The Cross is NOT Brown

    So, I tried making a blog movie review of "The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies", but that sort of flopped.....then I tried to make something about the March for Life...that too failed.  Now let's hope the third time will indeed be a charm, cue the intro!............oh wait, this is a blog, not a vlog......*sigh* well let's just get to today's topic before I screw something else up.

    Throughout most of our lives, we've seen hundreds, maybe even thousands of crucifixes.  However, one thing that most of them have in common is that the cross itself is a regular brown color.  Now, although this is in no way sinful, it has replaced a very significant detail that we should not be ignoring.  What is that detail? It is the fact that when Jesus died, he did not do so on a brown cross, but on a red one.

   No, that's not a typo in case you were wondering.  With that being said, there are two questions you might have.  First, what is my reasoning behind this, and second, even if it is true, why does it matter?

   Well, starting with the first question, let me just start by saying that ORIGINALLY, the cross was indeed brown.  "Well then are you saying that someone randomly decided to go and paint the cross red before Our Lord went to carry it?" No, hold your horses buddy.   As I said, in and of itself, a cross is indeed brown.  However, let's keep in mind that the passion of Our Lord was not nearly as sanitized as many have made it out to be.  Instead, it was more like what you will see if you watch "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson.  Even this though could not FULLY show us all that Jesus suffered for us.  Furthermore, if you've already seen the movie, then you know that it is near impossible to comprehend that even more blood could have been spilt from the Sacred Body of Our Lord.

  Anyway, keeping in mind that Jesus was covered with blood, literally from head to toe, then wouldn't that mean that the cross would then be stained red when Our Lord, carried, laid upon, and hung from it?  Maybe not the ENTIRE thing, but in all likeliness, enough of the cross was stained to still make the form of a red cross on the brown cross. 

    Now comes the second question, "What does it matter?"  Well, let's think about it.  When you are extremely ill to the point where, if you don't get help, you'll die, where will you go?  The hospital.  Now, when we watch movies and such and there happens to be a hospital involved, what is one of the most common symbols that accompanies it?  A red cross.  Do you see the connection?   When you see a red cross, you know where you need to go for help.  A plain red cross shows you where to go for physical help, and the red cross with a man on it (to be specific.....GOD), shows where you need to go to help your soul be cured from sin.

    In conclusion, by itself and simply brown, the cross was merely a place for criminals to go and die.  After being made red by the blood of Christ though, it is still a place for criminals (referring to us who have sinned), however, it is now a place where we find life and healing for the soul as we find physical healing in a hospital. We must constantly remind ourselves of this and I truly believe that one of the ways to start is to show a bit more of what Our Lord went through on our crucifixes.  The more we can see of what He did for us, the better we will be able to see how much He loves us. 

 Thanks for reading and please be sure to check out my YouTube Channel and Facebook page.

God bless,

TheCatholicApologist