The Crucifix - A Sign of Unity

Every Catholic Church must have a crucifix - there are no "normal exceptions."  Sure, the "but what if..." person can come up with some emergency, probably involving a daring secret Mass while ducking Nazi guards, where a Mass must be said without a crucifix because there is not one present.  Under normal circumstances, though, if there's a Mass, there is a crucifix.

Obviously, the crucifix reminds us of the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, from which Our Gracious Lord gave His life "that the world might be saved through Him" (Jn. 3:17).  While being a sign of a convicted criminal, the Cross is, paradoxically, an acclaimation of Christ's Lordship over the people He has redeemed.  After all, Pilate did write the proclaimation: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."  That proclaimation is quite true, but now the plan of salvation includes both Jews and Gentiles.  Christ rules from the Cross; our crucified and yet eternal Lord.

But we do not hang the crucifix in the Church only to remember the sacrifice of Christ which happened once for all 2000 years ago.  This blog is primarily concerned with Sacred Time, and Sacred Time is the belief that the events that are relevant to our salvation are not just events in the past to be remembered, but active times that are experienced sacramentally now.  The Mass is the re-presentation of Christ's eternal sacrifice to the Father, in expiation for our sins.  It is one, single sacrifice: "this One [Jesus] offered one sacrifice for sins, and took His seat forever at the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). The effective sign of this sacrificial covenant is Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist:  "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you" (Lk. 22:20). Itaque, the Mass is not a new sacrifice; it is the same one sacrifice of Christ which was offered 2000 years ago, but now we experience it in our own times; that is the reason that Christ ordered His Apostles - the first bishops - to "do this in memory of me" (22:19).  The One Sacrifice of Christ is re-presented to the Father through the ministry of the priest, who acts in the person of Christ Himself.  The Body and blood of the Lord is present in the Eucharist in the very same way as it was present as Christ hung on the Cross: "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).

What is the point of all of this?  The Mass is a re-presentation of the One Sacrifice of Christ.  The One Sacrifice of Christ was accomplished on the Cross. And so, we hang a crucifix in the Church to remind us that we are right at this moment experiencing that One Sacrifice which was accomplished on the Cross.  It is as though we were standing with St. John and the Blessed Mother at the foot of Jesus' Cross, and have heard Him say the words "It is finished." The crucifix is there to help us to enter into the mystery that we are experiencing; it should give us hope, and make us slightly reproachful for our sins.  I've always liked and feared the words of Saint Francis of Assisi: "It was not the Jew, nor the Roman who killed Christ.  It was you."  Our Lord is good and forgiving, full of love to all who call  - as the Psalmist says.  He will heal us; we just need to enter into His Sacrifice.

The Crucifix reminds us of Sacred Time.  We do not just remember Christ's sacrifice; we experience it now.  Ergo, the Crucifix is a sign of unity; a sign of the unity of today's Mass with the One Sacrifice of Christ, and with all the Masses throughout time.

The Sacred Time of Sunday

Today is the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time.
One of the precepts of the Church is to attend Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days; many people see this as a burden - and an irrelevant one at that.  Hence, they believe that they need not go to Mass on all Sundays.  But they are missing the great, sublime mystery that is inherent in the celebration of Sunday Mass.

Against such people, many amateur apologists will say something like "can't we give the Lord one hour out of all the one-hundred, sixty-eight that there are in a week?"  They mean well, and are correct in their intention.  Before His death, Our Lord was in pain in the garden as He meditated on what was to come - but His closest friends fell asleep, oblivious to His suffering.  In this pain, then, He sadly declared "so you could not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Mt. 26:40).  The analogy is that by willfully refusing to go to Mass, we are disregarding the desires of the Lord.

The above is true, but incomplete.  After all, the person who believes that going to Mass is unnecessary may very well "keep an hour with the Lord" on his or her own; the point is not the time spent in prayer, but rather the dynamism of a concept called "Sacred Time."

In the Catholic Church, our celebrations are at the intersection of two important concepts; Sacred Space, and Sacred Time.  Sacred Space is pretty easy to understand.  While God is everywhere, He is specially present in certain ways such as in the Eucharist.  Since the Eucharist is a physical presence of the Body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ our Almighty God, it makes sense that we would call the sanctuary of the Church a "Sacred Space."

Sacred Time is more elusive, but even more beautiful than Sacred Space.  Sacred Time is a mystical reality where we as the People of God do not just look back on events in the life of Christ and think "well, that's a nice thing that happened so long ago;" instead we actively and sacramentally enter into the events in the life of Christ and in the history of Salvation.  Sacred Time is a belief that, just as God is specially present in certain places (the Church, the words of Scripture, the Eucharist, etc.), He is also specially present in certain times. 

In the Mass, we enter into Sacred Time by becoming united to the "little Easter" - the weekly commemoration of the Resurrection of Jesus.  Sunday was, of course, the day that Christ rose from the dead; well, we do not just passively remember that Christ rose from the dead (like we'd somehow forget); rather, we actively enter into the mystery of His Resurrection by taking the Resurrected Flesh of Jesus in the Mass.  Jesus is present in the same way in the Eucharist as He was to Mary Magdalene at the side of His tomb, and He graciously comes into our bodies and souls; marking us for Heaven, and giving life to our souls which had previously been dead in sin.  In a sense, we rise with Christ every time that we go to Mass, particularly Sunday Mass, and rising with Christ is our salvation: "you were buried with [Christ] in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Col 2:12).   When Jesus said: "Take and eat; this is my body" (Mt. 26:26), He was not just saying it to the Apostles; if He were, then why is it important enough to include in the Gospels? By partaking of the Eucharist, we enter into the mystery of the Last Supper, and take that Body which Christ says "is tue food, and my blood is true drink" (Jn. 6:55). The same Body that was given at the Last Supper is given also to us, and the words of Christ to the Apostles are the words of Christ to us.  And we experience them actively every Sunday, when the Church enters into the Mystery.

By attending Mass, then, we're actively living past, present, and future in the mystery of Sacred Time.  We come to the altar as the table of the Last Supper, and become united in One Body not just with all Catholics throughout the world, but all Catholics throughout time.  The Apostles, martyrs, and our blessed ancestors, as well as our friends and neighbors all united through a mystical union. That is the past and present aspects of the Eucharist, but there is also a "future" aspect.  By participating in the Mass, we look forward to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, described in the Book of Revelation.  In this feast, the Church as the Bride of Christ celebrates with her children forever in Heaven.  Therefore, the Eucharist is a fore-shadowing of the blessed celebration of Heaven.  In his book "Light of the World," Pope Benedict XVI says "The Mass was originally celebrated facing east, toward the returning Lord, who is symbolized in the rising sun.  Every Mass is therefore an act of going out to meet the One who is coming" (180).

Itaque, we must go to Sunday Mass - not because it is a dutiful requirement, but because we must "go out to meet the Lord."  Meeting Him in the Mass we are united to the mystery of Christ's dying, and then we rise with Him again; it is much more powerful and sublime then just spending some time in private prayer.  To willfully refuse to go is to ignore the powerful reality of Jesus' Resurrection - which is an event which must be experienced sacramentally in our own lives in a great Catheral of Time. That is why the Church requires attendence at Mass on Sundays; we need to experience the events of our Salvation.  Christ is the Light of the world; let us let Him enlighten our souls and raise us up from our spiritual sicknesses.