Why do Catholics have the Crucifix, and Protestant have the Cross?

Question

Umm, I guess I'm asking what the cross signifies and what the crucifix signifies to both groups.

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Thank you!

Answer 1

For me as a Catholic it is Love that I see for authentic love comes from sacrifice.  It is here where all grace comes from.

We often look at Jesus with an attitude of predestination--a cold, hard-hearted acceptance of His sufferings and pain. We think, at least in our subconscious, that somehow He had to do what He did and so we sluff it all off with a shrug of our shoulders, without a thought of the awesome wonder of a suffering God. We cannot comprehend a love that desires to feel our misery. The only love we understand is the kind that warms our heart and affects our emotions. We prefer that our love feels pity or sympathy, but not the actual pain of the one we love.

We may see someone with cancer, but we would never desire to actually feel every sharp, throbbing pain. We often say we would rather suffer than see those we love suffer, but this is for the most part, a mere expression of sympathy.

Our meditations on His sufferings are shallow and distant--expressions of pity if we have any devotion or an acceptance of an historical fact that He came, suffered and died. We laboriously try to remember this reality during Lent and quickly forget it at Easter. We joyfully set aside His sufferings and don our Easter clothes as if to shed some disagreeable event by starting anew. Yes, the joy of His resurrection should always be in our hearts and give us that hope that knows no sadness. But do we not lose the one element of Easter that assures our hope of a never ending source of joy? "See My Hands and My Feet," Jesus told the doubting Thomas. His risen, glorious body continues to carry wounds, but these wounds provide our greatest consolation, our deepest joy and our assuring hope. These wounds open to us the secrets of His Love and give us a confident trust in His mercy. We can no longer doubt His love for us--we can no longer chide Him for permitting injustice in our lives while He never felt this painful sting.

Before redemption we may well have asked Him, "How do You know what it means to suffer, Oh God? Did You ever feel hungry or thirsty? Have Your nights ever been full of fears and Your days long hours of painful endurance? Have You ever felt lonely or rejected? Has anyone treated You unjustly and have You ever cried? Has the powerful wind You created ever pierced Your bones and made You shiver with cold? Have you ever needed a friend and then, when he came along, watched him turn against You?"

His answer to all these questions would have been, "No." But now, we can no longer wonder, because His love has answered our unasked questions--has desired to feel what our nature feels--endure our weaknesses and limitations of our sinner condition--shouldered our yoke and shuddered from the cold wind.

"The birds have nests and the foxes dens," He told His disciples, "but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His Head." (Luke 9:58) The realization that the love of Jesus shared and continues to share in our sorrows and pain, gives us that joy "no man can take away." Our continual Easter joy is mysteriously woven and interwoven with the cross.

The Christian experiences and lives a paradox. He possesses joy in sorrow, fulfillment in exile, light in darkness, peace in turmoil, consolation in spiritual dryness, contentment in pain and hope in desolation. A dedicated Christian has the ability to take the present moment, look at it head on, recall the spirit of Jesus under similar circumstances and act accordingly. It is difficult, but He told us it would be, for the happiness He promised is beyond this life. We are given the opportunity to condition ourselves to live forever with Holiness Itself.

Answer 2

You know what's even weirder? Catholics have the po-tey-to and Protestants have the po-tah-to.

Answer 3

Sacrifice and Resurrection

Answer 4

The crucifix is for us to never forget our Lord's sacrifice on the cross for us.  It helps us Catholics to stay humble and work hard to do good and not to sin or offend our Lord.

The cross is for protestants to forget our Lord's sacrifice.  They don't like to think about sad things.  They tend to focus on the resurrection and don't want to think about how our Lord suffered for them because then they would have to truly examine their consciences and start worrying about their sins.

Answer 5

One dwells more on the sacrifice (crucifixion) and the other on the resurrection (cross)

Answer 6

Protestants have an empty cross, an empty tomb. Jesus is alive!

We are to remember he died for us, but the important thing is he rose again.

And, to show statues of "things in heaven" are idols.

Answer 7

Catholicism believes in a suffering Christ, one who has to continually die for sin.

Protestants and Baptists believe the bare cross signifies the death, burial, AND resurrection of Jesus since he died ONCE for sin as the Bible says.  The bare cross signifies the victory that Jesus has gained over sin for the lost.

Answer 8

The catholics have the crucifix to remember the passion of our Lord on the Cross. The protestants believe that Jesus has already conquered the cross and therefore must only look on to a cross without Jesus, and besides Protestants don't have doctrines or beliefs with regards to images.

Answer 9

Protestantism was an attempt to reform what were seen by some as excesses of the medieval Catholic Church.  The Protestant sects did not believe in displaying 'graven images' of Jesus, nor did they approve of ornate churches and rituals.  They preferred to have just a simple cross to represent their faith.

Catholics typically view the crucifix as a way to remind themselves of Christ's suffering during his crucifixion.  They see it as a reminder of his sacrifice for the world.

Answer 10

The cross is a symbol for us as to what means Jesus died. Catholics need to see the dying Jesus on the cross. Don't ask me why. I abhor the crucifix.

Answer 11

Why do we have the cross any way Jesus is not their any more he died and then he Rose again but why do the Cholotic pray to mary who is she but the mother she has no power nor can she save us on ly her son.

Answer 12

It's the same thing, just whether you want your bloody, suffering Jesus on it or not.

Answer 13

If christ would have died by having been pierced by an arrow, then the arrow would be around the christian's neck.

Answer 14

it is true they signify the same thing and therefore its not any different we have a figureee of God on it they don't' but it means exactly the same thing.

Answer 15

The crucifix symbolizes Christ's sacrifice for our sins. The cross symbolizes Christ's resurrection.  

Answer 16

Put it like this, without Chirst, all the cross is, is two beams of wood used to put criminals to death. It was a horrible way to day. Why celebrate that? We celebrate only one cross, the cross that Christ died on, for the atonment of ours sins. I could care less about crosses, what I care about is the cross that became on alter on which Christ was sacraficied. Without Christ, the cross is just another way people were killed.

Edit:

Michael-Do adhore the Crucifix is to adhore he who was afixed to it.

Mona-Christ is the only mediator between Man and God, Catholic know this. But we are told to pray for one another and we are told to ask for intercessions from those already in Heavan.

"‘And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"? He is not God of the dead, but of the living . . .’" (Mark 12:26-27)

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely . . ." (Heb. 12:1).

"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8).

And look at Mary,

"And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’" (Luke 1:41-43).

"And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name’" (Luke 1:46-49).

Blessed Virgin Mary is our greatest intercessor, the greatest Saint, because her very son was God, and he raised her up to Heaven, body and soul. Christ listens to our prayers and those of the Saints in Heaven, and especially his Mother.