At this turbulent time in the Roman Catholic Church, wearing a Crucifix can feel tantamount to wearing the Scarlet Letter or the Mark of Shame. The scandals that have broken out in the RCC can create self consciousness about the Crucifix because it may be perceived as support of the RCC in this dark hour, and could even be perceived as condoning or even defending the scandalous behavior of the bishops and priests. At this point the concern over the conduct of priests in the RCC has reached fever pitch and I for one have seen adherents to the Catholic Faith forgoing public displays of their piety; for instance I have seen first hand the cars which were once adorned with rosaries that have the Crucifix depicting the Christ Corpus and the Mary Guadalupe removed from all vehicles. This either is a sign of fallout and an exodus from RCC or that Catholics are hiding their faith out of fear of being persecuted or being seen to support the scandals. If the reason is the latter, I fear we are beholding the first major censorship of public piety in the Americas and the World.
The Crucifix is seen by many as a Roman Catholic symbol. Most Catholics have a Crucifix hanging over their front door interior and they have rosary which always contains a Crucifix on the end. However, to believe the Crucifix is the sole property of the RCC is erroneous. The Eastern Orthodox Church has crucifixes (two demensional), and Protestant Churches, specifically Lutherans and Anglicans have an altar Crucifix. Martin Luther is known to support the Crucifix, and its usage is considered important for Communion because of Paul’s words, “For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Crucifix is simply an image of our Lord and God Jesus Christ dying for our sins on the cross. This symbol is not Roman Catholic or Protestant, it is Christian for it depicts our loving Savior Jesus making propitiation for our sins, “For God presented Jesus as the propitiatory sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.” (Roman 3:25).
Crucifixes first became a symbol of our Christian faith in 692 A.D. at the Trullan Council, where the bishops decreed the Crucifix depicting our Lord as a man dying on the cross was now acceptable, “We order that instead of the Ancient Lamb, Jesus Christ, our Lord, shall be henceforth in His human form, in the images, he being the Lamb which bears the iniquity of the world.” Before then the only acceptable image of Jesus was allegorical, the image of the Lamb being slain by a wound at the neck. Some churches had the plain cross with the Lamb at the base of it, but only in 692 did it become ordained and approved to depict Jesus the God Man on the cross and show a corpus of His body complete with long hair and a beard. Honestly, the Crucifix is a physical representation of the truth that God took on a body, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” and “He is the fullness of the Diety in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9). The Apostle John makes the case that a true Christian must confess and believe Jesus came in a body, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,” (John 1:14), “This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God,” (1 John 4:2), and “I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.” (2 John 1:7). Thus wearing a Crucifix is actually a declaration of the truth that God became a Man and took on human flesh and died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:1-4). This is crucial to true and authentic Christology and Theology. God had to become a human to die for our sins and give us eternal life; hence the dual description by St. Paul, “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” (Romans 1:3-4) and “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22:16). When we as Christians wear a Crucifix, we declare the Christian Apex Belief and the Gospel, that God became a man and died for our sins and rose from the dead!
While there is the possibility you might become mistaken for Roman Catholic if you wear a Crucifix, One should not shirk from this image and symbol of our Great Savior and Bridegroom dying for our sins and show My us His great love, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6-10). The Crucifix May have been made in 692, but the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus on the cross happened in 33 A.D. and is the centerpiece of our faith along with the Empty Tomb. For on the cross “He without sin became sin for us,” and the Apostle says, “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
If we allow scandal to taint the Crucifix which has nothing to do with the scandals, then what shall we be ashamed of next? Plain crosses and anything the RCC happens to have images of too? Will we shirk from displaying Nativities at Christmas? See the slippery slope fear can put us on? Let us not give in and let the devil use these horrible scandals create scorn for our Lord and images of Him. Amen.
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