“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.”
We do that so naturally, so spontaneously, don’t we? I’m speaking of course about the sign of the
cross. It’s almost as reflexive to us
Catholics as breathing or blinking our eyes.
And it should be, the sign of the cross is the first prayer most
Catholics learn—invoking the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity while
marking ourselves with the sign of our salvation—the Holy Cross of Christ.
Most of us were taught by our first catechists, our parents,
how to sign ourselves. We do well to
start our day with the sign of the cross, signing ourselves even before getting
out of bed—hopefully, even before checking your iphone. Most of our formal prayer begins invoking the
trinity with the sign of the cross. We are absolved, we are confirmed, we are
anointed, and we will be buried with that sign of the cross. We make it in moments of danger and
difficulty and penitence.
Sometimes we even find baseball players making the sign of
the cross as they come up to home plate. Whenever I go to restaurants I look
around to see if people are making the sign of the cross before they eat. At funerals and wedding you can often tell
who the non-Catholics are by who makes the sign of the cross or not. And this makes sense because the sign of the
cross signifies an IDENTITY! You know if
someone is Catholic if they begin their prayer “in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”—with the sign of the cross.
The sign of the cross professes the two most important
doctrines of our Faith.
The first is of course the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity,
which we celebrate in a special way this Trinity Sunday. God is a Trinity of
Divine Persons—the Divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial,
coeternal, coequal, distinct, yet united.
The catechism says, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is
the central mystery of the Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries
of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and
essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’. The whole history
of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which
the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and
reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”
I had a class in seminary one semester simply called “Trinity”
in which we studied the theological history of our faith’s understanding of
this great mystery. Certainly, one of the most difficult classes—a meager
attempt to seek to grasp the infinite mystery revealed to us. In the sign of
the cross we express our belief the great “mystery of our faith”
The second doctrine expressed in the sign of the cross flows
from the first: by the cross we are saved.
Every time we sign ourselves with the cross, we confess our faith that
by the cross, the incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity, won for us
eternal life.
St. Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest missionary in
Church history after St. Paul, baptized thousands of people. As a missionary in
the far east, he wrote about the difficulty he had in catechizing all these
people—preparing them for baptism. Thousands of people would be in the
villages, clamoring for baptism, yearning for entrance into the Church. Francis Xavier wrote that he considered it
enough if he could properly teach them the sign of the cross and if he could
teach them that in making that sign of the cross they were simply professing
their faith in the one true God—God the Father who creates us and loves us, God
the Son who took flesh and died for our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit who strengthens
us with his gifts—if he could teach them that, and that Jesus, God the Son
offered them salvation through the cross that he would trace over them—he felt
that that was enough for baptism.
When we stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, our
passports won’t help us, any academic degrees aren’t going to do much good, any
stock portfolios, our check book, our driver’s license, our proof of American
citizenship, aren’t going to do us a bit of good. But by the sign of the cross, we are claimed
for Christ, we are identified as those children of God redeemed by the Cross of
Christ, members of God’s Holy Church, who profess, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
to be our Loving and Almighty God.
Just as we make the sign of the Cross each time we pray, in
order to direct our prayer, may this Trinity Sunday, help direct our lives. We
pray that the words and gestures of the sign of the Cross will sink down and
brand themselves on our heart—because it is there that Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit wish to reign.
Everything we do is meant to be directed to the Holy
Trinity, done to honor the Holy Trinity, out of love for the Holy Trinity. May
the invocation of The Holy Trinity keep us from all sin, protect us from all
evil, and may all of our actions, all of our choices, all our decisions, all of
our sacrifices be done for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.”
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