I wonder Arthur. If the Shroud is what it really, really appears to be then it has the blood of our incarnate God on it.
In which case there may be a theological argument for worshipping it, just as we worship Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.
Not something I can get into now though. It’s very late where I am.
May His blood be upon us, and on our children. Amen.
When Jesus was dead, the Hypostatic Union continued. The Word was still hypostatically united to his body in the tomb, and with his soul, which was not united to his body—since he was dead.
My personal opinion would be that the blood remained hypostatically united to the Word, until the blood dried or corrupted to such an extent that it could no longer function as blood. Perhaps I am making an analogy to the Eucharist, where the Real Presence ceases when the consecrated bread and wine, for any reason, cease to function or appear as bread and wine.
The blood on the Shroud is the blood of Jesus, but note that it was not resurrected when the body was resurrected. The Risen Christ has blood. We know this because the consecrated wine of the Eucharist is the blood of the Risen Christ.
From these premises, I would say that the blood on the Shroud, while it is the blood left on the Shroud by Jesus, is no longer, at this moment, actually blood, having dehydrated and undoubtedly corrupted in other ways, and is therefore no longer hypostatically united with the Word.
Jesus was owed worship while he was alive on earth because his body, blood, and soul were hypostatically united with the Word. The Eucharistic Species are owed worship because they are the body and blood of Jesus, which are hypostatically united with the Word.
Giving the blood on the Shroud actual worship would be wrong if the blood is not hypostatically united with the Word. And I think the very fact that that particular quantity of blood was left on the Shroud is evidence that it is not hypostatically united with the Word.
No, we wouldn't worship the cloth, just like we don't worship the host. If anything, we would worship the Blood of Jesus, since that IS Jesus. Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist IS Jesus, Body AND Blood. Does that make sense?
worshipping anything but God is sin of the highest order. See the first 2 commandments. Would you actually, literally worship a burial cloth?