'Miracles happen on this site'
Throngs of faithful flock to Thermal to bear witness to apparition that appeared 3 years ago
Darrell Smith
The Desert Sun
March 26, 2005
Three years ago, just after midnight on Ash Wednesday, a light shone in the back window of a home at the end of a dirt road among the date groves.
The light shone in the sign of the cross, a call to the faithful.
So they came in droves sometimes 20 deep, the faithful, the skeptical and the curious, too, lining the dirt road to Jesus and Concepcion Aceves' Thermal home, to pray, to wonder, to question, to believe.
Three years later, on Good Friday, the day Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, the cross still shines in the window, and the faithful gathered again at the end of the road to bear witness to the miracle before them.
Only now, the back door is surrounded by flowers and crucifixes, portraits of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
What once was a home has become a church and a refuge for the devout.
What once was a back yard is now an outdoor sanctuary under a canopy of date palms, its seats filled with 50, then 100, then 200 people, coming by car and by the busload to this spot from Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Francisco to witness the luminous cross.
"The mystery of the cross is still there, and it's touched the people who are still there," the Rev. John Connor, pastor of Our Lady of Soledad Church in Coachella, said Thursday. "It seems it's more realistic now than when it was a curiosity," Connor continued. "People benefit more now than in the beginning."
The simplest explanation for the cross of light may be refraction - the way light beams bend and change.
But for the devout, explanations don't matter. Their faith does. In the past year, the faithful have come for weekly services here and for a glimpse of the phenomenon.
And, just as in those first nights three years ago, these pilgrims say they are witness to something special here in the date groves, something beyond their grasp.
The mystery is still there, and it has found a welcoming host in the Aceveses, a family seemingly duty-bound to share their gift with the throngs of the devoted who have found their way to the home off Avenue 57.
"This family has passed a lot of tests," said Maria Consuelo Hernandez of La Quinta, who has come to this site ever since the apparition first appeared. "Jesus said, 'I'm here. I'm testing you.'"
Coral Aceves, Jesus and Concepcion's granddaughter, who said her faith has grown in the years since the apparition first appeared, adding that the novelty of the cross of light has long since faded for the curious.
"Most people who come here have faith. We're way past (the curiosity) stage now. They come here by word of mouth. They need something. They want to heal in some way," she said, then added, "Miracles happen on this site."
On Good Friday afternoon, they arrived, some old, some young, some with the aid of a cane, some in wheelchairs, all clutching rosaries, to hear testimony and recite the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy over the occasional crowing of roosters.
At the pulpit, the woman behind the microphone spoke of this home as if it were hallowed ground, the cross as if it were a sacred space.
"This place is a special place because one day we will be asking for His forgiveness before this cross," the woman said. "This is the place where the Lord will hide you from your enemies, because the light from this cross will shine so brightly that it will hide you."
Under a peach tree, a priest offered confession. And at the rear of this backyard sanctuary, Herminia Otseott told why she traveled from San Francisco to be here. The reason shone in front of her.
"You see that luminous cross? It's because of the luminous cross. God can do anything he wants to," Otseott said.
That's why the cross shines here, she said, why it emanates from behind this door.
"God is light. It's a sign. God is the light, no one else. It's why He uses the door," she said. "You don't walk in a house through a window. You use the door. He's the way. He's the door. That's it."
Otseott turned to the date grove behind her. She believes there's a plan for this plot of land higher than herself.
"People are going to come from all over. That's why God picked this place."
