The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Today we celebrate the most important feast of the year. This feast surpasses: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, because it is the foundation upon which all other feasts are based. Our Holy Mother the Church does not surround this feast with the ceremonies and solemnity of the other feasts because She cannot adequately express the grandeur of this feast through ceremonies. But in fact this feast is celebrated on almost every Sunday throughout the year. The usual preface for Mass on Sundays is the preface of the Holy Trinity.

And every Catholic knows how to make the Sign of the Cross to profess his belief in the Holy Trinity. And we know that we should be making this sign very frequently.

We see in the history of the Church that Catholics make the Sign of the Cross: upon rising or resting, when coming or going out, before and after eating, when dressing or undressing, in times of happiness or sorrow or suffering, in short at all times and in all places.

There is a wealth of meaning and power in the Sign of the Cross. Our first impression is that we are reminded of the cross upon which Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins. In making the Sign of the Cross we remind ourselves and others who may see us that God who came to this earth took upon Himself our human flesh allowed Himself to be tortured and murdered so that we might have eternal life and not be damned to the eternal fires of Hell.

We are also reminded that we too must carry our own cross. "Take up your cross daily and come follow Me." In making the Sign of the Cross we remind ourselves why we must bear the burdens, sufferings, and sorrows of this life, and that there awaits a Heavenly reward for those who take up this cross willingly for the love of God. We are strengthened by the thought that in bearing this cross willingly and lovingly Christ has promised to make it sweet and light. The distastefulness of a task diminishes according to our willingness to embrace it out of love. And thus we see that the Saints ran after that which the world is repulsed by, simply because in these distasteful and unpleasant tasks they found sweetness and joy because it was done for the love of God.

And if this in itself were not reason enough to frequently make the Sign of the Cross, we see that this sign is a most powerful protection.

St. Ignatius, a disciple of St. John, says: "The sign of the Cross is a token of victory against the power of the prince of darkness, who when he sees it, is terrified, who, when he hears of it, is afraid." St. Cyril says: "As the dog is in dread of the stick with which he is struck, so the devil is terrified when he sees the Sign of the Cross made, because it reminds him of the wood of the cross, by which he was conquered."

Julian the Apostate one day entered a pagan temple, in company with a noted idolater. The latter having invoked the demons, they at once make their appearance. Julian became alarmed, and forgetting for a moment that he had renounced the Christian religion, made the Sign of the Cross, as he had been formerly accustomed to do when any danger was near. Immediately the infernal spirits disappeared: so powerful and efficacious was this sign even when made by a Christian renegade. What power and efficacy, then, must it not have when made by a good Christian.

In times of temptation we need only to make the Sign of the Cross and it will drive the temptation from us. It does not matter whether the temptation come from the flesh, the world or the devil. St. Anthony used to say to his disciples: "I need only make the Sign of the Cross to put to flight all the delusions and spells of the demons.

Not only is the Sign of the Cross wonderful for protecting us from harm but, it likewise brings down upon us the graces and blessings of God. There is not a single blessing given by the Church that does not make use of the Sign of the Cross. Even the blessing given with the Blessed Sacrament is given in this form of the Cross.

Let us through the frequent practice of devoutly making this Sign of the Cross continue to celebrate this day's feast every single day for the rest of our lives.

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