One of my readers once said, “repost it, reuse it”. And yes, I’d already posted this particular subject many times in the past especially during September and May. Each time, I tried condensing it as much as I could so that readers won’t get tired reading it. It’s about the Santa Cruz or Holy Cross. Many cities around the globe, like the city of Las Cruces New Mexico, Santa Cruz California were named after this Christian symbols, the Cross. It is an important icon of Christianity, but in past years, the Cross becomes an eyesore for Liberal democrats here in the US. Teaming up with the Atheist group of America, they’ve been demanding public officials to remove all cross monuments as well as the removal of any religious symbols in their city logos. But to be able to understand behind the cross controversy, we need to understand the history behind the Holy Cross, whose feast is today, Sept. 14. It was during the heights of the Christian persecutions, the Roman Empire was under the rule of three emperors, “Tetrarchy”. But the power struggle after the resignation of Emperor Diocletian in 305 had paved the path for Christians to religious liberty. Maxentius, who occupied Rome at that time, sought to advance his own claim to the title. In the East, Emperor Constantine believing also to be the rightful emperor of the Western Roman Empire, assembled his army and prepared for an invasion of Italy in 312. While marching with his army towards the Milvian Bridge, to face off Maxentius army, Constantine saw up in the sky a cross of light, above it is an inscription, “in hoc signo Vinces”, “ (IN THIS SIGN, YOU WILL CONQUER). At first, Constantine, who was a pagan, did not know the meaning of the apparition, but on the following night, he had a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the sign of the cross against his enemies. Constantine then marked the shields of his army with the sign of the Cross. He successfully crashed Maxentius’ army… he attributed his victory to the God of the Christians and eventually converted to Christianity. In 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, granting all Christians their religious liberty throughout the Roman empire. He returned all their properties confiscated by his predecessors. He built Christian churches at the locations associated with Christ life. Likewise, in the later days of Constantine’s mother life, Queen Helen, she traveled to the Holy Land in search for the cross that Christ had died. Hmm… finding that cross must be an enormous task. Because after Christ resurrection, both Jews and Roman authorities obscured historic places important for Christians. They filled Mt. Calvary and Christ burial place with dirt and built a pagan Temple of Aphrodite (goddess of love of beauty) on top of it, and hid the cross that Jesus had died. Constantine, however, destroyed this pagan temple and built the Holy Sepulcher & Mt. Calvary church on top of it. During excavation, the Cross that Christ had died was also uncovered. The veneration of the Cross began immediately in Jerusalem. Until today, September 14 is observe the feast of the Exaltation of the cross and the dedication of the Holy Sepulcher and Mt Calvary church. Because of the richness of the symbolism of the Holy Cross, the September 14 feast becomes a worldwide event… in some catholic countries, September 14 is a national holiday. In the Philippines, people in the provinces celebrate feast without even understanding the significance of it…lol... In most cases they used it as a form of entertainment. Crosses and crucifixes are sacramental objects that the church uses to obtain God’s graces. They are used for exorcism to expel demons too….and that explain why vampires and bloodsuckers, aka liberals & atheist hate the Cross. LOL.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:10:20 +0000