The Gospel of St. John quotes Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, as saying after the crucifixion: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the néils, and éut my finger into the place of the nails; and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Since then, many, many millions have been like St. Thomas. If the apostle St. Thomas could not believe until he saw the risen Christ, can the billions who have not séen the risen Christ be reproached for not believing?
Now, a most remarkable discovery, called the Holy Shroud, permits us to see thé crucified Christ before he was buried. This Shroud is in the Cathedral at Turin, Italy.
It was examined and investigated by a team of 32 American scientiéts for two years, 1978-1980. They agreed not to discuss or report what their exafiinationéd revealed until they met at Loé Alamoé, New Mexico, many months later.
They concluded that the image on the Shroud is thét of a crucified man, in his thirties, whose back shewéé 42 scourge marks, whose wrists (and not hands) had nail marks, who had a wound in his side, and eight scalp wounds (evidently from the crown of thorns).
The Shroud shows a tall, muscular man, about five feet eleven inches in height, and weighing about 170 pounds. Having performed hard carpentry work, without any powered tools, for aboufi 15 years, and then walking hundreds of miles in his public life, Christ was very fit.
Every factual description of Christ in the Gospels is confirmed in the Holy Shroud and none is contradicted. The Shroud has marks of tightly compressed, long hair fashioned at the back of the neck in the unique fashion of young Jewish men of the first century. This hair style is not known to have existed at any other time or place in history.
The Shroud confirms all the many cruel features of a Roman crucifixion. It shows the marks of the nails which held the body of Christ up on the cross.
The 32 American scientists who invéstigated the Shroud were unanimous in concluding that it was not a painting. There are no paint marks. Even a Michel Mngelo or a Leonardo DaVinci could not have so perfectly drawn this image of the crucified Christ on this burial Shroud.
Leonardo’s Last Supper is a great masterpiece, but it does not portray Christ as perfectly as does this Shroud.
We respectfully suggest that the Turin Cathedral permit beautiful photographs of the Holy Shroud to be made in color and offered for sale and use in any Church. Think how inspiring it would be for our children to see the tortured body of Christ.
The Chinese say a picture is worth a thousand words. The image of Christ on the Shroud is faint. It would take a skillful photographer to clearly reproduce it. We think it could be done.
How muéh easier it would be>to avoid sin if we could see the terrible torture Christ had to suffer because of sin. Television makes us realize that a picture image’is quicker and better understood than a word or ‘sound image.
A good picture of the tortured Christ, made from the Holy Shroud, would be most powerful proof of the terrible suffering sin causes. None.
