The Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin, an ancient burial linen bearing the image of a crucified man and long felt by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, is an ongoing scientific wonder. During the talk, we reviewed the historical accounts of The "Image not made by human hands," beginning with the "Cloth of Edessa" said to have been brought there by one of the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus, through it's journey to Constantinople, to France and then to Turin, Italy. We looked at the fascinating anatomical detail and accuracy present on The Shroud, and reviewed the scientific studies, particularly the STURP group in 1978; evidence disproving any notion of the Shroud being a Medieval forgery, as well as the conflicting results from carbon dating tests. The conclusion from any honest researcher is that this image is that of a man who died from crucifixion and who suffered the injuries inflicted upon Jesus as described in the Gospels. Furthermore, the image was made by some sort of radiation in a manner that we do not understand and cannot replicate.
We went on to consider that if in fact, The Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus, then the image we are looking at is essentially a photograph of Jesus: The Holy Face. We discussed the ramifications of this. Jesus said, he who sees me sees the Father, and so we are looking at the face of God in as much as we can perceive anything spiritual in this life since God The Father is pure spirit. This alone would have been ample food for thought and prayer, but beyond that, we realized that when we look at The Shroud we are also seeing a detailed log of The Passion, the marks of His suffering and death. But even more amazing, we are seeing a record of His Resurrection.
How can an image on a death shroud be a record of The Resurrection? We reviewed the details of what seems to be the most likely scientific explanation of the image formation process: radiation combined with the cloth-collapse model. Because of the 3D vertical columnated nature of the image data, it appears that the image is the result of short wave radiation oxidizing the linen sheet as it passed through the body during a process of dematerialization. This process was completed by the time the sheet had fallen 4 cm.
In short, if The Shroud is Jesus' burial cloth, then its image appears to have been made at the moment of His Resurrection, captured on the linen sheet as it passed through His dematerializing body: a photograph of The Resurrection.
A Drop of Clear Water is a lay support group for Catholic teens. Our goal is to bring together teens who love their faith, are committed to chastity, and are ready to explore the wonder and beauty of Catholicism.