As human beings, we adopt signs and symbols that express for our own benefit and communicate to others meaning in life, meaning by which we live and know ourselves. From a crisp military salute to the tweaking of our cheeks by a grandmother or great aunt, a world of meaning, of esteem and respect, of hope and expectation can be succinctly conveyed and received.
With our most recent celebration of Pentecost, we have drawn a renewed sense of the fullness of the Economy of Salvation. In Christ the Community of Disciples had learned in new and breathtaking ways of the Father’s love for us. In the person of Jesus the Teacher and Master becomes the Perfect Sacrifice for our salvation from the powers of sin and death. And then, most unexpectedly, Jesus assures the disciples that this movement toward and into salvation is not complete until he, who has dwelt among them, should return to his place with the Father and the Spirit should be sent, so that the communion of the Triune God’s Love should dwell fully within them.
It is now both possible and required that we should learn not only “about” God, but that we should come to know ourselves most fully by coming to know God more deeply. This revelation of the truth of the Triune God, the Holy Trinity in which we sign ourselves frequently, isn’t an “add on” but a broader and deeper revelation of God “for us” as we mature with minds and hearts better
formed to know and accept this great Mystery.
In moments public or private, the simple but powerful gesture of making the Sign of the Cross casts our lot, our fear or exuberance, our being alone or together, our deepest sadness or our greatest joy into the keeping of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!