Crucifixes R Us

While these icons of the Lord may have some devotional uses, they are not crucifixes and they should never be used as a substitute for the main crucifix in a church which should portray “Christ and him crucified.”

To stress the importance of the crucifix we should remember the context of the verse I quoted above:

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach  to save those who believe.  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. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

This passage reveals how the cross stands in the center of history and in the center of the cosmos as an eternal sign of contradiction. The cross stands upside down all our ambitions and earthly desire. The cross reverses our good ideas and our marvelous plans for there we see that God works his way in the world in a contrary fashion. Our wisdom is his foolishness and his foolishness is everlasting wisdom.

Worldliness hate and despise the cross. Demons howl at the sign of the crucifix. They flee from the crucifix.

This is why the crucifix is, and must be central in every Catholic Church, home and school, and this is why, when you see no crucifix or just an empty cross or a cross with something other than the crucified Lord on it you are right to suspect heresy, schism and a hidden hatred of Jesus Christ and his true gospel.

A crucifix is one of the signs of orthodoxy.

Exalt the cross and you will be exalted. Wear it and place it in your homes, schools and churches with true veneration.

Because you are a Catholic and you preach Christ and him crucified.