If you enter into any Roman Catholic Church, you “ should be able to view a large crucifix” within the Sanctuary, which hangs in a most prominent position.
This should be the first sign of Christ’s presence in a place of silence, respect, and reverence. You may even sit and just reflect as the corpus seems to call, waiting for our respectful attention.
The Roman Rite says, that either on the altar or near it, there must be a cross with the figure of Christ upon it, a cross which must be clearly visible to the assembled people.
In the other hand, just take a walk into a Protestant Church and look for a crucifix; it would be very rare case if you ever found one.
For nearly 2,000 years, the Roman Catholic Church preaches Christ Crucified and since then, this theme has been preached from the pulpit, and is Sacred Tradition.
Ever since the Reformation various protestant denominations didn’t agree to display a cross with the corpus, whether it was three-dimensional or not.
Calvin, who was considered to be the father of the Reformed Church, violently opposed to both cross and crucifix.
There have also been cases around the world where crucifixes have been removed from different institutions because they might offend other religions or very liberal thinking parties.
“Should be able to view a crucifix” is a statement that pushes one to wonder what has happened with a quest to become modern, even in a church that goes back to centuries.
There are actually Catholic Churches who have removed, or intentionally left out in new construction, a cross without the corpus. Are they trying to keep up with Protestant Churches? This should be an alarm going off as the future threatens towards us subtracting what we have grown up with to making sure we do not in any way, insult people who don’t want or adhere to reasons for keeping the Crucifix in view of the people.
Maybe, in a way to please some who think a new look is apropos why not remove the crucifix from the rosary beads. What about changing the stained glass windows? Or maybe change the saints images to modern-day heroes or political persons who are supposed to be telling us like it is.
Could this be new-age philosophy? The one that appears to be the new religion that wants to change our way of thinking, such as suffering.
Anyways, the crucifix reminds us of suffering and that is what the beauty of the crucifix is all about.
