Liturgically Speaking: The Sign of the Cross

Once the priest has processed to the altar and reverenced it, he leads us in the sign of the cross.  The sign of the cross is an incredibly meaningful symbol.  

In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel spoke of God’s faithful being signed with a mysterious mark:

“Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer's case at his waist, saying to him: Pass through the city (through Jerusalem) and mark an X on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it.  To the others I heard him say: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!  Old men, youths and maidens, women and children--wipe them out! But do not touch any marked with the X; begin at my sanctuary.” (Ezekiel 9:3-6)

In Ezekiel, this sign marks those who are faithful to God’s law, and serves as a sign for their protection.  In the Greek version of Ezekiel, the “mark” he mentioned is the Greek letter “Tau.”  A Tau looks like a capital “T.”  It was not a far stretch for the early Christians to see in this mysterious sign a foreshadowing of the sign of the Lord’s cross. 

The book of Revelation seems to take on the imagery of Ezekiel, speaking of a “seal” on the foreheads of God’s chosen people, a sign of their election and protection:

“Then I saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."  I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites…”(Rev 7:2-4)

The words of the sign of the cross recall to us our baptism.  Before his ascension, Christ commanded his Apostles: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)  Our baptism is our entrance into the Church and the foundation of our life in the grace of Christ, which allows us to approach Him in the Eucharist.

The words of the sign of the cross also profess our belief in the central mystery of our faith – who God is in His deepest identity.  We proclaim one God in three equal Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The sign of the cross also recalls the pinnacle event of God’s love for us and the means of our salvation – the Paschal Mystery – the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.  Continually makeing the sign of the Lord’s cross, we echo St. Paul, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2)

In the early Church we have positive evidence that the sign of the cross was familiar to Christians in the second century:

"In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting of our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross". (Tertullian, c. 200AD)

The sign of the cross must soon have passed into a gesture of blessing, as St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechesis (386) describes:

"Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in goings; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are travelling, and when we are at rest".