Today’s Christians do not always know that the Cross did not become a meaningful symbol of our faith until sometime in the 2nd-century – long after the death of Jesus. In the earliest days of Christianity, the Christian fish was the preeminent sign of those who followed Jesus. The cross was nothing more than a bad memory – the instrument of crucifixion imposed by the Romans not only upon Jesus but upon thousands of other Jews. Can you understand why the early Christians didn’t like crosses? The cross originally was a symbol of oppression, injustice and death.

So how is it that the cross came to be something so beloved among Christians that we now display it on our steeples, in our sanctuaries, in our homes, and around our necks as pieces of jewelry – and on some of us as a tattoo on your arm, or thigh? Why is it that when we baptize babies we make the sign of the cross upon the child’s forehead, and why do Catholics and others respond to the invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” by making the sign of the cross upon themselves?

Well, as time went on, the early Christians started thinking of the cross not for what it literally WAS – an instrument of execution – but for what it MEANS in light of Jesus’ resurrection. So the cross of Jesus became less a symbol of the terrible things the Romans had done, and more a symbol of what God did for Jesus, and what God has done for us. And the writings of St. Paul were very influential in bringing about this new understanding of the Cross. Listen to him in 1 Corinthians 1:18:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

And now you know!