This one-second gesture defines your whole life

I make a certain mistake rather frequently. On Sundays, when I walk into church, I am easily preoccupied with final preparations for Mass. I sign myself with the Cross using holy water, and within seconds (or even as I’m doing it!) have no real memory or sense of doing so. Ouch! When I admit this failing to others, they often admit to the same.

And so, let’s consider the deeper meaning of the Sign of the Cross. Perhaps it can be more than a habit. Perhaps it can be a virtue.

From the very early Church

The Bible makes no mention of making the Sign of the Cross. Instead, it offers us many reminders of the importance of the Cross. The four Gospels are sometimes spoken of as Passion accounts preceded by long introductions. The Apostle Paul speaks of preaching Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23, 2:2). Early Christians knew well the importance of the Cross, that Jesus’ life was not about himself. (Galatians 6:14)

About the year 200 AD, when Tertullian (an early Christian theologian and writer in North Africa) wrote a defense of a soldier’s right to his Christian identity, he referred to the Sign of the Cross on the forehead as a well-established custom that is not questioned. In doing so, he shows it as a universal and deeply embedded Christian practice that likely began as a more personal devotion as early as the late first century.

Think of how a mother’s kiss supports her words, “I love you.” Similarly, Christians found a simple gesture to remind themselves of the Apostolic preaching about the Cross, that then spread throughout the Roman Empire. We also know that 100 years after Tertullian, it had become a larger gesture: head–body–shoulders.

Marked for a different allegiance

Early Greek-speaking Christians spoke of the Sign of the Cross as a sphragis, meaning seal. Roman soldiers were tattooed with a sphragis, as a permanent sign of their loyalty to their general or emperor. Think of it as similar to the wax seal on a certificate or on the back of an envelope. The tattooed seal was a sign of a soldier’s allegiance and way of life backed by real authority.

However, Christians said they owed their allegiance to Jesus, and their seal (their sphragis) was Jesus’ Cross. Instead of a tattoo, they traced it on their foreheads and, in time, as the larger sign of head–body–shoulders. This Christian sphragis stood in opposition to a soldier’s sphragis, saying in effect: “You used the cross to put Jesus to death and to terrorize us into submitting to your authority, but we are not afraid of you.”

Instead of the tattooed and permanent sign of the surrounding empire, Christians chose a sign of their faith and way of life backed by a different authority.

Life is not about oneself

There once was a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine in which a man in a coffee shop tells his friend, “I’ve tried a lot of life strategies, and being completely self-serving works best for me.” When we see Jesus on the Cross, we see him not as self-serving but as serving us. His life is not about himself.

And when we enter a church and sign ourselves with the Cross using the holy water of our baptisms, we remind ourselves, not that we were baptized, but that we are baptized with Jesus as our life strategy, finding our lives to be not about ourselves.

He has put his seal upon us.”
– 2 Corinthians 1:22

The Easter Vigil is the normal time when we baptize adults. However, they officially begin their preparation many months earlier at a Sunday Liturgy when we have them stand with their sponsors amid the parish community. Their sponsors trace the cross first on their forehead while the priest says: “Receive the Cross on your forehead. Christ himself strengthens you with the sign of your faith.” The same happens to their ears, eyes, lips, chest, shoulders, hands, and even their feet.

The parish community gathered in that church is letting them know that, to approach the baptismal waters of life, their lives are to be governed by what Jesus did for them on the Cross. Again, Jesus is to be their life strategy, and one’s life is not about oneself.

A sign that becomes strategy

Our concern is not that we forget to make the Sign of the Cross, but that we might trace it and then forget who we are. May our Lord Jesus remain the pattern of our lives. As we live our lives not for ourselves, but for whomever God puts before us, may Jesus’ Cross be less of a habit and more of a virtue.

This article was written by Father Dave Mercer for Aleteia.