Christ  is Risen!!

Sign of the Cross: Reflection on the Miracle of Miracles
 

We are blessed with so many talented, God loving servants at Holy Apostles.  Martie Johnson, a Navy Chaplain, is one of our faithful at Holy Apostles who selflessly serves our country and freely shines the light of Christ with his joy, chanting, teaching, and casual coffee hour conversations.  I want to thank him for offering the message for this month’s bulletin.

In the book, “The Sign of the Cross”, Andreas Andreopoulos, tells a compelling story of the origin of the gesture practiced by over 1.5 billion Christians.  It is a great read and here are some highlights from chapter three of his text.

The cross as a symbol of worship and as an emblem worn by all Orthodox Christians is a statement about the miracle of miracles and “the church has inverted the cross’s historical meaning as an instrument of torture and death to one of glorification and eternal life”.  The significance of this cannot be overstated. 

One morning at Orthros during Lent, I remember singing a teaching that said that the wood of the cross of the Lord’s passion extinguished the flaming sword of the Cherubim who guarded the way back to paradise and the tree of life, so that we all can live in Christ and He can live in us!  Instead of this being yet another striking piece of theology; it was in fact the very truth and purpose of Christ’s redemption of humankind. 

 Have you had a moment like this before?  A moment when what is chanted, read, or said lands in a way that it could not have otherwise…even if you have heard it a hundred times.  What do you do, when that happens?  I made the sign of Cross, just as my wife taught me.  Andrepoulos offers that “the sign of the cross was…a personal expression of prayer and thanksgiving”. 

In worship, the symbol of the Cross that we see in the sanctuary and the one that we make on are body is one of many symbols that lead us to Christ.  As a symbol, the Cross “refers to its missing part” much like a coin that has been cut in half would signal two people holding each half that the coin is one. 

Our Orthodox Church is full of symbols that signify the “bringing together [of] the spiritual and the material realms…in religious symbolism, the signifiers are the icons, the candles, the bread and the wine, and even the sign of the cross, while the signifieds are a reality of the spiritual realm of the Kingdom of Heaven.  “[The sign of the Cross is] the most complete religious symbol as a concept, [because it] brings together the spiritual and the material realms is Christ himself”.

Eastern Christianity believes in exercising faith through ritual tradition.  This is striking for most people in Western Christianity.  “For many Christians it is impossible to sense the sacred in an alien Christian culture.  Western Christians may feel as though they are entering a pagan temple when they find themselves surrounded by the images, the incense, and the symbols of an Orthodox Church”.  “And what a visitor would observe often is all the faithful making the sign of the cross---crossing themselves---some repeatedly and nervously, others slowly and contemplatively”.

What’s more, “the sign of the cross addresses the individual spiritual battle, which is fought on many levels of the self and is successful when the deepest parts of the personality have come to also reflect on the spiritual struggle that the cross attests”. 

The desert Fathers “often refer to the sign of the cross as one of the most powerful weapons against demons and temptations…” I found this striking because the Scripture teaches that the Kingdom of God is within us and indeed this is the place where the battle for our soul is taking place.  This is why the sacraments serve as divine help and the liturgy is a divine oasis for the war within.

In the end, making the sign of the cross is “a blessing, a prayer, a proclamation of the Christian identity, a living mystery, and an acceptance of the role that God has given us”.  To me, it is all about faith and faith is a choice.  “Doing, performing, action on a matter of faith is more important than treating faith as a question of membership in the correct school of thought”

If Orthodoxy is a high school for the soul, we certainly can’t stay there no matter how good the school is—we must and have to graduate.  What is taught, chanted, learned, written, and shared at Holy Apostles and was received is the living extension of the One Holy and Apostolic Church and “faith is the establishment of a living relationship with God that renders abstract questions meaningless in the face of living faith”.

“The way God meets with most people is subtle.  A life in Christ is a sacramental life.  This life radiates to the people with which it is shared.  This sharing makes evident the presence of Jesus in the church, and makes evident the image of God in all of us.”  In fact, “we do not aim to attain salvation for ourselves only.  We see the image of God in each other.  It is not an accident that the prayer given to us by Jesus is in the plural: ‘Our Father,’ not ‘My Father.’  The sign of the cross is the symbol that like the visible mark of baptism, extends this community beyond the walls of the church building…[and] helps us recognize each other and helps us recognize the community that shares in the body of Christ”. 

Chaps

Martie Johnson