicate. But she quickly increased in size until full grown. She was exquisitely beautiful.” Mystics are typically dismissed by Modernists as not being credible. Yet it was a vision by Sister Emmerich that led to the discovery of the house of Our Lady and Saint John in Ephesus.

In an all-out attack on the Biblical belief that there was an actual Adam and Eve, we have the so-called ‘theory’ of evolution. The Godless secular dogma of ‘evolution’ was promoted by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of the Species (1859). This work of atheistic fantasy denied the Biblical belief that there was an actual Adam and Eve, created in the image and likeness of God. A Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (d. 1955) later wrote a book promoting evolution entitled The Phenomenon of Man in which he abandoned literal interpretations of the Book of Genesis, including the existence of Adam and Eve. The unproven evolutionary hypothesis provided a foundation for Communist movements all over the world. Our Lady of Fatima had warned that: “Russia would spread her errors throughout the world.” One of those foundational errors of Russian Communism is evolution.

To embrace evolution is to part ways with Adam and Eve. This leads to doing away with believing in the truths of the Bible and perennial Catholic Church teaching, which in turn can lead souls to accept the non-Catholic belief espoused by most Protestants that the Church was born at Pentecost. Eventually, evolution leads to the Communist ideal of disbelief in the existence of Almighty God.

DEACON KEITH FOURNIER IN SUPPORT OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH ON GOOD FRIDAY

In one of his articles, Deacon Keith Fournier writes: This is the Friday we call Good. This is the day when the whole world stands still. We recall the great Sacrifice offered on the second tree on the Hill of Golgotha. There, the one Saint Paul calls the New Adam (1 Cor.15), in the perfect obedience of love, did for us what we could not do on our own. There, Heaven was wed to earth. There, we were freed from the power of sin and death. There, we learn the Way of Crucified Love.  The mystery of the passion and crucifixion of the Lord has birthed some of the most profound reflections in the Christian Tradition. In Churches throughout the world, during the hours of 12:00 - 3: 00 p.m., devotions such as the stations or way of the cross and reflections on the last seven words of Jesus will draw the faithful more deeply into the meaning of this self emptying of Love Incarnate on the Altar of the Cross.  As I reflect on the mystery of this moment on this Friday we call Good, I am drawn back to some profound insights from the early fathers of the Church on the mystery we commemorate. They are based on that one line from the passion narrative with which I began “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”

“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist”.

Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam's side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.”

VATICAN II COUNCIL

The Fathers of Vatican II Council, in their Constitution on the Church, Light to the Nations, explained “The Church grows visibly through the power of God in the world. The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus (Lumen Gentium 3).” 

Thus, we are members of His Body, the Church. She was born from the wounded side of the Savior. He betroths her in His great self emptying on the Altar of the Cross. Through her Sacraments, Jesus, the head of the Body, continues to feed us all with the divine life we need to enter more fully into the new communion which is ours through this saving Paschal mystery.

THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The official teaching of the Catholic Church, The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 766) teaches that

“The Church is born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus. For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.  As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.”

From this perspective, the Church existed before the day of Pentecost, but the day of Pentecost brought something to the Church that was absolutely indispensable to its continuing life, ministry, and vitality.  Church doesn’t work without the Holy Spirit,

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1992.

David Endres. A question of faith: when was the church born? April 2, 2021. The Catholic Telegraph. https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/a-question-of-faith-when-was-the-church-born/73863 June 2 2022

Deacon Keith Fournier. Good Friday: The Church Born From the Wounded Side of Christ Pauses at the Cross. Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org). 4/7/2012. https://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=45613 June 2 2022

Ladis J. Cizik. Pentecost Reminder: The Church was Born on Good Friday. May 31, 2020  https://catholicfamilynews.com/blog/2020/05/31/pentecost-reminder-the-church-was-born-on-good-friday/ June 2 2022

Saint Augustine. Expositions on the Psalms, On Psalm 127, 4.

---- - - Commentary on the Gospel of St John, 120, 2.

Saint Pope John Paul II. The birth of the Church at Pentecost. Catechesis on the Church. General Audience, Wednesday 2 October 1991 

Saint Pope John Paul II. General Audience. Wednesday May 30 1979.

Vatican II Council, Lumen Gentium.

© Rev Fr Utazi Prince Marie Benignus Zereuwa 

June 1 2022