Sign of the Cross

The Commemoration of All Souls

On our recent family vacation, as I drove along admiring God’s handiwork, I noticed quite a few crosses—the ones people place on the side of the road to memorialize a loved one killed on that spot. I began keeping track of the number of crosses we passed, and after a few days of counting, it averaged out to one cross every twenty miles. This represents a fatality, a death, every twenty miles! America’s highways are truly deadly.

The cross is a symbol of our faith. It represents the death of Our Lord Jesus, who came down from Heaven and took all of the suffering and injustice of a fallen world upon Himself. He took all of our pain and bore it on His cross; He died so that we might live, and the cross is the sign of His suffering, and of our salvation.

And all these little crosses along our roads and highways are signs of human suffering. Each and every one of these crosses represents a premature and needless death. And each and every death was a cause of grief for someone… someone who took the time to make a little cross and place it along the side of the road…

I made one of these little crosses myself a little over four years ago. I used redwood so it would last, and I carefully carved Johnny’s name by hand. I primed it and painted it, and on the one year anniversary of our first-born son’s death, Liane and I drove to the spot where our little Johnny was killed, and we placed the cross there. My wife and I looked at each other, and there were no words to describe what was in our hearts… We were powerless to save our son; there was nothing we could do to bring him back… All we could do was to place a cross on the side of the road as a sign that there once lived a beautiful little boy who we loved more than anything, and he was killed, and our hearts were broken…

A few years ago, I began saying a little prayer whenever I would pass one of the little crosses alongside the road, making the sign of the cross: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” These prayers are for the souls of the departed, for their loved ones, or for whoever needs them. No prayer is ever wasted. Just as the mason takes each individual stone and places it in just the right spot in the wall, Our Father in Heaven takes each prayer, each sign of His Son’s suffering and death, each a sign of His love, and places it perfectly.

I’ve come to recognize all these crosses as more than a sign of suffering. Every time I see a roadside cross, I am reminded that our life on this Earth is so very short; I am reminded that every day is a gift; I am reminded that we were created for eternity with Our Father.

Just yesterday, on the Solemnity of All Saints, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI spoke these words:
“In this our time, more so than in the past, we are so absorbed by earthly things that it is hard for us to think of God as a protagonist in history and in our own lives,"

the sun rises and the sun goes down…
the wind turns again and again,
resuming its rounds…
what has been, that will be…
life is as a passing flower…
joy flows like a river,
yet never does the sea become full…

“Little children, do not forget that your life is fleeting like the spring flower which today is wondrously beautiful, but tomorrow has vanished. Therefore, pray in such a way that your prayer, your surrender to God may become like a road sign. That way, your witness will not only have value for yourselves, but for all of eternity.”
--Our Lady of Medjuogorje, March 25, 1988