What should I tell people when they object to the crucifix?

[AlexCZ]

The other night, I was praying a Rosary with a non-Catholic friend who’s slowly becoming very interested in the Catholic Faith. Before we started praying, he looked at the crucifix on the Rosary and asked, “why is Jesus still on the Cross?” He than related that to the crucifix in Catholic churches and crucifixes many Catholics wear around their necks. I do not know how to answer that question of why Jesus is still on the Cross. I have an idea that it may be the image of the mass where Christ’s sacrifice is re-presented to us and given to us in His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and the Crucifix is making it more real to us by reminding us of what He did. Thank for your time.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

I would ask, why just the cross? The cross didn’t redeem us. It was Jesus ON the cross who redeemed us. Granted, the cross alone is much more pleasant to look at. The crucifix is messy. The passion was messy. Human sin is messy. But our God loves us THAT much. He chose to enter into our messiness. This is why we have the crucifix. We need to be focussed on who Jesus is and how far He was willing to go to demonstrate His infinte love for us. The passion is the very core of Christianity. Protestants tend to center themselves on the Bible. We center on the passion. As good as Sacred Scripture is, it is basically a composit of books about salvation. The passion IS our salvation.

You are correct about the Mass. The passion transcends time. It covers everyone who has ever lived or will live on this earth. But the passion also remains IN time as the Eucharist. The crucifix is the inanimate sign of His passion and the Eucharist is the LIVING sign of His passion.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.