In Revelations of Divine Love, she declares that “before made us, loved us, and we were made to love. The 14th-century anchoress Julian of Norwich’s notion of time – of creation, death and redemption – seems to be collapsed into one. Ashes and the cross come together, and we aren’t sure where we might find relief. It reminds us of our frailty, our mortality. The season of Lent solidifies the “not yet” part of the world. The person whom we consider our Savior is a person who as one of us died as all of us will do. The cross itself carries this notion of paradox: that death can lead to life. As early as the beginning of the 3rd century CE, the ancient church theologian Tertullian identifies the making of the sign of the cross upon the forehead as a tradition:Īt 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. The sign of the cross traces its roots to ancient Christianity. And that those in Christian traditions that bodily act out the sign of the cross do so in joy or in sorrow, in confidence or in fear.
I find it interesting that the sign of the cross swiped with ashes on Ash Wednesday to mark our mortality and our ending is also the sign that at baptism marks our beginning as followers of Jesus. “What would it look like for Baptists to recover and reclaim the old tradition of making the sign of the cross?” The song includes these lyrics: “You make beautiful things / You make beautiful things out of the dust. With the mention of ashes, another person asked if I had heard “Beautiful Things” by the Christian alternative rock group Gungor. Several traditions that anoint with oil also trace the sign of the cross on the forehead.Īs I reflected on my dream in a social media post, one person suggested that to make the sign of the cross in the Roman Catholic tradition serves as a prayer to the Trinity. And on every Sunday, after the gospel is read, worshippers make the sign of the cross on the head, lips and hearts as a reminder to follow the gospel with one’s whole self. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the sign of the cross is bestowed upon the foreheads of the faithful at confirmation. Just then my alarm went off, and my lecture was cut short. I then explained to (I assume) my mostly Baptist students that it was the same sign pastors and priests make on babies as they are baptized. I was teaching a theology class on making the sign of the cross at the imposition of ashes on the forehead. I usually don’t remember my dreams, but this time I did. The night before Ash Wednesday, I had a dream.
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