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Making The Sign of The Cross |
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Making the Sign of the Cross summarises what God, in his love, has done for human beings. The cross remains the reminder of how far Jesus’ love for us goes. When I make the sign of the cross I recognise that everything in me, without exception, is touched by the love of God. In signing myself I assure myself in a very tangible way that God loves me – and I put my trust in him I begin by making the sign of God’s love on my forehead as if to ask God to bless my thinking, that it might not be selfish but filled with love. I next touch my stomach. The stomach symbolises vitality and sexuality and I ask God to bless this dimension of my life as well. No part of my life is excluded from God’s care. In this gesture I express my hope that my living and loving will not be possessive or selfish but pure. I touch my left shoulder, - the left side symbolising the unconscious, my feminine side, the heart, the seat of love and a person’s centre. The right shoulder symbolises my conscious side, my masculine side, the source of my “action man” dimension. By making the sign of the cross, I ask God to bless all the parts of my body and soul – my thinking, my sexuality, my unconscious and my conscious, my dark side as well as my bright side. |
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In making the sign of the cross I experience the blessing that has been given to me in creation, in my human nature and in the redemption won for me in Jesus Christ. I feel that I share in the life and love of God as Trinity. And as God is Trinity, and I am created in his image, there exists in me also three domains in which God wishes to be present: my spirit, my soul and my body. I experience God as the Father who created me and gave me a creative spirit so that I can participate myself in his continuing work of creating today. I experience the Son as the one who has come from Heaven but – as the episode of the washing of the feet in St John’s Gospel shows – has humbled himself to the dust to heal me where I am most fragile. The sign of the cross pushes me to descend, with Christ himself, to the very bottom of my being where my desires and impulses are struggling for attention. I need Christ to purify them and help me channel them in the proper direction. And I experience the Holy Spirit as the One who brings together what is separated or disjointed in me, the One who helps me act with love, who unites the unconscious with the conscious, the masculine with the feminine, strength with weakness, success with failure. The Holy Spirit helps me accept myself as I am, without rejecting any part of myself. |
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At Mass we make the sign of the cross in another way. At the Gospel, I make the sign of the cross with my thumb on my forehead, my mouth and my heart. In doing this I express my desire that the Word of God may become a blessing for my thoughts, that it may inspire my own words and that it may penetrate the deepest recesses of my heart. Next time you make the sign of the cross, perhaps you might like to think about what you are really doing……. |
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Written by Fr Bernard Fox MHM and used here with permission. |
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The Catholic Church in Skye
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