Why do catholics still have Jesus on the cross?

Do catholics still have Jesus on the Cross? Yep, that is true. If you don’t believe it, many anti-catholic protestants will be glad to inform you about it. And I for one, partially agree with them.

In fact, if your local anti-catholic protestant is not convincing you enough, just drop by the Catholic Church and have a look see. You will no doubt notice a fairly obvious crucifix somewhere within the church building. And if you visit the homes or cars of some of these catholics, you will no doubt see a crucifix hanging there. But if you were to visit the homes of some of these anti-catholic protestants, you would only find crosses, no Jesus on them. The reason? Because for them, Jesus is alive, whereas for us catholics, apparently Jesus is still on the cross.

I first heard this point as a protestant. It partially made sense to me. We protestants celebrate a resurrected Christ. But I couldn’t quite make sense of what was wrong with having a crucifix, other than it would have made me look catholic, or what it was exactly that catholics thought about the resurrection of Christ. I can tell you, if you want to know what catholics believe, don’t go to a protestant source. No! Goto a catholic source. Many of my misconceptions about the Catholic faith were cleared up by going to catholic sources. I no doubt listened to arguments on both sides, but sadly many folks I meet only listen to arguments from one side, unfortunately from the anti-catholic side.

Why do catholics still have Jesus on the cross? Let’s start off by first of all pointing out that catholics also celebrate a resurrected Christ. The protestant emphasis that we catholics still have Jesus on the cross is simply misleading. It leads one to the idea that we dismiss the resurrection, or don’t believe in it at all. We do however, give more emphasis to the death of Christ than we do to the resurrection. On the flip side, couldn’t I argue that these anti-catholic protestants actually give more emphasis to the resurrection than they do to the death of Christ? And using the same logic, couldn’t I argue as they do, that there is no Christ on the cross of these protestants? They are saved by a Christless cross? I hope that at this point these folks would change their tune, and realize their mistake.

I suppose if Paul would have written to the Corinthians ‘For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him resurrected.’  then that would have been the primary emphasis in the Catholic Church. But instead we have 1 Cor. 2:2 “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (emp. mine)

So yes, us catholics still have Jesus on the Cross just as the apostle Paul did when he wrote 1 Cor. 2:2 some 20 years after the resurrection of Christ. My question to these protestants is, why do they not follow suit?