CROSS: The Sign of our FAITH

CROSS: The Sign of our FAITH

” Pope Innocent III wrote in his instructions on making the Sign of the Cross. Holding two fingers together—either the thumb with the ring finger or with index finger—also represents the two natures of Christ. This is also reinforced by using three fingers to make the sign, according to Pope Innocent III.

Ultimately by tracing the sign of the cross we are recalling Christ’s passion on the crucifixion. Thus we are affirming our belief of the Holy Trinity. When we appeal to the trinity, we fix our attention to God who made us.

We praise and lift up God’s name everytime to do the sign of the cross, thus signifies the power of His name as noted in the scriptures:

Philippians 2:10, St. Paul tells us that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heavens and on earth and under the earth.”

John 14:13-14, Jesus Himself said, “And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Whoever wishes to follow Christ “must deny himself” and “take up his cross” as Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 16:24. In crossing our shoulders we ask God “to support us—to shoulder us—in our suffering,” Ghezzi writes. Reaffirm our baptism. In using the same words with which we were baptized, the Sign of the Cross is a “summing up and re-acceptance of our baptism,” according to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Witness to others. As a gesture often made in public, the Sign of the Cross is a simple way to witness our faith to others. “Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified