The Fourth
Sunday of Easter (B)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
The
image of Jesus as “the good shepherd” who “lays down [his] life for the sheep”
is a powerful one and beloved by many (John 10:11). And even though we rarely
encounter shepherds today, we know what they look like. A shepherd stands in
the midst of the flock holding his distinctive emblem, the crook. Each of us has
likely seen an image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, complete with a shepherd’s
crook, but such images are lacking throughout the history of Christian art.
They are, in fact, something of a recent novelty.
We
do, of course, find a few images of the Good Shepherd in the catacombs, in
early churches, and in medieval manuscripts, but in these he carries no crook.
In the catacombs, he is depicted as carrying a sheep on his shoulders (cf.
Isaiah 40:1), but this depiction of the Good Shepherd soon gave way to
depictions of him sitting in the midst of the flock and holding not a crook,
but the cross surmounted on a pole. It is almost as if the ancient artists
sought to tells us that the rod and staff of the Good Shepherd is, in fact, his
Cross (cf. Psalm 23:4); they show the Good Shepherd carrying the instrument by
which he laid down his life for his sheep.
In
the Apostles’ Creed, we profess that, after his death and before his
Resurrection, Jesus “descended into hell,” though here we do not mean the state
of eternal separation from God, but to those who died before the gates of heaven
were opened to us. Concerning this visitation, Saint Peter said, “For this is
why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the
flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of
God” (I Peter 4:6). The medieval called this the “Harrowing of Hell” and
frequently depicted Jesus brandishing his cross before the gates of hell to pry
them open, and as using his cross to pin demons to the ground. The medievals
also showed Jesus using his cross planted firmly on the ground as a support as
he helped those he freed escape from the mouth of hell. What is more, they also
showed Jesus holding his cross out to those he freed, who, while taking hold of
Jesus’ hand, also took hold of the cross. Jesus uses his Cross in the same way
a shepherd uses his crook; truly, he is the Good Shepherd who rescues, defends,
guides, and lays down his life for his sheep. This is why we make so much use
of the Sign of the Cross.
Earlier
this week, Pope Francis reflected on the Sign of the Cross. He said to parents,
“Teach children how to make the sign of the
Cross. If they learn it as children they will do it well later, as grown-ups.”[1]
The Holy Father wants parents – and all of us – to so focus on the Sign
of the Cross because of its central role in our faith. The Holy Father
described the importance of the Cross, calling it
…the badge that
shows who we are: our words, thoughts, gaze, works are under the sign of the
Cross, that is, under the sign of Jesus’ love to the very end… We become
Christians in the measure to which the Cross is imprinted on us as a “paschal”
mark (cf. Revelation 14:1; 22:4), making visible, also outwardly, the Christian
way of confronting life. Making the sign of the Cross when we wake, before
meals, in facing danger, to protect against evil, in the evening before we
sleep, means telling ourselves and others whom we belong to, whom we want to
be. This is why it is so important to teach children how to make the sign of
the Cross properly. And as we do upon entering a church, we can also do so at
home, by keeping a bit of holy water in a suitable little vase — some families
do so: this way, each time we come in or go out, by making the sign of the
Cross with that water we remember that we are baptized. Do not
forget, I repeat: teach the children how to make the sign of the Cross.
The
sign of the Cross is, on the one hand, a most simple gesture and, on the other,
a most profound statement of faith. Too often do we enter the church, dip our
fingers in holy water, and make some hurried gesture as if swatting away flies,
not recognizing the great power that is in the sign we should make.
When
we enter the doors of the church, we pass, as it were, from earth to heaven. We
make the sign of the Cross to place ourselves at the service of the Lord Jesus
Christ and to remind us of his grace and mercy. Indeed,
by signing ourselves with the Cross,
we place ourselves under the protection of the Cross, [we] hold it in front of
us like a shield that will guard us in all the distress of daily life and give
us the courage to go on. We accept it as a signpost that we must follow… The
Cross shows us the road of life – the imitation of Christ.[2]
It
is on the Cross that we see the fullest sign of Jesus’ loving obedience to the
Father, and for this reason the Cross shows us how to conform our will to the
Father’s and how to serve his majesty in sincerity of heart; it shows us how to
be true sheep of the Good Shepherd.
The
faithful have been signing themselves with the Cross for almost two thousand
years. Indeed, the first mention we have in writing of the Sign of the Cross
comes from Tertullian, who died in 220. “At every step,” he said, “when going
in and out, when putting on clothes and shoes, when washing ourselves, when
kindling the lights, when going to sleep, sitting down, and in every action we
place the sign of the cross on our foreheads.”[3] We
would do well to do the same, and to do so with attentive reverence and love,
fully conscious of the sign we make, without being ashamed of doing so in
public.
When we cross ourselves, let it be
with a real sign of the cross. Instead of a small cramped gesture that gives no
notion of its meaning, let us make a large, unhurried sign, from forehead to
breast, from shoulder to shoulder, consciously feeling how it includes the
whole of us, our thoughts, our attitudes, our body and soul, every part of us
at once, how it concentrates and sanctifies us. It does so because it is the sign
of the universe and the sign of our redemption… It is the holiest of all signs.[4]
On the day of our baptism, the
priest or deacon, together with our parents and godparents, traced the sign of
the Cross on our foreheads. As the minister did so, he said, “I claim you for
Christ our Savior by the sign of his Cross.”[5] The
sign of the Cross is, then, a sign of ownership; it is the sign that marks us
out as belonging to Christ and to no other. The Bishop, likewise, traced the
sign of the Cross on our forehead with the sacred Chrism when he sealed us with
the seven-fold gift of the Holy Spirit. We, too, make the sign of the Cross on
our foreheads – and on our lips and over our heart - at every Mass when we
prepare to hear the words of the Gospel so that we might keep the Lord Jesus in
our mind, on our lips, and in our heart. We make the Sign of the Cross when we
begin to pray and when we finish praying. In all of these ways, we seek to
place the Sign of the Cross over everything we do. Let us, then, always make the Sign of the Cross with reverence and love so it may
seep deep into our souls and make us more and more like the Good Shepherd.
Through the sign of his Cross, may he know us as marked and belonging to him,
and may we know him in whose death and resurrection we have been redeemed.
Amen.
[1] Pope Francis, Wednesday General
Audience, 18 April 2018.
[2] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy,
trans. John Saward (San Francisco, California: Ignatius Press, 2000), 177-178.
[3] Tertullian, in Klemens Richter, The Meaning of the
Sacramental Symbols: Answers to Today’s Questions, trans. Linda M.
Maloney, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990), 132.
[4] Romano Guardini, Sacred Signs, trans. Grace
Branham (St. Louis, Missouri: Pio Decimo Press, 1956), 13f in Adolf Adam,
trans. Robert C. Schultz, The Eucharistic Celebration: The Source and
Summit of Faith (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press,
1994), 21.
[5] Rite of Baptism for Children, 41.
