Worshipping the Cross?

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On Good Friday, the service starts with the priest leading a procession with a cross covered with a cloth. As the procession moves fwd, he says:
“This is the wood of the cross on which hung the Saviour of the world”
and the response is :
“Come let us worship”

My question:
Are we worshipping the wood of the cross?

Also,
On that day, we go up in a line and kiss the cross.

Isn’t that worship?
 
Definitely not, merely a way of expressing our love and sorrow. Think of kissing the cross in the same way as someone would kiss the photo of a loved one.

I’m wondering about the words used in the procession. In our church, the Deacon sings ‘This is the wood of the cross, on which our Redeemer died’, and we reply ‘Come, come, let us adore the Saviour of the world’. that makes it obvious where the focus of our worship lies.
 
I’m more than certain it wouldn’t mean worshiping the cross. It’s certainly evident that they mean, “Come let us worship” with implied subject of worship being Jesus.

Key note: The Catholic Church would never have you worship a creature, but only God Himself.
 
kiranignatius said:
On Good Friday, the service starts with the priest leading a procession with a cross covered with a cloth. As the procession moves fwd, he says:
“This is the wood of the cross on which hung the Saviour of the world”
and the response is :
“Come let us worship”

My question:
Are we worshipping the wood of the cross?

Also,
On that day, we go up in a line and kiss the cross.

Isn’t that worship?
Click to expand...
This has been somewhat confusing in the past years. The “Cross” should be a Crucifix. The response should be understood as “Come let us worship our Lord on the cross”. We are not worshiping the cross but Our Lord, and we should be kissing the feet of the figure of Christ on the Crucifix as a means of expressing our love for Christ.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
This has been somewhat confusing in the past years. The “Cross” should be a Crucifix. The response should be understood as “Come let us worship our Lord on the cross”. We are not worshiping the cross but Our Lord, and we should be kissing the feet of the figure of Christ on the Crucifix as a means of expressing our love for Christ.
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Absolutely, Our separated brothers are unable to express their love of the Savior in this way and as a Catholic I do not understand why, They do use the cross, however, but only as a symbol of the Resurrection. I do not know if they have services during Easter other than the Resurrection, I do not know, either, if they observe the 40 days of Lent.Peace and God bless us all,:)Carlan
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
This has been somewhat confusing in the past years. The “Cross” should be a Crucifix. The response should be understood as “Come let us worship our Lord on the cross”. We are not worshiping the cross but Our Lord, and we should be kissing the feet of the figure of Christ on the Crucifix as a means of expressing our love for Christ.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that? I thought it was a reminder for us to take up our own cross and follow Jesus, therefore we embrace the cross on which Jesus died. But as you said , we are not worshiping the cross, we worship Jesus. By the way, I kiss the wood of the cross.
 
Also, it is called “Veneration of the Cross”, which means that we give “profound respect” for the cross. We are not adoring it.
 
Part of what you are seeing in the use of “worship” in this way is a linguistic problem. Catholics use “adoration” = Latria in Latin for the worship due God, and God alone. “Veneration” = Dulia in Latin for the respect due to the saints, the cross or such. Unfortunately English can apply “worship” to either concept creating the confusion. Consider the British usage of “Your Worship” for judges and certain other officers. No one considers that usage as implying idolatry. It simply applies to someone worthy of respect.

So the answer is that Catholics do not practice idolatry of the cross, saints, etc. English, however, can by its nature introduce some confusion due to the use of “Worship” in some settings as you have seen.
 
The English term worship can be used to mean various things.

The British Protestant form of Marriage (at least in the past) referred the husband worshiping his wife.

Judges could be called ‘your worship’ like here they are called your honor.

So the term can mean – the absolute adoration given to God alone. And it can be used in to refer to what we would ordinarily call ‘honor’. Even that of a husband towards his wife.

So much for English.

Now.

The Absolute worship of Latria is offered to GOD alone (any Person of the Trinity).

**relative **worship is given to the cross…or one could say that it is given to Christ via the cross. (or given to other images of God)

for relative means that it passes to the person the image represents.

Honor or dulia is given to the Saints and Angels and in the case of Our Lady it is the highest honor given to a human person. (hyperdulia)

Relative honor of dulia etc is given them via images.

So the honor…adoration…veneration of the cross is “relative” meaning one is worshiping Christ through the cross or image…it passes to him.

**Sort of like the relative honor one does for the country when one salutes the flag.
One is honoring the country. **

so the rite on Good Friday is thus called either veneration of the cross or the adoration of the cross. (interchangably in terms of the cross…for it represents Christ…and depending on what one is trying to say) for in this case one is worshiping in a relative way …GOD via the cross.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new “economy” of images.

2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it."70 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.71
 
In the Gregorian Missal it is:

Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit. Venite, adoremus.

Here is the wood of the cross, that carried the savior of the world. Come, let us adore.

In French: “Voici le bois de la croix, qui a porté le salut du monde. Venez, adorons-le”.

Note in the French “official” translation (my English translation is mine, not official), it says “adorons-le”. The pronoun for “cross” would be “venez, adorons-la” as “cross” is feminine, and the pronoun used is masculine.

That clearly indicates that it is He, the saviour of the world, we are to worship, not the Cross.

This brings to mind a funny incident that happened at the World Oblate’s Congress in Rome last October. We had simultaneous translation. During question period one gentleman from France whom I befriended, made a comment about the veneration of the Blessed Virgin: “nous vénérons la Vierge Marie”, he said. However the translator translated it as “we worship the Virgin Mary”. I hadn’t heard that, being fluent in French I listened to the comment without translation, and I couldn’t figure out the moans and nasty comments in the crowd until someone English speaking said “he just said that we worship the Virgin Mary, we do NOT we venerate her!”

Of course he used the French word for “venerate” in his comment! Fortunately during the lunch, the moderator of the congress made a comment to say that a translation mistake was made, and the comment in French was indeed “venerate the Virgin Mary”, not “worship”.

One wonders if wars didn’t start just because of a slip-up of by a translator. The English-speaking delegates appeared ready to lynch the poor guy!!!
 
From the GIRM the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
  1. A genuflection, made by bending the right knee to the ground, signifies adoration, and therefore it is reserved for the Most Blessed Sacrament, as well as for the Holy Cross from the solemn adoration during the liturgical celebration on Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.
again it is relative…it passes to Christ.
 
johnnykins said:
Part of what you are seeing in the use of “worship” in this way is a linguistic problem. Catholics use “adoration” = Latria in Latin for the worship due God, and God alone. “Veneration” = Dulia in Latin for the respect due to the saints, the cross or such. Unfortunately English can apply “worship” to either concept creating the confusion. Consider the British usage of “Your Worship” for judges and certain other officers. No one considers that usage as implying idolatry. It simply applies to someone worthy of respect.

So the answer is that Catholics do not practice idolatry of the cross, saints, etc. English, however, can by its nature introduce some confusion due to the use of “Worship” in some settings as you have seen.
Click to expand...
And there you have it! 🙂
 
From the GIRM the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
  1. **A genuflection, made by bending the right knee **to the ground, **signifies **adoration, and therefore it is reserved for the Most Blessed Sacrament, as well as for the Holy Cross from the solemn adoration during the liturgical celebration on Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.
again it is relative…it passes to Christ.
see fuller answer above
 
Carlan said:
Absolutely, Our separated brothers are unable to express their love of the Savior in this way and as a Catholic I do not understand why, They do use the cross, however, but only as a symbol of the Resurrection. I do not know if they have services during Easter other than the Resurrection, I do not know, either, if they observe the 40 days of Lent.Peace and God bless us all,:)Carlan
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Today’s morning reading was from 1st Corinthians 1:18, 22-25;

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.;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. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” **

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark
 
Bookcat said:
From the GIRM the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:
  1. **A genuflection, made by bending the right knee **to the ground, **signifies **adoration, and therefore it is reserved for the Most Blessed Sacrament, as well as for the Holy Cross from the solemn adoration during the liturgical celebration on Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.
again it is relative…it passes to Christ.
see fuller answer above
Click to expand...
We adore Christ, we venerate the cross and the image on the cross.
 
br. Rich sfo said:
this has been somewhat confusing in the past years. The “cross” should be a crucifix. The response should be understood as “come let us worship our lord on the cross”. We are not worshiping the cross but our lord, and we should be kissing the feet of the figure of christ on the crucifix as a means of expressing our love for christ.
Click to expand...
bingo!
 
zab said:
We are venerating the cross, on which Christ died for our salvation.
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I think the WHOLE phrase needs to be considered. We don’t just leave it at ‘this is the wood of the Cross’, after all, but rather ‘this is the wood of the Cross … on which hung the Saviour of the World’.

So the worship is absolutely directed at the Saviour of the World who hung upon the cross, not the cross itself.

Good point about the original language and what other countries translate it as, too.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
This has been somewhat confusing in the past years. The “Cross” should be a Crucifix. The response should be understood as “Come let us worship our Lord on the cross”. We are not worshiping the cross but Our Lord, and we should be kissing the feet of the figure of Christ on the Crucifix as a means of expressing our love for Christ.
Click to expand...
I’ve seen this on Good Friday.

However, what I questioned was why these same people who thought communion on the tongue spread disease were the same ones who thought nothing of kissing the same crucifix. But I digress, my apologies.
 
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