The Sign of the Cross II

† The Sign of the Cross †

BUT that’s not all! Take a look at what the Church does through the person of the priest at the Altar. Armed with the Omnipotence that was given to Her, She commands not only creatures, but the Creator Himself; not man, but God Himself. At Her voice the Heavens are opened, the Word incarnates and renews all the mysteries of His life, death, and resurrection! Also, in the course of the Action par excellance, that is the Mass, what does the Church do? More than ever, She multiplies the Sign of the Cross; She surrounds Herself with the Sign of the Cross; She walks by means of the Sign of the Cross; She repeats It so frequently that the number could even seem an exaggeration, if it were not deeply mysterious!!! Do you know how many times the priest makes the Sign of the Cross during the Mass? Forty-eight (48) times! I’m wrong, forty-nine (49) times because as long as the Holy Sacrifice is taking place, the priest himself is a living Sign of the Cross. Would the Catholic Church, the great Instructor of nations, the great Teacher of Truth, would She be amused at repeating so frequently in Her most solemn act a useless, superstitious and unimportant sign? If you or your friends think so, then you are guilty of incredulity.

A fourth motive for making the Sign of the Cross as the first Christians did is those people who do not make the Sign of the Cross.
1) The Pagans: Chinese, Indians, Tibetans, savages, adorers of idols, people completely degraded and unhappy. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
2) Muslims: pigs for sensualism, tigers for cruelty; these do not make the Sign of the Cross.
3) Jews: deeply encrusted in a dense stratum of ridiculous superstitions, living petrification of a decayed race. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
4) Heretics: (Protestants) - impertinent sect followers, who in their pride and protests, have lost all trace of Truth. Protestants do not make the Sign of the Cross.
5) Bad Catholics: renegades of their baptisms, slaves of human respect, ignorants and arrogants who speak of everything and know nothing, adorers of their bellies, of pleasure, of materials. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
6) Beasts: Bipeds and quadrupeds of every species; dogs, cats, donkeys, mules, camels, crocodiles, ostriches, hippopotamus. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.

A fifth reason for making the Sign of the Cross is that we are creatures of dust and the Sign of the Cross ennobles us. We are worms of the earth on the cradle, and food of worms in the grave. We are weak, nothing, shamefully confused as any other animal when we are born. However, we are the image of God; we are the crown of creation! God touches our foreheads and imprints the divine sign that ennobles us! It ennobles us because it comes from Heaven! We know that It comes from Heaven because the earth confesses not to have invented It. Go through every country and every century, nowhere will you find a man who claims to have invented the Sign of the Cross, or a Saint who claims to have taught It, or a council that claims to have imposed It! Tertullian says: “Tradition teaches It, practice confirms It, and the Faith observes It.”

A sixth reason to make the Sign of the Cross is that It is a book that instructs our ignorance. Creation, Redemption, Glorification. These three words are necessary to man more than the bread that nourishes him, more than the air he breathes. What doctor will be charged with teaching the indispensable Truth? St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, or another great genius of the East or the West? No! These doctors die; here, there’s need of one that will not die. There’s need of a doctor that is everywhere, that speaks a language intelligible to all, to the savage as well as to the civilized man. Who will be this doctor? You have already said it: The Sign of the Cross! This and only this sign fulfills all the required conditions. It does not die; It is everywhere; Its language is universal. An instant is enough for It to teach us Its lesson! An instant is enough for everyone to understand Its lesson. Behold the Sign of the Cross! Behold the duly established catechist of the human race!!!

When we make the Sign of the Cross we say In the Name not in the names, which teaches us that there is an indivisible unity of the Divine Essence. Through these words a boy or a girl knows more than the philosophers of the old paganism ever knew! Pronouncing the word of the Father a new and immense ray of light shines in our intelligence. This Sign of the Cross tells us that there’s a Being, Father of all fathers, Eternal Beginning of the Being from which creatures take their origin. As we continue saying: And of the Son, the Sign of the Cross continues giving Its lesson. It tells us that the Father of all fathers has a Son similar to Himself; It teaches us that This Eternal Son once made Himself Son of Man in the Womb of a Virgin to rescue man. Man was lost. Then we end by saying: And of the Holy Ghost. This word completes the teaching of the Sign of the Cross; thanks to It we know that there is in God Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons.

Based on all this, what does the modern world knows then? This century of intellect, which does not know how to make the Sign of the Cross, knows not more and not less than the pagans knew! This world adores the god-me, the god-commence, the god-vapor, the god-cotton, the god-belly! As means of satisfaction for its concupiscence, it adores the science of matter, of chemistry, of physics, of mechanics, of dynamics, salt, etc. Behold its gods, its cults, its theology, its philosophies, its morals, its life!!!

The Institution of the Mass

Why the Mass was Instituted

Why do I believe? In considering the purposes Our Lord had in mind when instituting this wonderful Sacramental Sacrifice, I shall discover a further motive of credibility, and not the least of them:

1^st purpose: To convert every square foot of earth and sea into a Calvary purpled with the steaming Blood of the Lamb. O Lover of this our earthly dwelling, it did not satisfy Thee to shed Thy Blood on one Golgotha, it was Thy desire to turn the whole earth into a Golgotha and an Altar of Thy Sacrifice

2^nd purpose: To establish the New Covenant: Novum Testaméntum. The Old Covenant was made for the observance of the Law; the New Covenant was made for the sake of pardoning sins, in virtue of the Redeeming Blood: in remissiónem peccatórum.

3^rd purpose: To erect a monument to the greatest of all achievements: Christ’s Passion and Death, the divine work of the Redemption: Hoc fácite in mean commemoratiónem.

For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).

A monument that will last as long as the human race. It is so natural for the human heart to want to erect lasting monuments! What are those monoliths, menhirs, mausoleums, pyramids, obelisks, and statues in such materials like granite, marble, and iron, erected in every age to kings, travelers, pioneers, and inventors, but the unquenchable human longing to eternalize an achievement, to perpetuate a name? And what monument will the King of Kings erect to His enterprise, the world’s Redemption? Bronze from the old Colossi? Stones from the eternal wonders of Egypt? ... No, Christ’s monument will be unique: His porphyry, His diamonds, His bronze, will be but a tiny consecrated Host – the meager appearances of bread and wine… And the pyramids will crumble, and the colossi will be thrown to the ground, and the marble statues will turn into dust, and the monoliths will be buried by the sands of the centuries; and even if the cataclysm should fail to consume them, there will be the implacable beat of the weather eroding and pulverizing them all. BUT the Monument to the Death of Christ, with all its fragile appearances, remains; with the passing of the years and after every hour It becomes still more gigantic; each Consecration and Communion is a new ashlar that nothing will move.

4^th purpose: To infuse into my being the germ of a New Life, the life of grace, eternal life, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost.

St. John, the Priest Model in his Dealings with the Holy Eucharist:

Let us read St. John’s Gospel and his other writings:

So steeped was he in the profound mysteries of his Divine Master’s Heart that, when he takes up the pen to relate the Life-story of Christ, the very first thing that comes to his mind is Christ’s Divinity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God! How truly this is fulfilled in the beloved Disciple!

We should learn from St. John how to deal with Jesus Christ hidden under the Sacramental Species: The essential purpose of the priest is to offer Sacrifice. There is no priesthood without sacrifice. So the more perfectly [the priest] perform[s] this essential duty the better priests [they] are, and the better priests [they] are the nearer [their] approach to the Holiness and Greatness of the Victim [they] offer and of the Father to Whom It is offered. For the victims and oblations of old have vanished like shadows before the Light of the New Covenant, which, in abrogating them, substituted in their place the One Clean Oblation prophesied by Malachias (1:2), Christ our God, the Holy One born of the Virgin Mary, the Divine Victim of our altars.

Taken from The Priest at Prayer by Fr. Eugenio Escribano