Why the crucifix?

[marieLee]

I really do not know whether I should ask this question or bring it up for general discussion and sharing. Again it was a question raised by our brethen from other denominations but I must admit it actually also crossed my mind as well.

Why is it that only the Catholic Church has the figure of Our Lord still nailed to the cross, when He is already risen and is with the Father in Heaven?

It is like not releasing him from the pain and anguish, His blood keeps on flowing and His sufferings never end. I would really love to see a cross showing the risen Christ, because He has gone to be with the Father and in His place He has sent the Counselor-the Holy Spirit to enpower us. Am I wrong to think of it that way?

MarieLee
http:www//marieleespiritual.blogspot.com

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi Marie Lee,

The Catholic Church was boldly proclaiming Christ’s resurrection and ascension for sixteen centuries before Protestantism was ever on the scene. We are well aware that He is risen. It does not follow that because we remember His passion, that this means that we are denying His resurrection. Because we remember September eleventh and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, this does not mean that we that we think it is still happening now. But it is important that we not forget what happened in New York on that day—and all the people who died in their effort to save others.

All the more should we not forget what happened on Good Friday! Good Friday is the most important day in the history of our race because on that day almighty God suffered and died for us. In doing so, He showed us something of the immensity of His divine love and how our feeble minds are to grasp its full significance. The crucifix reminds us of that love in a way that a mere cross does not.

More than any other thing we can think of, we need to remember and reverence the blood that He shed for us. But most of all, He DESIRES that we remember it. He deliberately left us a continuing memorial of His passion in the Eucharist. When we see His blood separate from His body on the altar, we see the sign of His death and we worship Him as we remember. While the crucifix is the inanimate sign of His passion, the Eucharist is the LIVING sign of His passion. We need both. We don’t want to be in denial of the unpleasantness of what He endured. On the contrary, we want to unite our very lives to it.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.