Excellent article on the Shroud. Ignore the author’s attempts at levity, I found a few to be humorous, but most were a bit juvenile. Other than that, a commendable effort.
SHROUD OF TURIN PIng!
A bit of being juvenile in the right spirit (one of wonder and awe and glory to God) CAN be a good thing. There is a godly levity that isn’t irreverent at all! God never intended our worship to be a dusty, musty thing. Truly, before God we are all children with “grown-up” capabilities. If we lose the childlike wonder at God that moves us (like even the little baby) to clap and laugh, we haven’t grown up thereby. We have rather thrown in further with the fool who says (in some ways, though yet not all) “[there is] no God.” That’s a lie anchored in evil spirits, a lie whose spell won’t be completely dispelled until the saved arrive in complete glory.
There is such a legacy of mystery with this Shroud. I lean towards accepting that it’s what it is being taken to be, with the caveat that please, let the reverence go to God. One can be every bit as much a good a worshiper of God without ever having encountered the Shroud. I got great flak a few weeks ago when I said the Shroud today wasn’t necessary. That’s the sense I meant it in. I did not mean to demean the Lord for having made it available.
The power of joy even makes me amend myself here. Talking about what is necessary is a slippery thing. In a sense yes it’s necessary if it’s real. There might even be waiting for us a heavenly equivalent of a museum in which these things can be viewed and now beyond a question as to what they are. And we’ll be happily applauding God and saying “Wonderful job our dear Lord!”
I guess I would mean that on earth we would be able to be firmly on the road to heavenly glory without having encountered it.
Thanks for the ping!
I’m further on a roll... forgive me if I am getting over enthusiastic at the thoughts the Lord (I believe) is giving me. We’d even applaud HIM for being wonderful, at the sight of the things He left behind, one being this Shroud if it’s real. We have to make conscious effort at applauding God and we often applaud things that are a bit less than God, such as God’s works. We’re forgiven for this lapse, and we keep on pushing the demons out of our lives. It’s like C. S. Lewis’s “inclined plane.” Except the inclination of the plane isn’t God’s, it’s ours and as we repent to a gracious God we keep on fighting evil out of our lives to the extent that God has given us legitimate reach. Argh... I used to be an amateur philosopher and it probably shows... if this does not edify you then please ignore it and forgive me.
One of my all time favorite stories is written by Flynn and is now available at:
One of my all time favorite stories is written by Flynn and is now available at: