When I was still a seminarian in Cagayan de Oro City, it happened that I was having my lunch in a restaurant. I saw a 6-year old child making the sign of the cross before he eat his lunch. A person, I think, he was a pastor because he had a Bible in his hands, was scandalized, approached the child and asked him: “Why did you make the sign of the cross? Did you know that by this cross our Lord was crucified and died?” The child simply answered him: “I made the sign of the cross to remind myself that I am saved by Jesus Christ and He is my Lord and Savior.”
You know what happened? The pastor left the child dumbfounded.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. We are celebrating the Feast of the three distinct Persons in One God – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The word ‘Trinity’ itself is not biblical. We cannot found this word explicitly in the Bible. Rather, it is the result of the development through controversy. But the Oneness of God is a doctrine accepted in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament provides the revelation that the Son Jesus Christ is God and that the Spirit is God. They nevertheless do not fuse in one divine person – for the Father sends the Son (John 16:6) and the Son sends the Holy Spirit (John 16:7; Gal 4:4-8) who prays in the Christian spirit the Abba of the Son to the Father (Rom 8:15).
Why used the word Trinity? Because in the year around 4th century AD, there was a priest by the name of Arius who taught that the Son is not equal to the Father but is creature since He is ‘begotten’ and He is ‘sourced.’ In other words, He is not divine. He is a man but not God. The Council of Nicea (AD 325) said: “He is Son…. Begotten not made, one in being (consubstantial or homoousious) with the Father.”
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Another known personality by the name of Apollinarius of Laodicea said that Jesus only took the place of human spirit. In other words, Jesus is not completely human. He is God but not man. Council of Constantinople (AD 381) said: “”Jesus did have a human mind, rationality, and spirit. Jesus really has a human consciousness, human feelings, creativity, intelligence and others. Jesus is completely human.”
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is a fact of our faith, a part of our faith and a mystery. It is not meant to be analyzed like in the case of St. Augustine had done and other theologians but a mystery to be lived.
Our ordinary devotion to the Holy Trinity is revealed in the Sign of the Cross, when we say: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The sign of the cross distinguishes us from other Christian group.
Making the sign of the cross in the Church or before you enter the church, this shows that we are followers of the Holy Trinity and we believe in the Trinitarian God. If you do it in public, it is an expression to the world that you believe in the Holy Trinity. There is nothing wrong with basketball players who made the sign of the cross before a game, because they are profession their faith in the Blessed Trinity as if to say that without the Holy Trinity, they are nothing.
When we make the sign of the cross, we profess that we belong to the family of God and that the God we worship is a Father to us.
When we make the sign of the cross, we also profess that we belong to the Body of Christ (the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity), the Church. This means that everything we do, whether good or bad, affect other people. Our behavior may either comforts or hurts others.
We also make the sign of the cross on our body because our body is the temple of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit. Your body is sacred because it carries the sign of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit dwells on it. This is why the body should not be abused and taken for granted.
Let us make the sign of the cross from the heart. Let us not grow tired of making the sign of cross because we belong to the Holy Trinity.
So what do you reflect when you make the sign of the cross? Why do some people make the sign of the cross when they see a church or pass by a church?