The Holy Shroud of Jesus

"The Holy Shroud is the burial cloth in which the sacred Body of Jesus Christ was wrapped when laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Upon its surface, it bears the Image of our crucified God and the indelible marks of His Precious Blood. Truly, the Shroud is the oldest and most precious relic in the world; a corporal relic left, in the Providence of God, to an unbelieving world to be a "silent witness" to the infinite love of God to man, to an unbelieving world, of the Divinity of Our Lord, and to memorialize the sacrificial victory of the Son of God over sin, death, and Satan.

The significance of the Holy Shroud is inseparable from the significance of Him Whose image is so brutally manifested upon the cloth; for the Shroud is a divine constituent in the immense cycle represented in the Sacrifice of the Cross, prepared before the creation of the world: the Old Testament reaching forth to Calvary, and Calvary, through the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, lifting man up, on the merits of the Sacrifice of Redemption, to eternal beatitude in Heaven.

The Holy Shroud is an integral part of the divine story of Him Who "spangled the heavens with the jewels of night;" of Him Who created heaven and earth, and every living creature; of Him Who lavished the sky in azure blue and bequeathed loveliness to the verdant landscape; of Him Who devised the beauty and fragrance of the littlest flower; of Him Who breathes life and wonder into the smallest child; of Him Who was born of a Virgin Mother and Who reigns as King of kings, and Lord of lords; of Him Who beneath the crown of thorns wore the imperishable aureole of Divine Majesty; of Him Who within Whose Body, all torn and disfigured, there abided infinite power, infinite justice, infinite mercy, and infinite love; of Him in place of Whom the modem world blasphemously cries aloud, "Give us Barabbas! Crucify Christ!"; of Him Who said, "Without Me you can do nothing"; the palpable truth of which contemporary society is a standing proof. It is the eternal story of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word made Flesh, without Whom there is no Christianity, no redemption, no salvation, and no slightest hope for mankind."find more here and here
(posted by Farid)


Posted:Friday, April 18, 2003 |