The risen Christ crucifix

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Monica4316

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I see in many Novus Ordo parishes they have the risen Christ cross rather than the traditional crucifix. I’m just wondering - what is the reasoning behind it? how did it start? who started it? etc.

Of course the Resurrection is important but I prefer the traditional crucifix because it helps to understand what Jesus went through for us. We know He is risen because we receive Him in the Eucharist. We remember what He went through when we look at the crucifix.
 
Ah, the Resurrectifixes. 😛

I am speaking anecdotally, but I believe the reasoning is to focus the congregation on the joy of the Resurrection rather than the pain of the Cross. Perhaps they might add for good measure that “We are a resurrection people.” Personally, I find the resurrectfixes somewhat cringe-inducing.

I’m sure that whoever started that trend (as well as those who continue it) have their hearts in the right place, but I think it is a disservice to the Paschal Mystery – in addition to being questionable from an art and environment perspective. We needn’t gloss over the Crucifixion. Indded, there is great danger in doing so. The Resurrection without the Crucifixion is stripped of its meaning.
 
Take a closer look. You might be surprised.

My retiring pastor just replaced a “Risen” corpus with a “Crucified” one (during Triduum - exceptional timing if you’re going to make the change anyway). My observation of the “Risen” corpus changed in the years I attended here, however. The “Risen” corpus has nails in his hands and feet, not holes where nails had been. Also, the eyes are closed, not open. The only features that make this corpus “risen” are the lack of a pained expression, the presence of clothing and the upright position of the head.

That tells me the “Risen” corpus is actually a peaceful representation of Jesus Crucified. Meditating on this unexpected appearance, I am reminded of certain words He spoke:
John 10:17-18
I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.

That is: despite the torment He endured, Jesus willingly laid down His life out of love “for his friends.” True, we can meditate on that very thing looking at the usual, violent corpus. This peaceful one seems to speak that passage only, but more loudly than otherwise.
 
First: Jesus did not rise form the cross - He paid for our sins on the cross. Second: To overlay a resurrected Christ upon the cross tends to minimize the focus on His passion and death. It obscures a necessary part of the message. I see an attempt to make the morbid crucifix into a positive emblem of joy at the resurrection. It has the emotional hallmark of good intentions written upon it, but it lacks truth. Something this hokey just has to have come from 1970s America.
 
Monica4316 said:
I see in many Novus Ordo parishes they have the risen Christ cross rather than the traditional crucifix. I’m just wondering - what is the reasoning behind it? how did it start? who started it? etc.
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Never heard of a Novus Ordo parish. There’s St. Mary’s parish, and Mother Seton’s parish, and St. Joseph’s parish, and Holy Family parish, and St. Ignatius parish, but no St. Novus Ordo parish in my area.
 
The Church I was in had a Resurrectifix growing up for about 5 or 6 years that was used as the processional cross (they had a larger than full size Crucifix along the back wall). Well, we got a traditional pastor and one of his first actions was to get a real crucifix for the processional cross. I don’t know how that fad started, but I hope it gets wiped out quickly…
 
I’ve been seeing a few of these lately. I prefer the crucifix as well. My question is: Are they allowed to display the Resurrected Christ outside of Easter?

I’ve always thought the Resurrected Christ was a much odder thing then the crucifix (and it took me awhile to be okay with the crucifix!)
 
We have an “Ascension-fix”. If it was depicting the resurrection, Jesus would be naked. We do have a crucifix in the daily Mass chapel though. I’d rather have a crucifix myself. Check this out…made of glass and everything.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

It’s not the best picture, but it’s so big that any close up pictures will only show a small portion.
 
I am a Lutheran but figured I would share. The church I attended for a few years(I moved) had a beautiful wodden crucifix abover the altar, but has a processional resurectifux.
As stated above Jesus did not rise from the cross. I was not a big fan of it. But as long as it is a symbol and helps people with their faith i am ok with it.
Have you ever seen one of these. Now I am no Theology scholar, but I am pretty sure their was no Holy Spirit Dove on the cross.
http://www.kevinmayhew.com/media/ca...ab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/8/m8070318_4.jpg
 
since there are no detailed images yet, I looked online to try to find the offending image
http://www.valpo.edu/facilities/chapel/assets/images/christusrex.jpg
this seems very incorrect to me - very much a “glorified” appearance so it’s not a crucified Christ at all


likewise - eyes open and lands not even aligned with crossbeam

http://www.saintcatherine.com/virtualtour/Virtual_Tour_images/Crucifix.jpg
Plainly a variation of the second. However, the eyes seem to be closed here. It’s difficult to tell if the hands align with the crossbeam or of there are nails in the hands and feet, so this might be a “peaceful crucified” image like the one that was just replaced at my parish.
 
SonCatcher said:
since there are no detailed images yet, I looked online to try to find the offending image
http://www.valpo.edu/facilities/chapel/assets/images/christusrex.jpg
this seems very incorrect to me - very much a “glorified” appearance so it’s not a crucified Christ at all

http://www.notredamenhp.org/html/db_ResCross1.jpg
likewise - eyes open and lands not even aligned with crossbeam

http://www.saintcatherine.com/virtualtour/Virtual_Tour_images/Crucifix.jpg
Plainly a variation of the second. However, the eyes seem to be closed here. It’s difficult to tell if the hands align with the crossbeam or of there are nails in the hands and feet, so this might be a “peaceful crucified” image like the one that was just replaced at my parish.
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Does it not tend to obscure the message of the Sacrifice? At mass, as an integral part, we do celebrate the Resurrection, since, as Saint Paul says "If Christ be not risen from the dead, our preaching and your faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:14). However, during the same mass, we “proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until You come in glory”.

I will be glad to see these disappear.
 
My recollection is that these crosses with the Resurrected Christ first started in the Episcopal Church.

I can remember back over 20 years ago seeing them at some parishes.

In my opinion it is another innovation taken from the protestants.

If one is not careful, soon their will be an empty cross which is typical of almost every protestant church who even has a cross, even many Anglican or Epsicopal churches only have a cross.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette
 
I am not crazy about the images of the Risen Christ on a Cross, but I do think that in the past we tended to downplay the Resurrection as compared to the Crucifixion. We have to remember that neither one is complete without the other, and if it were not for the Resurrection, there would be no Christianity and sin and death would not have been defeated. Jesus’ death would have been just the death of another criminal at the hands of the Romans. Even the Eucharist would not have it’s meaning, there would be no Eucharist as Christianity would have died out with Good Friday. I think it is good that we are paying more attention to the Resurrection. I grew up pre-Vatican II, and of course we celebrated Easter and the Ascension, etc., but the Crucifixion got way more attention., which really is not correct to do.

My church actually has a Risen Christ above the altar sans cross. It took a while to get used to when they built the new church, and has raised many eyebrows, but I’ve kind of grown attached to it and have been able to meditate upon it. It’s not going to go away, might as well be positive.
 
CB_Catholic said:
My church actually has a Risen Christ above the altar sans cross. It took a while to get used to when they built the new church, and has raised many eyebrows, but I’ve kind of grown attached to it and have been able to meditate upon it. It’s not going to go away, might as well be positive.
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There is still a liturgical requirement that a crucifix be prominently displayed during masses. In some cases, one of the altar servers processes in and out carrying the crucifix, which is then placed in a stand near the altar.
 
BernadetteM said:
My recollection is that these crosses with the Resurrected Christ first started in the Episcopal Church.

I can remember back over 20 years ago seeing them at some parishes.

In my opinion it is another innovation taken from the protestants.

If one is not careful, soon their will be an empty cross which is typical of almost every protestant church who even has a cross, even many Anglican or Epsicopal churches only have a cross.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette
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As to it being of protestant influence, I think you are quite right. It was probably meant to tone down the impact of the crucifix, but this was most likely a popular desire, and not a clerical one. What pains me is that so many practices have crept in - those which are neither specifically allowed, nor specifically prohibited. I can see resurrection crosses arriving along with hand holding and folk music.
 
po18guy said:
There is still a liturgical requirement that a crucifix be prominently displayed during masses. In some cases, one of the altar servers processes in and out carrying the crucifix, which is then placed in a stand near the altar.
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Yes, we meet that requirement. I’m just commenting on the Risen Christ statue in my church.
 
BernadetteM said:
My recollection is that these crosses with the Resurrected Christ first started in the Episcopal Church.

I can remember back over 20 years ago seeing them at some parishes.
Click to expand...
Just to fill in the timeline, I know these have been around the Catholic Church longer than 20 years. The parish I grew up in had one and it has been there ever since I can remember (it was probably put in place in the late 70’s or very early 80’s). The old Crucifix it replaced was moved to the stairwell of the adjoining school. It was certainly a sight to be hold going up and down those stairs as a youngster! 😛

But ours wasn’t a true Resurrectifix. It was basically just a statue of the Resurrected Jesus on the wall right behind the altar. There was a much smaller, plain brass cross in the upper left-hand corner of that same wall. I think they swapped them out when they put in the stain glass windows on either side of the altar. The one on the left depicted the cross with the nails, the spear, etc (but no Jesus) and the one on the right depicted the cross with a book with seven seals and a lamb on top of it. Thus, they would point it out as “Christ has died [first window], Christ is risen [Resurrectifix behind the altar], Christ will come again [second window].” That’s somewhat catechetical, I suppose. I don’t know how they’ll explain it once the new Missal comes out, though. 😛
 
First of all, there is no such thing as a NO parish.

Second, the Crucifix is liturgically required to be present in the sanctuary during the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. It can be a permanent one or it can be temporary. The processsional Crucifix fufills this obligation if it has the Corpus displayed (really, a Cross without a Corpus is not a Crucifix at all, so a Resurrected Christ isn’t on a Crucifix).

Third, the image of Christ the King surmounted on the Cross is very traditional in the Catholic Church. This depicts the Holy One clad in the robes of a Latin Rite priest (stole and chasuble, perhaps the maniple as well) with a royal crown on His Head. That, or a Resurrected Christ is perfectly acceptable in the Sanctuary, as long as the liturgical dirrectives are fufilled.
 
po18guy said:
Well, thank the Lord for that! I just see this entire thing as a blurring of images, and a softening of the message.
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Amen … !

It’s hard to say it better and more simply than you did in the first post po18guy :
po18guy said:
First: Jesus did not rise form the cross - …
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A priest friend of mine (member of a well known [world wide] religious order here ) from whom I received spiritual direction for many years , became upset when the Crucifix in the main chapel of their community was replaced with one almost identical to the second image posted by SonCatcher [post # 10] ; the difference was that the corpus on the one [actually JKirkLVNV is right - technically it wasn’t “on” but more adjacently “in front” of the accompanying cross] at the community wasn’t colored at all - completely white.

At the time it took place, this priest had been serving as chaplain of a large long term/palliative care institution . He went to his superior and requested the Crucifix be returned to its proper place in the sanctuary and the Resurrectifix/Ascentionifix be taken down.

When asked by his superior for reasons to substantiate the request, Father simply replied: "Because Christ is still being crucified in His Mystical Body - in the patients I meet and administer to each day. "

They granted Father’s request a couple of days later.

🙂

As you guys have said , whoever thought that image up may have had good intentions, but to me, an image like that, particularly replacing a central Crucifix in a location where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is being celebrated, tends to suggest more the words “Do that in memory of me” rather than, “Do this in memory of me.”
 
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