Introduction to The Cross of Christ

The central mystery of the Christian faith—we might say the crux of all we believe—is the Cross of Christ. That wondrous tree whereon Christ, the Word made flesh, God made man, condescended to suffer and die for our sins so that we might live with Him the glorious life of the Resurrection.

St. Paul tells us that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. . . . While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rm 5:8, 10). It is on account of this salvation, this reconciliation to God wrought on the Cross, that “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor 1:23–24).

Part one of this issue focuses on the mystery—or as Tertullian and Leo the Great describe it—the sacrament of the Cross, the sign and cause of our hope and our salvation. We begin with “The Sign of the Cross,” a poem by the latest Doctor of the Church, John Henry Newman, before moving on to Edouard Karam’s article on the prophecy of Ezekiel wherein the angel goes about marking people with the Hebrew letter “Tau”—a letter that takes the shape of a cross, much like our letter T. We then turn to Tertullian, writing in the early third century, as he provides an exposition of Old Testament types and prophecies of the crucified Lord.

Next is the hymn by Venantius Fortunatus, “Crux Fidelis,” “The Faithful Cross,” which tells of the glories of the most noble of trees chosen to bear our Saviour. We then hear from Austin Leduc, who presents a reflection on three passages in the Gospels that express the identity of the Cross as the throne of Christ the King. This is followed by the Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood,” an account of a vision of the Cross which tells its own story of what it was like to bear the Saviour and to be drenched in His precious blood. We then close with a sermon by Pope St. Leo the Great, reminding us of the power of the Cross and the purity demanded of us by the Paschal Mystery.

Before moving into the issue, we want to thank you for your patience. This issue was meant to be published on time to coincide with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14; however, due to various factors this was not able to be the case. But, it is being published now by the grace of God. On account of the delay in publication, we decided it would be a shorter issue—only two parts instead of four—so that we can focus on getting the Christmas issue out in a more timely manner.

We have also begun providing monthly paid content—a sermon from Augustine and a couple of lectures on John Keble’s famous sermon, “National Apostasy.” If you wish to access these, we invite you to sign up as paid subscribers on our Substack.

Finally, if you have an idea for an article or if you already have something you think would be suitable for one of our next issues, please send it our way at info@tradmag.org.

Aaron P. Debusschere
Editor