JORAS - Nigerian Journal of Religion and Society

The Cross is central to the liturgical setting in our Churches. This means that for any liturgical celebration, especially the Eucharist, to possess 'integritas' (aesthetic perfection sacramentally), there should be a Liturgical Cross, which fulfills the criteria of the sacramental beauty, displayed prominently. This can assist the worshippers, as they attend Mass, to connect to the love of Christ who gave them his body and blood in the Eucharist remembering that he is the One who sacrificed himself for them on the Cross. To realise this, there is a single proposal to African liturgical artists: the crosses they carve and paint must fulfill the Thomistic criteria of 'claritas,' 'proportio,' and 'integritas' since the Cross is not meant simply as a decorative ornament. It must depict the suffering Christ. The Cross not only conceals the glory of God, in its stark ugliness, but it also reveals it. The tendency to shy away from the suffering Christ is manifest in the preference for the figures of the resurrected Christ found in many of our sanctuaries today. Nigerian liturgical artists are challenged to represent to us the “man of sorrows, who is familiar with suffering.” The passion and death of Jesus was necessary for him to enter into his glory and this must be clearly revealed in our depiction of the Cross.

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