First Teachers of their Children – Part 2

Monthly Spiritual Message, September 2014
Fr John Cooper OFM Cap

The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross is for Catholics, the simplest, but most profound profession of faith. It is our way of recalling the passion of Christ and applying it to ourselves. It is a profession of our belief in the Most Holy Trinity.

In touching our forehead we proclaim that we believe with all our mind; in touching our chest we believe with all our heart and in touching our shoulders we believe with our whole being, that Jesus Christ has died for us on the Cross. We believe he is the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, who was incarnated as a child because of love for us and who died for us on the Cross to restore our freedom and showed us the way to heaven. It is not extreme to say that this sign is an expression of our whole Catholic faith. Let us make it with clear intention and certain faith.

Making the Sign of the Cross on the forehead, with the thumb, can be traced back with certainty to 200AD, but quickly it became a larger gesture. St Francis, so attuned to the Church, most probably followed the instructions of Pope Innocent III (1198 – 1216) in making the Sign of the Cross, but they are a little confusing, showing that the action was not stabilised at that time:

Pope Innocent’s style of the thumb, index and middle finger being brought to a point, symbolizing the Trinity, seems today to be very Byzantine and is certainly very Russian Orthodox. However, before the 17th Century Russians used only two fingers, index and middle finger, (symbolizing the Two natures of Christ) with the thumb holding down the ring finger and the little finger. (symbolizing the Trinity) This was also the position of the hand when a priest gave a blessing in the Bazantine Liturgy. St John Vianney said a sincere Sign of the Cross “makes all hell tremble”. I think that most Catholics today do not think much about it, specifically in terms of fingers, they just make a sign of the cross, but still others say that using the whole hand, five fingers reminds them of the five wounds of Christ.

A Blessing with the Sign of the Cross has always been seen as a specifically powerful sign when given by a priest or bishop whose hands have been consecrated at ordination. Indeed, first blessings by a newly ordained priest or bishop are considered something very special as is the first blessing of a newly proclaimed Pope: “Urbi et Orbi – To the City and to the World” which carries a Plenary Indulgence.

As we enter the church we make the Sign of the Cross using Holy Water, “which through merits of our Lord Jesus Christ obtain from God the remission of our venial sins.” (Ref: The Daily Missal, Imprimatur, Belgium 1930) It does this because Holy Water is a sacramental of the Precious Blood of Christ.

The Sign of the Cross coupled with the blessing of the high priest Aron, the brother of Moses, as we find it in the “Blessing of St Francis to Brother Leo” takes on a prophetic and very powerful meaning, because God showed his face to us in the person of Jesus Christ, God incarnate. In this the Aronic prophetic blessing is fulfilled and yet carried forward to our personal encounter with the merciful God.