Food for the Soul The Cross and Its Significance

You see it in miniature forms hanging from necks of men and women, more as a personal adornment rather than as an object of pious devotion. It has been tattooed on arms and chests, and printed on religious books and pamphlets. It also starts the rosary which is the longest, most popular, and most repetitious of prayers in Catholicism.

It is most prominent in its larger forms inside churches and their facades and spires, on landmarks, and cemeteries. Some of its forms show the figure of a man fixed on it, stripped almost naked, in intense shame, pain, and suffering, a man said to be the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross in this form is called a crucifix.

The sign of the cross is made before and after prayers with the right hand touching the forehead first, then the chest, the left shoulder, and finally the right shoulder, with the performer saying at the same time: "In the name the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

The mark of the cross is also placed on the foreheads of Catholics on Ash Wednesday while the priest says: "Memente, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris," a Latin phrase which is translated as: "Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return."

The cross is used allegedly to drive away demons and evil spirits but strangely enough, a Catholic who passes by a Cathoilic church or chapel makes the sign of it. And with the frequent use of it and its display in so many places, demons and evil spirits should have but every few places left for them to rest on earth.

The cross was also used in the banners of the Crusades who, in the Middle Ages, warred against Muslims during the attempts to regain the Holy Land from the Seljuk Turks and even to massacre members of heretical organizations like the Albigensians and the Hussites.

What is the cross and what does it signify? What is it to pagans, to Catholics, and other so-called Christian churches, and to the Iglesia Ni Cristo?

And how do Catholics use the cross as a symbol? James Cardinal Gibbons says:

"It is also a very ancient and pious practice for the faithful to make on their persons the sign of the Cross, saying at the same time: 'In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost'. Tertullian, who lived in the second century of the Christian era, says: 'In all our actions, when we come in or go out, when we dress, when we wash, at our meals, before retiring to sleep... we form on our foreheads the sign of the cross'." (The Faith of Our Fathers,p.3.)

Rev. Francis B. Cassily describes how the sign of the cross is performed:
"In making the sign of the cross, we place the extended fingers of the right hand on the forehead." (Religion:Doctrine and Practice for Use in Catholic High Schools p.341)

Notice that the sign of the cross is made by placing the fingers of the right hand on the forehead and, on Ash Wednesday, this sign is printed on the forehead of Catholics with ashes derived from burned palms used on the previous Palm Sunday.

Such a mark on the forehead is the symbol of the beast described in Revelation 13:11-18, specifically mentioned in verse 16 as " ... a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads" (King James Version). Such mark is the mark of the beast whose number is 666. those who receive this mark will be damned (Rev. 14:9-11). We see this mark on the people who receive it during Ash Wednesdays!


The Cross in The Iglesia Ni Cristo

The Iglesia Ni Cristo has Christ as its Founder, Savior, and Mediator between God and man. Yet, it does not have the cross as its central symbol. It does not have a cross on its buildings, on its things, or on its members. Why is this so?

There is nothing in the Scriptures that indicates the physical cross as something to be revered. On the contrary, Christ's crucifixion shows it as an object of shame, an instrument of death for condemned criminals. After Christ's death, there was no attempt on the part of His disciples to retrieve the cross as a memorial, as a relic and symbol, and certainly not as an object of veneration.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo does not take after pagan ways in the treatment of the cross. The cross is an image, the worship of which is forbidden (Exo. 20:4-5). As an object, it is a symbol of shame (Heb. 12:1-2). It was on that cross where Christ suffered unspeakable shame, humiliation, suffering, and death. The cross on which Christ died is not really His cross but of the Romans who used it as the instrument to execute criminals. It would be an act of disrespect to continue portraying Christ as He was being tortured, and killed.

The cross of Christ
Apostle Paul did mention a cross of Christ: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and i unto the world." (Gal. 6:14, King James Version)