Worshipping the Cross?

[LilyM]

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.

I don’t kiss the crucifix either, so don’t assume that everyone does.

Neither do I choose to receive in the hand as a matter of hygiene - although I do pass on the Chalice as a matter of hygiene.

I receive in the hand because my main associations of opening my mouth and putting out my tongue are a) being at the dentist or doctor or b) poking out my tongue to be rude to someone. As a result I am uncomfortable with the idea of doing so to receive Our Lord.

 

[bpbasilphx]

||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?||

**No.

It is understood that this is not the LATREIA owed to God alone.

In fact, this is a poor rendering of the Latin text: “Venite, adoremus.”

Are you worshipping a loved one with LATREIA when you kiss that person?

Only in that case can a person kissing the Cross said to be giving it LATREIA.**

 

[peary1]

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?

“Come let us worship” is understood as meaning worship of God, not the Cross. When the response is “Come let us worship” it invites us to begin the worship in the Liturgy.

Do you worship your parents when you give them a kiss? Or your kids? Grandkids? Let’s be serious here. It is a sign of devotion as well as the kiss of Jud****as that he gave to Jesus in the garden. We reflect on the fact that WE are Judas in the Garden who betrays Christ in how we live our lives and the sins that we commit.

From the last statement, I think you will never look upon that ‘kiss’ in the same light.

 

[Mintaka]

The reason we kiss the Cross in procession is very simple and very historical.

When the Roman empress St. Helena, Constantine’s mom, dug up Jesus’ cross and some others that were lying around Golgotha, she figured out which one it was by testing which one had healing power. (I seem to recall that she had some local cripples brought out, or some such, and had them touch the crosses she’d dug up in turn. The one that made them get up and walk was obviously the right one.)

Naturally, after seeing this, everybody and their uncle Bobbius wanted to touch or kiss the Cross. So that’s what they did – they lined up and touched or kissed it. And that’s what they continued to do in Jerusalem for years and years. Other places made their own pretend crosses, and did the same thing, as a sort of pretend pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (Much like the Stations of the Cross, which is a sort of mental pilgrimage to the Via Dolorosa.)

Eventually, they stopped having processions with the actual cross of Jesus, though, because somebody cut off a big chunk of the Cross while pretending to touch it and then carried it off in his mouth while pretending to kiss it. Usually, the only people who got pieces of the True Cross were foreign dignitaries whom Constantine or the later emperors were trying to make pacts with, so this was not just sacrilege; it was also a national security issue. It was like stealing the crown jewels, if the crown jewels were also incredibly holy. So that was the end of that.)

(And that’s why there are so many splinters of the True Cross kicking around – though they amount to less than a quarter of the volume of the original cross, according to the obsessive Victorian guy who studied every single splinter still in existence. It was a sort of Byzantine diplomatic gift, and the empire just dealt with an awful lot of people over the course of eleven hundred years.)

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

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.

When this was done an altar server would wipe the feet with a gauze and alcohol between each person.

 

[zab]

We don’t worship the cross as such, but we do venerate it, yes we do venerate the cross!

youtube.com/watch?v=MeS6o_HMMP0