Do You Make the Sign of the Cross Before You Eat in Public?
In the spirit of openness, I’m going to admit right this minute, that no, I don’t always do it. I am not always comfortable making the sign of the cross and praying before I eat. There are a couple of reasons why. I suppose I don’t want to appear to be super pious, or maybe I don’t want to cause any awkwardness for anyone else.
If I peel away the layers of excuses, I reach the core. The crux or the matter is that I am ashamed, in certain circumstances, of appearing outwardly Catholic. On some level, I worry that folks will see me as some religious freak. Or maybe I don’t want to come across as judgmental of them.
In this world we live in, we have to be oh so careful of appearing to be religiously neutral, lest we offend someone. Even when we are not in danger of losing anything of value, like our jobs or community standing, we still feel ashamed to proclaim our religion.
Jesus said in Luke 9:26:
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Sobering words, aren’t they?
For those of you who have the grace to declare your faith boldly, may the Lord continue to bless you. For those, who like me still struggle a bit, may the Lord give us the grace that we need to boldly declare his Gospel in manner and speech?
I do it always. Actually I always say grace before meals before a meal – whether in public or not. It is the same as receiving Our Lord on the tongue for me. I made a decision that I would always do it, no matter what.
So, when some neocatholic starts to accuse those who receive Holy Communion only on the tongue of spiritual pride, holier-than-thou pretensions, etc. (you know what I’m talking about), I don’t start examining my motives, because my motive is that I chose once and for all to never ever receive in the hand, and that’s that.
In the same way, when I begin to feel embarrassed about having to say grace before meals in public, I just remind myself of my once and final decision, and go ahead an do it anyway.
Yeah. I’m still working on that. Sometimes I do it and sometimes I just say a quick silent prayer.
This is how the accuser of the brethren gets to me.
He makes me think that by making the sign of the cross or pausing to say a prayer, especially when with others is spiritual pride. Sigh…