This is not an attack on our faith. It is an invitation to reflect.

Every Good Friday, one of the most solemn moments of the liturgy is the Veneration of the Cross. The priest unveils the crucifix and raises it before the congregation, proclaiming:

“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”

And the people respond:

“Come, let us worship.”

For years, I have pondered those words.

When we say, “Come, let us worship,” what exactly are we worshipping?

The cross?

Or Christ Himself?

The Catholic answer is clear: we worship Christ, not the cross. The cross is only the symbol through which we are reminded of His sacrifice. Adoration belongs to God alone.

But that explanation raises another question.

If Christ is the object of our worship, why is a physical object placed at the centre of the act? Why must a wooden cross become the focal point of our devotion? Why not direct our worship to Christ without the symbol standing before us?

This reminds me of another biblical story.

In the wilderness, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up so that those who looked upon it would live. The bronze serpent was originally a God-given symbol pointing people toward God’s saving power.

Yet generations later, the people began burning incense to it. What was once a symbol became an object of devotion. Eventually, King Hezekiah destroyed it because the people had turned it into something it was never meant to be.

That story has always made me wonder.

Can a symbol intended to point us to God eventually become the focus of our attention?

Can reverence for a sacred symbol ever become difficult to distinguish from reverence directed toward the symbol itself?

And then there is the kiss.

The most famous kiss in the Passion story was the kiss of Judas. A kiss that identified Christ for arrest and death.

Yet on Good Friday, Catholics approach the crucifix and kiss it as a sign of love, gratitude, reverence, and devotion to Christ.

The Church explains that this kiss is not directed to the wood itself, but to the Lord whose sacrifice it represents.

That is the official teaching.

My question is not whether the teaching exists.

My question is whether every Catholic truly understands that distinction in practice.

Do we clearly see beyond the symbol to Christ?

Or have some of us inherited sacred gestures whose deeper meaning we have never fully examined?

I am not making conclusions. I am asking questions.

Faith grows stronger when believers are willing to reflect deeply on what they do and why they do it.

What do you think?

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