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Article: Trivializing the cross ignores its radical claims.(Reflection)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- February 27, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I often see someone wearing a cross on a chain around the neck. I hope it's a sign of faith. Recently, I saw a man with a cross on his cuff links and a woman with little crosses as bangles on her bracelet. I also saw hundreds of crosses on a wallpaper border. So, good uses and questionable uses. I wondered where the boundary to the trivial is. If familiarity does not breed contempt, it may breed indifference so the shame and glory of the cross are lost.
In antiquity death on the cross was limited to foreigners, people of the lowest class, particularly slaves. Cicero, who died just before the birth of Christ, argued that "the very word 'cross' should be far ...