Article: "Why Do Catholics Use Crucifixes?" Keeping Jesus on the Cross

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DaddyGirl said:
I hope one day, the crucifix image will be used less often.

There is much more to his life and death than that torturous image, and people are well aware he unfortunately had to die using such a barbaric method.

From what I’ve read, the crucifix was not used as a symbol until the 6th or 7th century?

Maybe at some point…christians as a group will decide he has suffered long enough up there, and decide to present a different image.

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RSV:CE, 1 Corinthians 1:22-24:
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
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And as far as “christians as a group” are concerned, do note that most Protestants don’t use the crucifix. That was the whole point of that apologetics article, to justify why Catholics use crucifixes… :rolleyes:
 
We are informed that, with God, there is no “time”. He is outside time, and all things are immediately present to Him because nothing that was, is or will be, exists outside the Mind of God.

Now, if Jesus was God, the crucifixion is as present to Him today as it was when He hung from the cross, and it was present to Him from all eternity.

We live in time, and we perceive eternity as a timeline, but acknowledge that we really can’t grasp “eternity” in its real sense; never beginning and never ending. Our minds demand starting points, now, and ending points because we are what we are and a true sense of eternity is beyond us until we are in the full presence of God. We sin always, and the sin of today was present to Jesus on the cross, and His suffering is as much for our sins 10,000 years from now as it was 10,000 years before His birth. It is because He is outside time that such a thing is possible.

Protestants “divinize” the timeline, which is why they don’t put a corpus on crosses. (“Immanentizing the eschaton” as some put it.) And yet, paradoxically and irrationally, they accept it that Jesus suffered and died for things that had not even happened yet. Nor do they believe in praying for the dead, because they don’t believe it will serve any purpose; the “time” for redemption being irrevocably “past”.

Is it ridiculous to think a God who is capable of keeping the movement of every atom in His mind at every moment, cannot or would not suffer from all eternity and into all eternity for our offenses against Him? Do we think somehow that He did not, does not, suffer for sins committed after 33 A.D.?

Personally, I think the presence of the corpus of Jesus on the cross is a far more potent and evocative communication of the reality of His sacrifice than the empty cross Protestants prefer.
 
There is no emotion connected with a plain wooden cross. We all believe Jesus rose from the dead, but when I see the figure of Jesus on the cross, I can’t help but feel sorrow for what He had to endure for my sins.
 
truetofaith said:
There is no emotion connected with a plain wooden cross. We all believe Jesus rose from the dead, but when I see the figure of Jesus on the cross, I can’t help but feel sorrow for what He had to endure for my sins.
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Exactly!In my parish we have 12ft crucifix behind the alter.It is a beautiful rendition in that while it depicts the immense suffering Our Lord endured ,his eyes are cast heavenward,seemingly a sign for all of us to keep in mind. Every time I am at Mass and glance at this beautiful crucifix,I am compelled to say"Jesus,I love you" 🙂
 
We don’t know how HE looked alive. Art depicting HIM is beautiful, but it’s guesswork.

But on the Cross, He’s unmistakable. Sadly, it was for that hour that HE came.

ICXC NIKA.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I hope one day, the crucifix image will be used less often.

There is much more to his life and death than that torturous image, and people are well aware he unfortunately had to die using such a barbaric method.

From what I’ve read, the crucifix was not used as a symbol until the 6th or 7th century?

Maybe at some point…christians as a group will decide he has suffered long enough up there, and decide to present a different image.

.
Click to expand...
Another concern is that newer generations could easily lose sight of Christ’s suffering for our redemption. I certainly would not forget at my age, but children growing up without such remembrances (i.e. crucifix) could very easily enter a state of taking Christ-crucified for granted without a genuine understanding of at least some of the depth of his humiliation and suffering for our salvation.
 
Cincinnatus1788 said:
Another concern is that newer generations could easily lose sight of Christ’s suffering for our redemption. I certainly would not forget at my age, but children growing up without such remembrances (i.e. crucifix) could very easily enter a state of taking Christ-crucified for granted without a genuine understanding of at least some of the depth of his humiliation and suffering for our salvation.
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Thank God for movies like, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
 
DaddyGirl said:
I hope one day, the crucifix image will be used less often.

There is much more to his life and death than that torturous image, and people are well aware he unfortunately had to die using such a barbaric method.

From what I’ve read, the crucifix was not used as a symbol until the 6th or 7th century?

Maybe at some point…christians as a group will decide he has suffered long enough up there, and decide to present a different image.

.
Click to expand...
Back in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, many churches did get rid of their crucifixes and replaced them with “risen Christs”. Only recently have some of these churches realized their mistake. Christ on the Cross embodies everything Christians believe and is the most profound way to show Our Lord’s Divine love.
 
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