Signs of the Sign of the Cross

It's raining today, so we can't do what we thought we were going to do, which was work out in the garden. We need to pull some weeds and do some soil amending. We've planted some tomatoes, which we haven't done in a year or so.

We sort of gave up on them in recent times. In a garden where everything does pretty well, even when we rather neglect it, the tomatoes just weren't happening. After two years of terrible crops with almost no tomatoes to speak of, we threw in the towel. Now I see what's gone wrong. The soil is terrible. There is no soil. Just dirt.

So we're going to unplant the tomatoes, amend the soil and replant the tomatoes.

But not today.

Today we're back to square one, so to speak, with the Sign of the Cross. We've solved the 'which hand' problem, I hope. Now we have to talk about what we do with our hand.

Sister,
I have a sign of the cross Q for you. Why do some folks touch their lips after they make the sign of the cross?

Why indeed?

They are not touching their lips. They are kissing their fingers.

And why are they doing that?

Here's another question for you? Which fingers are they kissing?

Everything we do in the Catholic Church is symbolic. Obviously the Sign of the Cross is a symbol of the Cross, but why touch your' head, your heart, your shoulders? Why not just make a Sign of the Cross out in front of you?

Let's start with the fingers. There is more than one tradition about how to hold your fingers. We do the flat hand method. Using all five fingers symbolizes the Five Wounds of Christ.

And you thought it was just your hand!

Some traditions use the three finger method, the thumb, and the first two fingers. Care to guess the symbolism there?

Holy Trinity.

Then for some people, touching the head represents the Father, the heart, the Son and the shoulders, the Holy Spirit. Which seems like a no-brainer, since that's exactly what you're saying at the time, although sometimes we make the Sign of the Cross without saying anything, like before a free throw.

How about those Suns! Who saw that coming? Not me. I'd love to see a Suns/Celtics playoff!

But I digress.

But for some people the symbolism also digs a little deeper in that the head represents God the Father and His Wisdom, and touching the heart or stomach next represents the Incarnation, specifically. I've forgotten what these folks thinks about while touching their shoulders.

But then, I've forgotten more than a lot of people know in the first place, so I don't feel too bad about about forgetting some symbolic stretch.

So, since your hand is representing either the Five Wounds of Christ or the Trinity, that's what you're kissing when you kiss your hand at the end.

Of course, a lot of people just do it out of habit and aren't really thinking anything. And a lot of people are holding something that they are kissing, like a rosary, or the cross on the rosary.

And then....some people make a little Sign of the Cross with their thumbs on their foreheads and everywhere else while they are making the Sign of the Cross with their hands, thus making a Sign of the Cross Squared. Or would that be a Sign of the Cross to the second power?

I'm not good at math.

Or tomatoes.