Tag: Jesus

5 min read

Jesus

Why We Celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus

Father Edward Looney

January 3, 2023 7:38 am January 3, 2023

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5 min read

In the commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and handed down to us, we are told to honor the name of God. It is a name used in prayer…

In the commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and handed down to us, we are told to honor the name of God. It is a name used in prayer and as a blessing, but it is, unfortunately, all too often these days used in vain or as a curse. Nowadays we hear not only the word “God” invoked in negative ways, but also the name of Jesus, the name of God born of the Virgin Mary.

While most of our liturgical celebrations throughout the year focus on biblical events or the lives of the saints, on Jan. 3 is honored the name of Jesus, observed as an optional memorial. Why should we celebrate and honor the name of Jesus with a feast? Here are a few reasons:

1. A Name Reverenced by All

St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Philippians, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, / of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (2:10). The name of Jesus was first spoken by an angel and is the cause of adoration by the heavenly court. It is a name reverenced especially during the Mass, as the General Instruction of the Roman Missal instructs the priest to bow his head at the mention of Jesus’ name (see No. 275). It is a name that evil fears, and when invoked can cast out demons. We honor and celebrate the name of Jesus because the name of God deserves reverence. By celebrating this feast, we seek to make reparation for the irreverent use of God’s name and restore it to proper dignity.

2. It Is the Name by Which We Are Saved

The angel tells St. Joseph to name the child Jesus because he will save us from our sins (see Mt 1:21). By His incarnation, God made man takes on a name indicating he comes to save us. Jesus becomes the source of our salvation. Since apostolic times, the name of Jesus has been preached and proclaimed. First, by the apostles as they sojourned on their missionary efforts, then by their successors who sought to evangelize, by various missionaries who brought the name of Jesus to the New World, and by teachers of the Faith who sought to combat heresy. We celebrate a feast in honor of Jesus’ holy name because it has been spoken throughout the world, and when proclaimed to those who have never heard His name, lives are changed.

3. Many Have Died Pronouncing the Name of Christ

Those who have worked as missionaries to spread the name of Jesus have often suffered because of His name. In the beatitudes, Jesus foretold that some would be persecuted for His sake (see Mt 5:10). Throughout the history of Christianity, many have shed their blood and died a martyr’s death, some even have professed the name of Jesus on their lips as they breathed their last. Celebrating the Holy Name of Jesus reminds of us these ancestors in the Faith and hopefully encourages us to want Jesus’ name to be our last word.

4. There Is Power in His Name

Jesus powerfully taught that where two or three are gathered in His name, He would be in their midst (see Mt 18:20). People also called upon Jesus by name when asking for a miracle. The blind man cried out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” (Lk 18:38), and with that invocation and further conversation his sight was restored. Demons were cast out of the possessed by Jesus’ name (Acts 16:18; 19:16). Celebrating the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus reminds us that we should pray the name of Jesus in our struggles or when we are anxious, because His name is powerful for those who call upon Him.

5. Many Have Been Devoted to the Holy Name for Centuries

The name of Jesus has been a source of devotion for centuries. In 1274, the Council of Lyons recommended that all the faithful should foster a devotion to the name of Jesus. Many saints also have recommended the devotion, most notably, St. Bernadine of Siena. Fr. Paul O’Sullivan’s book “The Wonders of the Holy Name” gives an exhaustive overview of the countless saints, known and unknown, who promoted devotion to the name of Jesus.

One of the most public displays of devotion to Jesus’ holy name arose out of societies and confraternities dedicated to the Holy Name. While no longer as popular as in days gone by, there are many ways people can foster a devotion today to the name of Jesus. The Eastern Church’s practice of the Jesus Prayer (“Lord, Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner”) recited many times connects the name of Jesus and invocation for His mercy. The Hail Mary, when split in two parts, hinges on the name of Jesus. St. Louis de Montfort, in “The Secret of the Rosary” encouraged people to add a short phrase there to focus one’s meditation (for example, “thy womb Jesus, born in poverty, Holy Mary … ”). I developed de Montfort’s suggestion in my Rosary devotional “A Rosary Litany.” There is also a Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, and many songs such as “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” or “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” in addition to several contemporary Christian songs.

We celebrate the feast of Jesus’ holy name in order to foster a deep love for His name. If we pray the name of Jesus continually in this life, then it will be His name that we pronounce when we meet our Savior face to face.

Father Edward Looney is a priest of the Diocese of Green Bay, WI. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook at @FrEdwardLooney.

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1 min read

Christmas

When Was Jesus Really Born?

Father Reginald Martin

December 21, 2022 7:43 am December 21, 2022

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1 min read

Easter has always been the principal feast on the Christian calendar. Christmas was not commonly observed until the fourth century, when Constantine established Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. At that time, the ancients celebrated a festival, named “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun,” to herald the lengthening of days after the winter solstice. The celebration ended around Dec. 25, therefore, many believe Christians simply “took over” the feast and substituted Jesus in their celebrations.

A better case can be made for Jesus’ December birth by consulting Luke’s Gospel, where we learn John the Baptist’s father was chosen by lot “to enter the temple … and burn incense” (Lk 1:9, RSV). Israel had a plethora of priests, so the actual temple service may have occurred only once in a priest’s lifetime. Because an angel appeared to Zechariah during his service, some scholars feel this all-important event may have taken place on the Day of Atonement, which fell then (as now) in late September.

When Gabriel appears to Mary, he says, “Your kinswoman Elizabeth . . . has also conceived … and this is the sixth month with her” (Lk 1:36, RSV), which means it was about March. Mary spends “about three months” with Elizabeth, so this places John the Baptist’s birth late in June, and Jesus’ in December.

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7 min read

Scripture

What We Believe, Part 32: What is Different about Jesus’ Baptism?

Father Joshua J. Whitfield

November 28, 2022 10:17 am November 28, 2022

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7 min read

From Peter’s sermon in Acts of the Apostles, we learned that baptism has always mattered. It has been commanded by Jesus himself since the beginning. The command that believers should…

From Peter’s sermon in Acts of the Apostles, we learned that baptism has always mattered. It has been commanded by Jesus himself since the beginning. The command that believers should receive baptism goes back not to Pentecost but at least to Easter.

We see this at the end of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew: after Jesus’s resurrection, in his instruction to the disciples. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). It’s a command given to all, to “every creature.” But notice here that although Jesus says whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, he doesn’t say whoever is not baptized will not be saved. Only those who do not believe will be condemned. This is an important point. The natural and normal logic of belief is that if one believes, then one will be baptized.

Jesus’s command in Matthew’s Gospel is slightly different. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20). Here we see a few things. First, again, we see — considering Mark’s “every creature” is Matthew’s “all nations” — that it’s a command for everyone. It’s a command to baptize in the name of the Trinity — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Such is the form of baptism still mandated today. And we see here that the command to baptize precedes the command to teach. This is a significant detail, especially as we’ll come later to consider how the Church justifies infant baptism. But, more importantly, we learn from Matthew that baptism is how God remains with us, “until the end of the age.” This, for Matthew, is how the prophecy of Emmanuel, with which he began his Gospel, is fulfilled (Mt 1:23): by baptizing believers and making them disciples.

But, of course, Jesus didn’t invent baptism out of thin air. The origins of baptism can be traced even before Pentecost and even before Easter. When Jesus talked about baptism, when he commanded it, he was speaking from within a Jewish context, a context of prophetic hope. People in Jesus’ day did have a sense of the ritual of baptism.

Consider, for instance, John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. As all the Gospels relate, he too baptized people. Mark tells us John was baptizing people in the wilderness “for the forgiveness of sins.” His was a baptism, John himself said, of water and repentance. It was a baptism that was preparatory, in some sense, preceding another different baptism which is “with the holy Spirit” (Mk 1:4-8). John’s baptism makes sense in light of earlier Jewish practices, in light of ritual purifications done in preparation for acts of worship or encountering God. To understand what John was doing, we need to return to passages like this one from Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you” (Ez 36:25-26). Ezekiel here is speaking prophetically about the salvation of Israel, about the ethical conversion demanded of those preparing to encounter the saving God of Israel. Ezekiel’s exhortation is like Isaiah’s command to Israel and Judah: “Wash yourselves clean!” (Is 1:16). John is doing something like that — certainly dramatic but in no way foreign to Jewish religious imagination or experience. To anyone who’d listen, John was preparing them to meet God, preparing the way of the Lord, just like the prophets of old (Mk 1:3; Is 40:3).

And, of course, Christians picked up on the images of sprinkling and washing, reading them in some sense as metaphorical descriptions of baptism — bapto in Greek, meaning “to dip” or “to immerse.” At the very least, Christian baptism was similar to John’s baptism and these other prophetic washings in its mechanics. But yet it was different. John the Baptist himself said as much (cf. Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8). But how?

In John’s Gospel, we get a brief indication of Jesus’s practice of baptism, but it’s somewhat mysterious. First, we hear that after his midnight conversation with Nicodemus, “Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing” (Jn 3:22). However, a few verses later, John wants to make clear that it was “only his disciples,” not Jesus, actually doing the baptizing (cf. Jn 4:2).

But still, how is the baptism of Jesus different from that of John? To answer this question, we should turn to that famous chapter in John’s Gospel — John 3 — detailing Jesus’ midnight conversation with Nicodemus. In that conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to see and to enter the kingdom of God, one must be born anōthen, which can mean either “again” or “from above.” Nicodemus thinks Jesus is talking about being physically reborn — again — but that’s not what he’s saying. Jesus means anōthen in a more spiritual sense. The rebirth Jesus is talking about is “of water and Spirit.” That’s how a person may “enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3-5). The baptism of Jesus, therefore, is about a rebirth from above, allowing the one reborn to see and enter the kingdom.

But it’s not just about seeing and entering the kingdom of God. In Mark, we see Jesus identify baptism with his death. When James and John foolishly ask to sit beside Jesus in glory, he asks them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mk 10:38). It’s a figure of speech we don’t use much anymore. The cup here calls to mind the cup of his suffering and death, an image Jesus himself used (cf. Mt 26:39; Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42; Jn 18:11). It’s the same in Luke and John. “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” Jesus says in Luke (12:50). Notice the words “it is accomplished.” In John, Jesus repeats these same words from the cross (cf. Jn 19:30). The earliest Christian readers of the Gospels would’ve picked up on that; they would’ve made that connection. For our purpose, though, it simply uncovers yet another layer to the meaning of Christian baptism: that it’s also somehow a participation in the death of Jesus.

So the baptism of Jesus is different from John’s baptism. It’s a rebirth in water and Spirit, which is also seeing and entering the kingdom of God, which is also mysteriously somehow identified with the death of Jesus. And also Jesus commands it; all believers are to receive baptism. It doesn’t appear to be optional. But there is a lot more to learn. For that, however, we’ll need to turn to Paul.

Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books. Read more from the series here.

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9 min read

Scripture

What We Believe, Part 30: The Vision of Christ

Father Joshua J. Whitfield

November 7, 2022 12:28 pm November 7, 2022

9 min read

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9 min read

Clearly, from the Catholic point of view, Scripture and Tradition should fit together, work together for the sake of presenting, without error, the “mystery of Christ,” so that all people…

Clearly, from the Catholic point of view, Scripture and Tradition should fit together, work together for the sake of presenting, without error, the “mystery of Christ,” so that all people might hear the “summons to salvation” (Dei Verbum, No. 1). The purpose of the Scripture is to show us Jesus, to teach, to sanctify, to change us.

The Church we’ve been talking about is the Catholic Church, the Scripture is the canonical Scripture, the Tradition is apostolic tradition centered on Peter. These are real things, not just ideas. And that’s because all of it points to the real Christ — who isn’t just a concept either. Rather, he’s a Christ we can see, whom we can touch and even taste.

Which brings us — to conclude our discussion of the Scripture and Tradition — to the final purpose of it all. And that is, simply, the vision of Christ. That’s what encountering the Scripture through Tradition within the communion of the Church does for the believer: it offers the vision of Christ. Such is what we mean when we talk about the “mystery of Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 80). That’s the event of revelation. And again, that’s a real encounter, a real vision. And that’s because it’s a sacramental vision, Eucharistic and holy.

Firstly, what we mean here is that the vision of Christ is granted in the Eucharist. We see this in Luke’s Gospel, in the story of the risen but hidden Jesus who walks and talks with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Starting with “Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures,” Luke writes. Which causes the men to desire this mysterious figure. “Stay with us,” they beg him. It’s a prayer that gathers the three around a table. And there, Luke says, “they recognized him” in the breaking of the bread (Lk 24:25-32). Jesus opened Scripture to them, so they would see him in the Eucharist. This is what Scripture does: it helps us recognize Christ in the Eucharist. We see in this story the basic twofold shape of the Mass — the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In the Liturgy of the Word, we hear the Scripture proclaimed and preached. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we encounter Jesus just as these two men did in the breaking of the bread. Our eyes are opened, and we recognize him.

For the present purpose, we should notice that this twofold pattern of Word and Eucharist is found throughout Christian history. In the writings of St. Justin Martyr, for instance, we find a description of the Eucharist as celebrated in Rome in the second century, and, in it, we see the same pattern found in Luke is the same found in the Mass today. “And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen” (“First Apology,” No. 62). That’s the same pattern as found in Luke 24. That’s the Catholic Mass today. The Scripture helps us see Christ in the Eucharist. That ultimately is what the Scripture is for. It’s to help us find Christ and to receive him — in the Eucharist.

But the vision of Christ given us through the Scripture is not just Eucharistic. It’s not just about seeing Jesus. It’s also about seeing like Jesus. It’s about seeing the world through the eyes of Christ. If you think about it, that’s what the Revelation to John is. Swept up in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, John heard a voice, “Write on a scroll what you see” (Rv 1:11). The Scripture not only helps us see Jesus, it also gives us a way of seeing, a way of looking at the world and at history much the same way John saw the world in the vision given him at Patmos.

But it’s not a way of seeing in some sort of silly magical sense. Rather, I mean what David Bentley Hart, a Orthodox theologian, means. He said, “the Christian should see two realities at once, one world (as it were) within another: one world as we all know it, in all its beauty and terror, grandeur and dreariness, delight and anguish; and the other world in its first and ultimate truth, not simply ‘nature’ but ‘creation,’ an endless sea of glory, radiant with the beauty of God in every part, innocent of all violence. To see in this way is to rejoice and mourn at once, to regard the world as a mirror of infinite beauty, but as glimpsed through the veil of death; it is to see creation in chains, but beautiful as in the beginning of days” (“The Doors of the Sea,” No. 61). That’s what it means to have the vision of Christ, to see all things as Jesus does. Being people of faith, seeing Jesus, formed in the idioms of Scripture and in the rhetoric of the word of God, it transforms the way we view things. It helps us see things differently, at a different angle — from a spiritual and ultimate perspective.

The Scripture is its own idiom, training believers to see the world a certain way. And that’s because the Scripture itself describes reality in a certain way. Scripture gives us a new way of seeing — the vision of Christ, seeing like Jesus. This actually is the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, that the purpose of the revelation of God in Christ is “to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature” (Dei Verbum, No. 2). That is, the purpose of the Bible is not to explain the universe scientifically, to be for us some sort of cosmic manual. Rather, the purpose of the Bible is to show us God’s heart, his salvation; and from that, to see everything else differently.

What I mean by this different way of seeing — given through the Scripture — we see most clearly in the lives of the early Christian martyrs. In them, we see powerfully what Christians look like when they see the world with the eyes of Jesus. As when martyrs like the priest Pionius — as so many others did — rejected pagan gods for the “God who is almighty … who made the heavens and the earth and all the things that are in them … the God we know through Christ his Word” (“The Martyrdom of Pionius,” No. 8). These people saw things differently. “Why do you rush towards death?” Pionius was asked. “I am not rushing towards death, but towards life,” he answered. Because in Christ he saw things in a radically different way — the way Christ does. Such is the moral and spiritual result of being a scriptural person. It gives us the eyes of martyrs.

But, of course, there’s even something more. When you become a scriptural person, Christ becomes visible in you. That is, people see Jesus in you. Again, we can see in the martyrs what I mean. We see this in St. Blandina, a second-century Christian slave who, in her dying moments, looked like Christ to her brothers and sisters. As the account of her martyrdom reads: “Blandina was hung on a post and exposed as bait for the wild animals that were let loose on her. She seemed to hang there in the form of a cross, and by fervent prayer she aroused intense enthusiasm in those who were undergoing their ordeal, for in their torment with their physical eyes they saw in the person of their sister him who was crucified for them, that he might convince all who believe in him that all who suffer for Christ’s glory will have eternal fellowship in the living God” (“The Martyrs of Lyons,” No. 1.41). Blandina believed in Jesus and loved him and knew him because she responded to the Gospel that was delivered to her. And in that love, she followed Jesus, obeyed him and lived like him. She saw the world as Christ did. And for her, that meant she had to go to the amphitheater and die. But in her faithfulness and adherence to God’s word, not so much intellectually but in love, she died brutally. But those who saw her saw Jesus. They saw Christ in the “person of their sister.” Which is the final result — this side of heaven — of being a person shaped by the Scripture. For Christ to become visible in you. If you want to be a scriptural person, that’s the goal. To be that sort of person who sees Jesus, sees as Jesus; and then by grace, to be the sort of person in whom others see Jesus. Which, of course, is to become a saint.

And that’s how we Catholics view the Scripture.

Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books. Read more from the series here.

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4 min read

Church Teaching

Christology 101: What Is the Hypostatic Union?

Father Harrison Ayre

May 15, 2022 7:14 am May 15, 2022

4 min read

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4 min read

One of the core teachings about the person of Jesus is traditionally called the hypostatic union. This term developed in the early Church, whereby the word “hypostatic” was used officially…

One of the core teachings about the person of Jesus is traditionally called the hypostatic union. This term developed in the early Church, whereby the word “hypostatic” was used officially at the Council of Chalcedon as a way to express the union of Jesus’ two natures. Simply put, it means that in the Person of Jesus are two natures — divinity and humanity — in complete unity without mixture, change, division or separation, as the Council of Chalcedon famously said.

The Church worked toward this teaching over centuries based on a couple core questions: How is it that in Jesus both God and humanity come together? Does this entail that both humanity and divinity are kept intact, or does Jesus lose some of his divinity or humanity in the Incarnation?

These questions are central because how we answer them has an effect on how we understand the salvation that comes from Jesus. It is for this reason that the Church fought so vigorously over the centuries to defend both the full humanity and the full divinity of Jesus. If Jesus is not fully God and fully man, then, simply put, we are not saved, and we are still in sin.

Believing, then, that Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time means he has everything that we have in our humanity except sin as well as everything that belongs to the nature of God. Chalcedon’s declaration that these two natures exist without mixture, change, division or separation tells us, in a mysterious way, how the two natures are in union with each other.

The Divine Person of the Son is the bond between these two natures. The humanity and divinity of Jesus do not mix — that is what the Church fought against when it battled Arianism. There is no change to either nature: the humanity does not change at the moment of the Incarnation nor does the divine nature change in that moment. They are not separated or divided: the power of the divinity is always in union with the human actions of Jesus.

Such statements may cause one to scratch his or her head in confusion, yet it is usually a sign that one is entering the mystery. The humanity and divinity of Jesus are united without mixing, different without being separated or mingled.

While no analogy perfectly holds, a glimpse of this is found in marriage. There two people, different and distinct, come together in a communion so deep that God pronounces it to be a one flesh, even though two people are present. They are not mingled together, nor are they so separate that they do not work together.

Another image that can help us begin to comprehend the mystery of the hypostatic union, and is worth praying with, is the image of the burning bush at the beginning of the Book of Exodus, where the bush is on fire and yet not consumed.

The reason why the Church stops here in clarifying the relationship between the two natures of Jesus is to respect the mysteriousness of the union. No human mind can perfectly comprehend this mystery. This does not mean we do not seek to understand the relationship between the humanity and the divinity of Jesus, rather it means we have a healthy respect for the uniqueness of the event and the limitedness of our nature.

What is offered here is, ultimately, meant to be guideposts to help navigate a way into the mystery. Meditating on these truths is worthy of our prayer because, as we delve into this mysterious union, one fact becomes abundantly clear: In Jesus God does not destroy, overwhelm or annihilate our humanity. Rather, he enters into our nature and lifts it up to a dignity hitherto unknown. In Jesus we see that humanity is most itself when it is nearest to God.

Father Harrison Ayre is a priest of the Diocese of Victoria, British Columbia. Follow him on Twitter at @FrHarrison.

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12 min read

Relics

Shroud of Turin: Evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection?

Father Robert Spitzer

April 19, 2022 7:00 am April 19, 2022

12 min read

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12 min read

The Shroud of Turin is a burial shroud (a linen cloth woven in a 3-over-1 [3:1] herringbone pattern) measuring 14 feet 3 inches in length by 3 feet 7 inches…

The Shroud of Turin is a burial shroud (a linen cloth woven in a 3-over-1 [3:1] herringbone pattern) measuring 14 feet 3 inches in length by 3 feet 7 inches in width. It apparently covered a man who suffered the wounds of crucifixion in a way very similar to that recorded for Jesus of Nazareth.

The cloth has a certifiable history from 1349, when it surfaced in Lirey, France, in the hands of a French nobleman — Geoffrey de Charny. It also has a somewhat sketchy traceable history from Jerusalem to Lirey — through Edessa, Turkey and Constantinople. This history is confirmed by the pollen grains found by Max Frei, the coincidences between the Shroud and the Sudarium (facecloth) of Oviedo, and the coincidences between the Shroud’s seven unique facial features and those attributed to the Mandylion — the Holy Image of Edessa.

The Shroud has undergone considerably more scientific testing than any other relic in human history. The 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) investigation and subsequent investigations were remarkably thorough, and with the exception of the questionable 1988 carbon dating, all the evidence points to it being the burial cloth of Jesus, including the following:

I. Four contemporary dating tests: The vanillin dating test of Dr. Raymond Rogers, the two spectroscopic analyses (of professor Giulio Fanti, et al.), and the compressibility and breaking strength tests (of Fanti, et al.) date the Shroud to a time commensurate with the life and crucifixion of Jesus.

II. Three kinds of extrinsic dating evidence: (A) Testing of pollen samples by Dr. Max Frei who collected dust samples from the Shroud during the 1978 STURP investigation and later classified 58 pollen grains by comparing them to pollen grains in the largest botanical museums around the world. His conclusion was that the majority (45) were from the region of Israel (specifically from sedimentary layers from 2,000 years ago near the area of the Sea of Galilee), with six grains from the eastern Middle East (two grains from Edessa, Turkey, and one growing exclusively in Istanbul/Constantinople). The remaining grains came from France and Italy. Importantly, 13 of the pollen grains are unique to Israel and are found at the bottom of both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. (B) Roman coins on the eyes of the image on the Shroud, which give evidence that it’s highly probable that the image of the man on the Shroud of Turin has two Jewish lepta, minted in A.D. 29 by Pontius Pilate in Judea at the time of Jesus, on his eyelids. (C) One-hundred twenty coincidences of blood and fluid stains between the Shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo give evidence of a date and location of the Shroud’s origin similar to that of Jesus.

III. The blood stains on the Shroud: The blood stains tell a story very similar to the highly unusual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth — they were imprinted on the Shroud before the image was made (the opposite of what would need to be done by a forger). The Shroud has deposits of real human blood, according to the experts who studied the blood flecks gathered on the STURP tapes in 1978. They determined that the blood on the Shroud is real. Some researchers have found that male DNA and an AB blood type are also present on the cloth. Though genetic testing confirms these findings, there is no guarantee that they belong to the man on the Shroud.

IV. Formation of the image on the Shroud: The image was not formed by dyes, chemicals, vapors or scorching. The only known explanation for the formation of the image is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation (equivalent to the output of 14,000 excimer lasers) emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body in the Shroud.

The combination of the above evidence is exceedingly difficult to explain in any way other than the burial cloth is that of Jesus of Nazareth. Moreover, the formation of the image by an intense outburst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation is suggestive of a resurrection event similar to that described in the Gospels. The above scientific evidence requires that a new carbon-dating test be done which observes the standard protocols for sampling. When these protocols are observed, it would be surprising if the result was not similar to the results of the four new dating methods mentioned above — approximately A.D. 50. If this result is obtained, it would indicate that the Shroud of Turin is very likely the burial shroud of Jesus Christ with evidence suggestive of His resurrection in light.

Evidence?

While we currently do not have a definitive explanation for how this unique and mysterious image was created from the body of a deceased man, the most plausible current hypothesis comes from a combination of two teams of researchers.

Dr. John Jackson’s team studied the Shroud and proposed the vacuum ultraviolet radiation hypothesis in 2008.

According to Jackson, an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation produced a discoloration on the uppermost surface of the Shroud’s fibrils (without scorching it), which gave rise to a perfect three-dimensional negative image of both the frontal and dorsal parts of the body wrapped in it.

Currently, we know of no natural explanation for the seemingly unique occurrence of such a burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from either a decomposing body or the geological/atmospheric conditions within a tomb. Though this is suggestive of a possible supernatural origin of the radiation — perhaps as a part of Jesus’ resurrection — we cannot prove this scientifically, because we cannot construct a scientific test for a supernatural cause — all we can do is eliminate every known natural cause of this seemingly unique radiation. The uniqueness and current inexplicability of this phenomenon gives us reason to believe that God has given us evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. This belief can be strengthened by further understanding of the light phenomenon that seems to be the source of the image as well as the continued elimination of natural causes for it. The most convincing seems to be the hypothesis of Jackson.

Research

The research of the 1978 STURP investigation, as well as subsequent research of Jackson, Fanti, Paolo Di Lazzaro and their teams, shows the likelihood that sometime after the blood deposits had dried on the Shroud the decomposing body in the Shroud emitted a short intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation that led to a dehydration and discoloration of the frontal and dorsal parts of the Shroud, giving rise to a perfect photographic negative image. Jackson’s research also suggests that the body inside the Shroud became mechanically transparent and emitted light evenly from every three-dimensional point within it. This allowed the frontal part of the Shroud to collapse — creating an image (of both the inside and outside of the hands) as well as a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud.

Currently, the known laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body can emit an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation. Furthermore, they cannot explain how such a body could become mechanically transparent and emit light from every three-dimensional point within it.

So, where does that leave us? If Jackson’s explanation continues to be the only one to explain away the enigmas, and if future articulations of the laws of physics cannot explain how a decomposing body could become mechanically transparent and evenly emit vacuum ultraviolet radiation from every three-dimensional point within it, then we are left at the brink of a trans-physical or metaphysical explanation. Under these conditions, it would be both reasonable and responsible to believe that a trans-physical cause interacted with the decomposing body to transform it into an intense burst of light.

Evidently, we cannot scientifically prove a trans-physical cause, because science is restricted to the domain of physical causation. However, if the above conditions hold, we can reasonably infer the possibility and perhaps the likelihood of such a trans-physical cause. This is sufficient for reasonable and responsible belief.

Does this trans-physical explanation of the Shroud’s image point to the resurrection of Jesus? Jesus’ resurrection was not a resuscitation of a material corpse but rather a transforming event which gave rise to what St. Paul called a “spiritual body” — a body transformed in glory, spirit and power. Could this transformation of a material body into a burst of intense light signify a beginning point of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one? Though there can be no scientific proof of this, it is a reasonable inference from the parallels between the explanation of the Shroud’s enigmatic image and the testimony of St. Paul and the Gospel writers. In this sense, we might say that the image on the Shroud presents a clue — even a relic — of Jesus’ resurrection.

Conclusion

Why would we think the body in the Shroud was that of Jesus? As explained above, it is exceedingly improbable that the Shroud is a medieval forgery. First, there are no paints, dyes or other pigments on the Shroud (except for the small flecks coming from the sanctification of icons and paintings which touched it).

Second, the anatomical precision of the blood stains — which are real human blood that congealed on the Shroud before the formation of the image — are in precise anatomical correlation to the image itself. How could a medieval forger have accomplished this?

Third, it is exceedingly difficult to explain how pollen grains indigenous to Palestine appeared in abundance on a shroud of probable Semitic origin (if it originated in medieval Europe) and how coins minted in A.D. 29 in Palestine appeared on the eyes of the man on the Shroud. How could a medieval forger have duplicated these first-century Palestinian characteristics of the Shroud?

Fourth, the five enigmas of the image on the Shroud almost certainly preclude a forgery. How could a medieval forger have used vacuum ultraviolet radiation to discolor the cloth on the uppermost surface of the fibrils? How could he have created a perfect photographic negative image? How could he have created a double image on the frontal part of the Shroud? And how could he have known how to duplicate the interior and exterior of the hands in perfect proportion to each other? Thus it does not seem reasonable or responsible to believe that the Shroud is a medieval forgery.

Three Last Points

Beyond this, there are three probative kinds of evidence pointing specifically to Jesus’place and time of origin and to His unique crucifixion and resurrection:

The material of the Shroud, the pollen grains on it and the coins on the man’s eyes all have their origin in first-century Palestine — the place where Jesus was purported to have died.

The blood stains come from a crucifixion event identical to the one described in the four Gospels — which was very unusual, if not unique, in many respects — such as being crowned with thorns, being flogged and being pierced with a Roman pilum (spear).

The five enigmas of the Shroud’s image point to a trans-physically caused burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation from a mechanically transparent body. This is suggestive of the transformation of Jesus’ body from a physical one to a spiritual-glorified one (as reported by St. Paul and the four Gospels).

The spiritual-glorified transformation of Jesus’ body was unique to the Christian view of resurrection. It was not known in Judaism (which held to a resuscitation of the flesh) or pagan cults (which held to ethereal or ghostlike views of immortality). Thus the enigmas on the Shroud’s image point to the uniquely Christian view of resurrection implied by Jesus’ risen appearance.

The odds of this first-century Palestinian burial shroud — with the unique features of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — being that of anyone else is exceedingly remote. Inasmuch as the image is not a forgery, and that it originated from a real person living at the time of Jesus, crucified in the unique way of Jesus, and producing a burst of intense vacuum ultraviolet radiation from his decomposing body, who else would it be? Given all this, we might reasonably infer that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, which contains not only a relic of His crucifixion but also His resurrection in glory. If so, it shows both the truth of the most significant event in human history as well as the accuracy of the Gospel accounts of it.

Father Robert J. Spitzer, Ph.D., is a Jesuit priest currently serving as president of the Magis Center in Garden Grove, California. A prolific author, he also appears weekly on EWTN’s “Father Spitzer’s Universe.”

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