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by Gabriele Cantaluppi

Pope Francis has spoken several times in his catecheses about the sign of the cross, inviting it to be taught to children: «It pains me when I find children who do not know how to make the sign of the cross: teaching them to make the sign of the cross well is the first prayer. Then perhaps you can forget them, take another path, but that remains in the heart, because it is a seed of life, a seed of dialogue with God." The cross is the badge that shows who we are: therefore it is a gesture that must be done responsibly. Making the sign of the cross absentmindedly and flaunting the Christian symbol as if it were the badge of a team or an ornament, with precious stones, jewels and gold, has nothing to do with the mystery of Christ.

The sign of the cross is the gesture with which Christians signify the blessing of their person in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes clearly: «The sign of the cross expresses the seal of Christ on the one who is about to belong to him and signifies the grace of redemption that Christ has purchased for us through his cross» (1235).

This is why the faithful use to make the sign of the cross when they wake up, before meals, in the face of danger, in defense against evil, in the evening before going to sleep: it means telling themselves and others who they belong to, who they want to be. . As we do when entering church, so we can also do at home, keeping a little holy water in a small suitable vase, so, every time we enter or leave, by making the sign of the cross with that water we remember that we are baptized. 

The tradition that has established itself in the West, predominant among us Latin Catholics, is to cross oneself from top to bottom, then from left to right, often with the five fingers of the right hand joined to evoke the five wounds of Christ. However, it is a relatively recent use: the primitive practice, which is still current in the Eastern Christian world, is that according to which Christians signed themselves from top to bottom and then from right to left. The thumb, index finger and middle finger are united, to evoke the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity, while the ring finger and little finger, gathered in the palm of the hand, evoke the two natures of Christ - the human and the divine.

Tertullian, an author between the 4nd and XNUMXrd centuries, in a work where he compares the baptismal commitment of Christians to the oath of the soldiers of the empire, states: «If we set out, if we go out or in, if we dress , if we wash ourselves or go to the table, to bed, if we sit down, in these and in all our actions we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross" (The soldiers' crown, III, XNUMX).

According to the Apostolic Tradition, a third-century Roman liturgical text: «When you are tempted, mark your forehead devoutly: it is the sign of the Passion, known and tested against the devil if you do it with faith, not to be seen by men, but presenting him as a shield."

For Don Guanella it is an expression of communion with the Trinity: «Like the eagle, with the sign of the cross you fix your eye on the sun of justice, the most high Lord: like that king of birds he enjoys reflecting himself in the light, in the heat and in the color of the major star, so you are blissful in the most august Trinity of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".