In Hoc Signo Crucis Vinces









MY ELDEST daughter, Vita, made the sign of the cross prior to playing "Angry Bird" on a computer.  I reacted with a question: Hey, what do you mean by that? And she looked at me and smiled: Oh, it's nothing. Just a thought."
Making the sign of a cross prior to starting off an activity is a culture thing (not only for Catholic Filipinos but also for some Latin Americans--just watch a boxing match between those two, Manny Pacquiao and Eric Morales for instance). For Baleten-on however, it is part of the morning ritual of taking a bath together with the incantation, "Pwera ubo, pwera sip-on, pwera eagnat, pwera sigbin, aswang!" (Save us from cough, save us from cold, save us from fever, save us from witches and demons!). It is at the head of the morning ritual of drivers as they start their day on the road, and make it again whenever they passed through a church. The devout commuters follow through with the ritual and non-Catholics wonder why in silence. Baptist Alvin wonders why Catholic Pido made the sign prior to making a lay up with elbows protruding to fend off the defenses he was making.

It is a betrayal of your witnessing, says Fr. Tito, when you make the sign of the cross and then cheat on your opponent or when you behave unchristian in dealing with the other. As Christians, Catholics are called daily to witnessing love of God and love of neighbor. By making the sign of the cross as you start off your day, you are making a solemn vow that all you do today, you do in witnessing such love.
In the 40-day intramural, we make the sign of the cross and pray in the word of the Psalmist:
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God. Renew in me a steadfast spirit.

Today, as we observe Ash Wednesday as the starting point of our 40-day intramural in the wilderness of life, let the cross in our forehead so reminds us that we are witnesses to this love of God and love of neighbor. The cross is the sign not of violent death as it used to be during the Roman times. It is now a sign of God's greatest love for mankind and by which we shall conquer our opponent, the Hater.

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