A Cross without a Corpus is all you have, just a cross

A Cross without a Corpus is all you have, just a cross

A follow-up to my article “The Crown of Victory - 

The Cross of Christ “  7/2022

Today you may notice many people wearing a cross as a necklace indicating their adherence to Christianity.  Most Christian churches will display large crosses atop their places of worship signifying connection with Christ.   However, there is something missing on all of them; a Corpus that still belongs upon each one.  

I know the rebuttal that we will hear; Jesus Christ is risen and he no longer belongs on the Cross.  Correction!  Let’s take a moment and reflect on the three-day Easter Triduum.  Do we just celebrate the Passion of Christ as another period of Christian reality, or is there something with a deeper meaning than memorializing this most essential Truth of Christ’s mission on earth?  How about the Holy Mass?  Catholicism teaches us that when the Transubstantiation occurs the elements of bread and wine are no longer earthly, they become the Body and Blood of the Crucified/Resurrected person of Christ.  Many Catholics receive these consecrated elements at Holy Communion, but how many believe in the Real Presence of Christ?

It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way.  Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have a memorial of the love with which he loved us “to the end,” even to the giving of his life.  In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:   (CCC 1380).

The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship.  Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love.  Let us not refuse the time to go meet him in adoration,in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world.  Let our adoration never cease.  (taken from St. John Paul II).  

“That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is something that cannot be apprehended by the senses”, says St. Thomas, but only by faith, which relies on divine authority.  For this reason, in a commentary on Luke 22: 19 (This is my body which is given for you), St. Cyril says: “Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie.”  (CCC 1381)  

Going back to the Cross of Christ, and the Consecration of the Eucharist, these are not a one time happening, they are repeated at every Mass.  As I have written before, during the moment the celebrant (priest or bishop) raises the host and chalice it is Christ standing there raising the species at the moment of his death.  We are blessed to be on Calvary at this most perfect gesture from God through the Holy Spirit.  We are there as Christ dies.  This is what is called “the collapse of time.”  It is more than a memorial, this becomes a moment in time that takes us for a moment to the crucifixion, death of Christ on the cross. 

Do not for a moment reject the meaning of the Crucifix that is not another artifact that we may wear, it is the very real factor that is given to us at each Mass.  Therefore, the Corpus must be adored before our eyes and for the whole world to see our belief.  The Catholic Church requires every altar where the Eucharist is celebrated to have a crucifix either on the altar or in an area very close to the altar.  

A cross without a corpus is just that, a cross.  

Ralph B. Hathaway