Risen Christ Cross above Altar

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The Crucifixion is the most important event in Human history regarding our Salvation. The resurrection is the most important thing he did for us to help us believe in what He had done. That is a very good thing. Jesus smiles upon us as if to say “oh you of little faith”

To focus more on the resurrection than what He did on the Cross, is that not a self-serving act? The resurrection is a glorious part of our faith for sure. But it can be a distraction if we place it in front of the Crucifixion.

Jesus takes away the sins of the world upon the Cross. Pretty important. He forgives us from His Cross. He reconciles us to the Father from the Cross. Pretty important.

What was it that Jesus asked us to do until His return? What was He asking us to remember? What did he do?

What was it that Jesus asked us to remember front and center until His return? His resurrection or His Sacrifice?

Jesus asks us to not only love those that love us. He is asking us to love our enemies. Because if we cannot love our enemies how in the world can Jesus love us? Die for us?

There is another faith that puts more emphasis on the resurrection. Seems as thou I am responding to the LDS. I myself left it behind in order to become Catholic and pick up my Cross.

Replace the word Cross with the word Resurrection in the scriptures below. Let me take one.

*"Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the (resurrection) , and follow Me.” ~Mark 10:21

…the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Now that one does make sense, in a way

1 Corinthians 1:18

Chapter 5:4-5

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

“He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross."

Colossians 1:20

“…having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Colossians 2:14
 
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rich123456 said:
I went to Mass in a Church that has the Risen Christ reaching down from the Cross above the Altar.
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I am sorry that it does create a feeling that is unsettling for you.

Note what the Catechism has to say about Sunday:
2174 Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week.” Because it is the “first day,” the day of Christ’s Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day ( he kuriake hemera, dies dominica ) Sunday:
We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.
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rich123456 said:
There is another faith that puts more emphasis on the resurrection. Seems as thou I am responding to the LDS.
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Eastern Christianity, both Orthodox and Catholic, places more emphasis on the Resurrection than Western Christianity, whether Catholic or Protestant.

Our priest asked quite often whether we’re living in the DCrucification or the Resurrection, Good Friday or Pascha.
 
Frankly, I squirm when I see the Risen Christ on the Cross. It gives a misleading depiction of what happened.
Christ died on the Cross. He did not rise from the Cross. He rose from the tomb.
 
“Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.”

“You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human life, as well as the torture of the cross. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunity to grow as people and become more like you-make us realize that it is only by frequent deaths of ourselves, and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully, only by dying with you that we can rise with you.”
~Mother Teresa

“Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.”
― John Piper

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Here`s an idea.

A resurrected Christ requires a dead Christ who overcomes the power of Death and Satan and was who he claimed to be.
A risen “christ” reaching down from the Cross indicates a man who did not really die on the cross and therefore who did not redeem the world. i.e. the de-christianisation of Christianity.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The portrayal of Christ as suffering on the cross only dates to the 1200s in Italy, at which point Byzantine influence in general was waning and due to the influence of some Italian artists, the agonized Christ on the crucifix replaced the serene “Christus Gloriosus” of the Byzantines.
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Actually, there are examples of what we recognise as a Cruxifix from much earlier. I suspect that the available technology of the time limited the numbers that have survived however. Generally, the only way a surviving image of Christ crucified could survive the ravages of time would be if it was chiselled into the rock or the rock around the figure was chiselled away to create the surrounding cross. Obviously the details of the suffering Christ were difficult to reproduce due to the technology available to the craftsman. Here are a few examples:
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Here’s and idea.

A crucified Christ requires a dead Christ who does not overcome the power of death and satan and was who he claimed to be. A crucified Christ indicates a man who did really die on the cross and therefore did not redeem the world.

You can do that kind of reasonings both ways.
 
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IanM said:
Here`s an idea.

A resurrected Christ requires a dead Christ who overcomes the power of Death and Satan and was who he claimed to be.
A risen “christ” reaching down from the Cross indicates a man who did not really die on the cross and therefore who did not redeem the world. i.e. the de-christianisation of Christianity.
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You are wrong. Jesus really did die on the Cross. He rose from the tomb.
 
Thank you
“The cross means there is no shipwreck without hope; there is no dark without dawn; nor storm without heaven.”
― Pope John Paul II
If in our suffering, spending time with the suffering Christ, we do not see the hope of the Resurrection we may be missing the whole point of why we need the Crucifix at the Altar front and center.

~God Bless!
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Tolle_Lege said:
Having the “resurrexifix” or whatever others have called it, to me, leads to a false sense of security. As if “yes, without a doubt, we’re all going to rise with Christ!” It’s not a guarantee.
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Well, I am sorry that you might have a false sense of security.

But I would point out that while the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are intimately related, and while Good Friday is a solemn day, the highest, holiest day of the Liturgical Year is Easter - our celebration of the Resurrection.

Nor am I suggesting that contrary to Church rules, that no crucifix be in the sanctuary (we happen to have three there) but our main statue on the wall of the sanctuary is the Risen Christ.

And it does not make me even start down the road to thinking that I have a shoo-in. Rather, it gives me hope.

And in our parish, everyone can see the crucifix on the altar; as well as the one on the top of the tabernacle, and the processional crucifix is probably 18" tall; absolutely everyone can see it.
 
But a crucified Christ rises from the dead in the tomb after opening the gates of Heaven. A “christ” reaching down to the congregation or viewer from the cross misses the “death part” and the “resurrection part” And as St Paul says:

“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain”
1 Corithinians 15: 13-15
Douay-Rheims
 
The Heartbeat of our Faith is the Sacrament of Confession.
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The Crucifix is our grand entrance. A hospital for the sick with the great physician at the core. Behind it, in the distance is the empty tomb. If we cannot see how our sins played a part in the Crucifixion than how can we ever be healed here today? The Crucifix says, Come to His Cross, confess your sins there under its shadow. Allow Christ to take away whatever it is that’s holding us back, making us feel less than who we really are. Embrace Jesus in His suffering so He can embrace us in ours. Let’s do this together with Jesus, lets carry this Cross with Him in order to be with Him through the darkness that takes away the sins of the world. Together with the whole church lets unlock the chains that hold us back from everything that is good and pleasing to God.
Preaching Christ Crucified, with the Crucifix front and center helps us take away a false sense of self, by confronting our sin. At Confession God runs to greet us as we run to greet him. It is loves embrace these confessionals that we have. The Crucifix in each Catholic Church is for us to understand why Saint Paul says we must preach Christ Crucified. Take responsibility, lose the false image of self, allow it to die in Christ. Then and only then can we turn our eyes towards Easters joy. The Glorious Resurrection. To die in Christ in order to rise in Christ. The Resurrection Cross I believe blocks the view of the Confessionals. Especially for those who are not of our faith. Who may be visiting. Or unaware of why we as Catholics preach Christ Crucified. All the answers to the ills of the world are discovered by the way of the Cross.

Quote “transformation is all about going down–into the pain, into the ordinary, into the physical, into the bloody, into the concrete. It’s about descent not ascent, not heightened states of consciousness. In other words, until we can see God where we did not want to see God, the world remains a secular, dualistic world.This is a difficult concept, and a long process” ~Unknown(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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IanM said:
A “christ” reaching down to the congregation or viewer from the cross misses the “death part” and the “resurrection part”
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One could say that a crucified Christ misses the “resurrection part”. That was my point.

I’m not against crucifixes. I just wanted to point out all the theological word play people do to justify certain iconographic choices, when that word play can be used to justify anything.
 
If one is missing the Crucifixion while gazing upon the Resurrected Christ . I would say they need more catechist.
 
According to the Church, the Mass is both a sacrifice and a sacred meal; and that sacred meal consists of his risen body and blood.

I have not disagreed that a crucifix must be present on the altar; I think if you look at my posts (because I am in a parish with a Risen Christ statue above the altar) that I have said repeatedly that we have not one but three crucifixes present in the sanctuary during Mass.

And while I choose not to backtrack, someone with knowledge of the Eastern rites has noted that for several (if not more) centuries, they have had the Risen Christ.

And yes, it probably dates back to the 1970’s where the figure of the Risen Christ started to be placed above the altar. But the bottom line is that Rome has seen fit to not say that is improper (the rule is that a crucifix must be in the sanctuary), and I will presume good faith that the parishes which have the Risen Christ comply with that.

But the bottom line is that it is theologically a matter of personal taste as to which one we like or dislike; theologically it is a profound statement just as the crucifix is a profound statement. And as I noted, the two are intimately related; we celebrate the two matters within the period of 3 days; but the highest, holiest day liturgically in the Church is not Good Friday; it is Easter Sunday. The point being, sometimes we need to get past personal taste and look to see if perhaps there is a very solid theological statement being made, rather than just having a fast emotional response and then being dismissive…

I submit the Risen Christ does make that theological statement. I understand that when people are so solidly used to one visual statement, that a different one can be jarring, even upsetting. I would also suggest that it is not wrong to have personal preferences, but simply dismissing it as a “70’s thing” fails to see what the Church sees; that Easter - Christ risen - is the foundational proof of what we believe.

And none of my comments should be used to say that I prefer one over the other. Both can be profound statements about our faith, and I would hope that maybe once in a while we could put aside our personal likes and dislikes to look beyond them at what is being stated.
 
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