The Spiritual Life in the Light of the Shroud

      All knowledge is preordained to make man in some manner aware of God. Since it is so in earthly matters, how much more so in the direct comprehension of Jesus, The God-Man, effected by the Holy Shroud!

      The Shroud can offer invaluable assistance in the general vivification of spiritual life and in facilitating union with Jesus, in the realization that He is close at hand in our prayers, and in uniting ourselves with Him as suffering in His Humanity in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as glorious and triumphant in the intimate embrace of Holy Communion.

      A most compelling motive should incite all Christians to venerate the serene yet sorrowful image of the Holy Shroud. Having been called by Divine Election, to be "other Christs," they must endeavor to imitate within themselves the Divine Model, author and example of personal sanctification, unto complete transformation: "Christ lives in me." (Gal 2:20). Hence they will find no better way than to unite all their spiritual activities in Jesus Christ, not simply as a means of spiritual life; but as the whole of their spiritual life.

Meeting with Christ

      When one admires the fascinating Face of the Holy Shroud, when one is actually face to Face with Him, there is a feeling of transformation.

      In the midst of a group of disciples, John the Baptist, in seeing Jesus passing by, said: "Behold the Lamb of God", the two disciples upon hearing  this immediately  followed Jesus. From simple disciples of John they became disciples of Jesus and, later, His Apostles.

Confession and Holy Communion

      The steadfast desire to avoid mortal sin, the Christ-killer in us, and venial sin, the source of innumerable sufferings, should be the fundamental resolution springing forth from the contemplation of the Shroud.

      Every soul should be affected by the impress of agony in the strokes of the scourging that we can number one by one on the body of Jesus; The buffets and blows of which we have the trace; in the knowledge that we ourselves, in sinning, have inflicted the same sufferings time and again unto the final phase of the dolorous Passion: the brutal Crucifixion and the piercing by the lance.

      Mere contemplation in itself would be insufficient if one were not filled with the desire of using all the means at one's disposal to live the life of grace with spiritual proficiency and perseverance.

      First among these means are the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist.

      The usual considerations which should be made to profitably approach the Sacrament of Penance (Contrition for one's sins, promise for the future, rebirth of the soul in the Precious Blood of Jesus) are aided and confirmed in the contemplation of the Face of the Shroud.

      "This is what my sins have brought upon the Savior; the very same sufferings He is willing still to endure to redeem me; that Precious Blood purifies my soul." The very thought that Jesus reaches out to us to grant us His forgiveness, that He assists us with special graces to resist temptation, that He again restores us in His Blood, can do naught but transform confessions customarily ending in monotony to desire meetings, the source of new spiritual vitality.

      If the confession is concluded with deep contrition, we will approach Holy Communion with great joy in the knowledge that Jesus gloriously unites Himself with us in the most intimate embrace to transform us in His Body and Blood.

      Union of the soul with Jesus will be as that of Peter after the Resurrection on the occasion of the "Fishing Miracle": ardently desired and practically anticipated.

      Assistance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is a renewal of the Sacrifice on Calvary, becomes more intense through meditation on the Passion and death of Jesus. It will no longer seem lengthy and tiresome, or so fruitless, rather it will be awaited breathlessly and longed for anxiously, as was His advent on earth and it will become for a few moments the contemplation of the Eternal Sacrifice, which He, the Risen Christ, offers of Himself to the Eternal Father now in the glory of Heaven.

Devotion to Our Lady

      The very devotion to Our Lady, which at times can be practiced in a merely sentimental way, becomes less fleeting and more theologically sound, when growing out of devotion to Jesus.

      The Flesh of Christ is the Flesh of Mary! ("Caro Christi, caro Mariae!") This phrase should be sufficient in the recollection of the Miracle of the Conception of Jesus to make one realize the astonishing resemblance between the Son and the Mother.

      Perhaps someday an adept artist may skillfully withdraw from the masculine features of the Face of Jesus, which the Shroud has revealed, the delicate profile of a lady that will replace the innumerable madonnas, which with regard to the Mother of God, have only her name in common.

      It may well be that Pius XI had this noteworthy resemblance in mind, when in presenting the image of the Holy Face of the Shroud to a group of young men of Catholic Action on return from a Marian pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Pompey, he said: "Indeed these are not pictures of Mary Most Holy, but they remind us of her more vividly than any others could, because they are pictures of Her Divine Son, therefore they are the most suggestive, the most beautiful, the most precious that one can imagine."

Conversation with the Friend

      "O how conscience resounds when face to Face with Jesus! How can one withstand His glance although His eyelids are closed!" If during the day you have forsaken Him, the torments of the Passion have been renewed in Him: perhaps you have crucified Him and cast Him from your soul by mortal sin? But O, how loving His eyes shall be if all through the day you did naught but seek Him everywhere and in everyone. O what a sweet and heavenly smile He gives to him who has endeavored, as far as humanly possible, to imprint within himself those Divine Features, toward that complete transformation which shall come about at the final hour!

      How affectionate shall be the kiss which can almost be anticipated from those partly open lips; seal of approval and symbol of His unquenchable love.

      Carlo Carretto addressed these most beautiful words to the young men who had transported the Shroud back to Turin from Montevergine, where it was kept during World War II.

      "In this manner Jesus has willed to bequeath us His portrait. However it is His image in Death. Behold Him: no other image of Jesus is so revealing! Look upon it and become accustomed to read beneath those closed eyes. You will discover how much He shall reveal to you!

      Behold the Blood upon His forehead which not even His mother was permitted to wipe dry so that you in turn may see It! Look at those closed eyes that are fixed upon you so to read your innermost thoughts! Look at that mouth closed in the silence of death, which tells you that which no one else can tell you!  Behold Jesus!

      "The centuries file past Him and He judges them; you pass before Him, He judges you. Be mindful, brethren, of all this, so that when that Blood on His forehead coagulated by death shall shine resplendent in glory, When those eyes shall open to look upon mankind in the last Judgment, when from that mouth the sentence of eternal damnation shall be passed to those who have not been heedful of His infinite love, you may not have to reproach yourselves for having been unworthy soldiers of the Catholic Church."

Predestined By The Image of Christ

      Rather frequently in life, sorrow, that beneficent stimulus, knocks upon the portals of the soul as a reminder of the plight of our decadent nature. Yet, modern man finds it extremely difficult to resign himself and to accept the cross set upon us by the Lord in order that it may be used as a means of exaltation and sanctification. There is no more explicit way of teaching how to suffer with resignation and, moreover, of consoling a sick person than to set before him the Image of Jesus which bears all the marks of His Sufferings -- the Holy Face of the Shroud.

      Although human nature is adverse to pain and sorrow, having been destined for happiness and total joy of being, nevertheless it cannot elude the participation that Divine Providence demands of every mortal to complete the Passion of Jesus as a member of the Mystical Body, and to repeat with St. Paul, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings and fulfill in my flesh that which was lacking in the Passion of Christ, for His Body, which is the Church."

      The reaction may be at first as that of Simon the Cyrenian; even of obstinacy and rejection, "compelled to carry the cross of Jesus." However, while in the company of the suffering Jesus, heeding the words which He alone can utter, the initial reaction, which is not always controllable is transformed into affections of more intense love.

      Like to Jesus in suffering, so shall we be like to Him in glory. In fact, Christian perfection is in following Christ as faithfully as possible, "predestined to become images of His Divine Son." Following Him thus would bring us in some manner to portray within ourselves, through the practice of Christian virtues, the likeness of the Features of our Venerable Brother, so that we may attain perfection according to the standard of the fullness of Christ.

To be Christ-like! What a wonderful destiny!

      The very wonderment which was experienced by Secondo Pia in 1898, when he first beheld the magnificent portrait of Jesus on a photographic negative, shall be experienced by us on the day of our death ... the final touch to the Divine and human masterpiece initiated in Holy Baptism.

      Through the Holy Shroud our contacts with Christ can be realistic, as we are given a tangible realization that in our prayers we are meeting with "Someone". This gives to faith, that wholly supernatural virtue, a practical human satisfaction.

      Then let us venerate and let us bring everyone to adore the majestic Face of Christ which the Holy Shroud has revealed.

      Love for His Almighty Father will increase within our souls; love toward our brethren and love for suffering; when that beneficent stimulus comes to purify our wretched human actions.

      Although frightfully disfigured, that Face bears an attraction which is deeply moving, enrapturing, and subduing;

Deeply moving because It bears the marks of the Passion;                                                                         

Enrapturing because It is of incomparable beauty;                                                                                            

Subduing because It is the Face of God.                                                                                                                  

Luigi Fossati, S.S., in "Thabor"

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