When you bless yourself with the sign of the cross, do you do it with conscious reverence and gratitude? - Daily Reflections December 12,2014

AVE MARIA!

 

Athanasius, Father of the Church, proclaimed, “Christ became who we are, that we might become who He is!” This is one of the most profound truths of Christianity. Simply put, Jesus became man that man may have the opportunity to share in the life of God. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. God’s Incarnation is the passageway to man’s Divinization. This is the good news that the Lady who appeared to Juan Diego revealed. This is the good news that the image miraculously imbedded in Juan Diego’s cloak proclaimed. It depicted the image of Our Lady, dressed as a native Aztec princess, wearing a black belt, a symbol of a woman pregnant with child. Until now, that image is venerated all over the world. Pilgrims visit the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico to pray in front of the tilma, the cloth bearing Mary’s image. But our Lady did not manifest herself in that cloak to be looked at and adored. When we contemplate the image of our Lady of Guadalupe, we not only look at Mary. We contemplate the Child that Mary bears in her womb.

         One day, a little girl was studying the arithmetic symbols. She learned the plus sign, minus sign and so on. One sunny day, she accompanied her father to a nearby church. Upon arrival at the church’s door, the girl asked her father, “What is that big plus sign doing in front of the altar?” The father answered the little girl, “My dear daughter, that is not a plus sign. That is the cross; it is where our Lord Jesus Christ was nailed for us to be saved!”

         In a way, the little girl was correct in saying that the cross is a plus sign. The image of the cross as the plus sign pictured our redemption because through this cross, a big plus has been added into our life — something that we could not have accomplished through our own power, something that we could not have gained apart from Mary’s receptivity to God’s invitation.

         Had it not been through the cross of Christ, man would have remained alienated to God. Had it not been through the wood of the cross, man would have been alienated from the fullness of life. Fr. Joel Jason

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: When you bless yourself with the sign of the cross, do you do it with conscious reverence and gratitude?

 

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your holy cross and resurrection You have redeemed the world!