“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…” – Matthew 28:19
One of the Church’s most ancient acts of worship is the simple Sign of the Cross. As both a prayer and a liturgical gesture, it proclaims faith in the Triune God and invokes God’s blessing in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In addition, the Cross is the symbol of our salvation. So it should come as no surprise that the very first Christian communities began consecrating people, places, objects, animals, and everything else to God with the Sign of the Cross and in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
According to the 2nd century Church writer Tertullian:
At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross (The Chaplet, 3).
Likewise, the 4th century Bishop of Jerusalem, Saint Cyril, instructed his people:
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 every thing; 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 (Catecheses 13:36).
Imagine how we could glorify God if, like these early Christians, we performed all our actions, even the most simple and mundane, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! How beautiful it would be if the whole world – every slice of bread, every computer screen, every slip of paper, every stone and shovel and grain of sand were sealed with the Sign of the Cross!
Truly, that would be the Kingdom of God. It is a reality already here, but not yet fully realized. So, the Lord sends you and me, as he once sent His Apostles, to bring good news to the poor and make disciples of all nations.
In the words of our Lord, therefore … Go!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
