On September 14, the Catholic Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The use of the crucifix in the Catholic Faith. can be a jarring shift from the bare crosses displayed in many Protestant churches. We asked our community members about their experience with the difference, and here is what some of them had to say:
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“When I was a Protestant, I asked a priest that I was friends with why the corpus was included. He answered ‘Was it the power of the cross or the power of the man on the cross that redeemed us?’ That really resonated with me.” -Mike I.
“In the independent Baptist Church where I was married, there was no cross of any kind. I was told that having crosses in churches was idolatrous, and that Catholics kept Jesus nailed to the cross because they didn’t preach the Resurrection. Decades later, the priest in the Episcopal church I began attending told me the crucifix was there to hold continually before our eyes the price Christ paid for our redemption. That made it all clear to me.” -Rosemary A.
“Many Protestants tend to not like to be confronted with suffering. The bare cross is neat, tidy, and covered over by the resurrection and the empty tomb. The crucifixes with the body of my Lord and Savior still on it reminded me of the terrible price He paid for my sin and rebellion. I wanted to let it sink in until it hurt me. It was actually a draw to the Catholic Church for me.” -Howard H.
“I have a fundamentalist Baptist background and it surprised me that it hadn’t occurred to me before I joined in full communion with the Church that the bare cross is an insult to God. His purpose for becoming incarnate was fulfilled on the Cross.” -Dan S.
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“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” I Corinthians 1:22-24
