Friday, September 15, 2006

About the Crucifix: calling Protestants on this one

I wear a Crucifix -- a cross with the image of the slain Jesus on it -- every day. There is a Crucifix in most rooms in my house.

Today we celebrated the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows...a Friday, when, traditionally, Catholics pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, which focus on the death of Jesus.

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, and because it is my parish's titular Feast, we also celebrated it last Sunday, complete with the opportunity, after the Mass, to venerate a Crucifix which contains a relic of the True Cross.

All of which brings me to the question:

Of all the things that separate Catholics from Protestants, why should the Crucifix be one of them? I ask because, as I understand it, many Protestants eschew the Crucifix, preferring instead a bare cross. Or, as in the Lutheran church in my neighborhood, a beautiful cross with the resurrected Jesus on it.

Do Protestants object to a Crucifix? If so, why?

Thanks!