For those of you who know my back story, you might remember that the first time I saw the Sindone was in a private viewing in Turin one night in 2008. Given the magnitude of the personal identity crisis I was experiencing at the time, this viewing of the Shroud was a private, life changing event for me.
The intention of this blog is not to dwell on my personal life, but I want to preface my upcoming writings on my observations and experiences to clarify that I am seeing the Shroud this time around in a public exhibition and this April 2010 visit will be the focus of these posts.
Here in Turin, among so many people who are flocking in all day long, the experience is vast. So far I have been able to clock 8 hours in the presence of the Sindone and I can tell you that I already have enough to write about for years to come.
When you enter the chapel and stand before the Shroud, it is as though you have just entered a vault where time, space, dimension, and perspective are all brought to a new beginning. But it does not come over you right away. Just as when you first lay eyes on the cloth, the image is faint and does not come into immediate focus. So too, you do not feel the magnitude of the impact of the experience immediately or all at once. But very soon your eyes acclimate to the dimly lit chapel and the cloth, which is suspended horizontally, so that the image is a panorama.
And then something strange and unique happens...the image appears. That is not simply a function of your eyes acclimating. It is a sudden and certain relationship. It is an act of receiving Jesus. It is a surrender to seeing with your mind, not your eyes. You are arriving. And you know, possibly for the first time, what is true.
In the posts to come I will take time to slowly and gradually turn the kaleidescope and let you see and experience the Shroud of Turin from my mind.
It is not too late for you to hop on a plane, train, whatever it takes and make your own way to the Sindone.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Chapter 19: Torino
Exposition of the Holy Shroud
SURNAME ADLER
NAME JES
DAY
26/04/2010
TIME 09:00
BOOKING CODE
BJ35N673
NUMBER OF PERSONS 1
---------------------------------------------
I made it to Turin after all. I had to book a new flight but it is so worth it. I have been spending quite a bit of time with the Shroud and have been blessed to be in both close proximity and at a distance while sitting in the chapel.
I will assemble my notes and observations and see where I land. For now, one person I spoke with said it best: "When you are in the room with the Sindone you must look at it. You cannot do anything else."
Monday, April 19, 2010
Chapter 18: Carbon and Ash
Last week it was announced that another radiocarbon dating will be conducted on the Shroud of Turin. Also last week a volcano in Iceland spewed forth a cloud of volcanic ash, grinding travel across Europe to a halt. The skies darkened in an ominous cloud of toxic, gritty volcanic ash. A suitable metaphor for radiocarbon dating.
This upcoming radiocarbon dating the cloth of the Shroud would be something of a moot attempt at proving the authenticity of the Shroud image (but not for the reason skeptics latch onto: that the 1988 testing proved the cloth to be a medieval forgery).
Certainly a new C14 test result of the cloth should be able to tell us the age of the cloth itself — that is if this go round they responsibly test a sample of the cloth that had not been repaired. Regardless, no matter what the proven age of the cloth is, that will never prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the age of the cloth is the same as the age of the image on the cloth...
No one has ever satisfactorily proven how the image got onto the cloth, much less when it got there. The Shroud first surfaces in documented history circa 1355. Who is to say Christ did not choose to imbue His image on a piece of cloth then? For that matter, who is to say that He could not, right this moment, transfer His image onto every waving flag of every nation or onto the bed sheets of every person around the world?
Stranded passengers at airports all over Europe and beyond are experiencing “an act of God”. Befuddled and bewildered, they are left helpless and without control. Likely, many are on their way to see the Shroud. I was, but my flights were canceled. Frustrating, disappointing, yes. But acts of God are totally out of our hands.
It is easy to take it personally when you are in some way affected by an act of God. A cloud of suspicion lingers and you wonder if you did something wrong or if God is smiting you. But that is the nature of how we tend to perceive suffering, as though we are being targeted individually. The human ego can do little else except ask “why me?”. We are first confined to the boundaries of our own personal suffering. Within those confines, we empathize with the suffering of others.
Christ was a man whose personal suffering was an example of “Yes, me!” not “Why me?”. He took on all suffering for each of us and then left behind an imprint of it for us to be reassured that the burden is not ours alone. But, of course, being human with our fragile egos, we work furiously and tirelessly to try to disprove the authenticity of His gift. We have the arrogance to think that, if the cloth is proven to be from another time period, then the image could not be that of Jesus Christ. Never mind that the image contains holographic information. Never mind that no one can adequately explain how the image got onto the cloth. Never mind that Jesus might just have been a man who could move and reassemble His particles outside the boundaries of what we know and understand as spacetime...
If the C14 testing is repeated, surely it makes sense for it to be done meticulously and with strict oversight. The French reweaving of the 1st century cloth with the 16th century cloth is reason enough to warrant a new testing of some kind, as it clearly throws a wrench in the 1988 C14 test results. But in the end, what are we really testing here...the boundaries of time, faith, skepticism?
Acts of God humble us and bring us directly back to the reality of how very small and insignificant we are. We are experiencing that smallness all over the world now with volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.
And still, in our smallness, we go on living, steadfastly attached to the assumption that the human race is of the utmost significance. That illusion is hard wired into us via our survival instinct. Anything in our domain (the Shroud, for example) becomes fodder for our scrutiny. We assert control...that is what we humans do best.
It is refreshing to have an image in our midst of a suffering crucified man who, via an imprint of complete vulnerability and surrender to death, becomes a puzzle we can never solve and an answer we can never fully control.
carbon locks
readable time
unlocking
reachable faith
ash locking
clear skies
unlocks
darkened days
alone in this desert
testing prayer
we prove
This upcoming radiocarbon dating the cloth of the Shroud would be something of a moot attempt at proving the authenticity of the Shroud image (but not for the reason skeptics latch onto: that the 1988 testing proved the cloth to be a medieval forgery).
Certainly a new C14 test result of the cloth should be able to tell us the age of the cloth itself — that is if this go round they responsibly test a sample of the cloth that had not been repaired. Regardless, no matter what the proven age of the cloth is, that will never prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the age of the cloth is the same as the age of the image on the cloth...
No one has ever satisfactorily proven how the image got onto the cloth, much less when it got there. The Shroud first surfaces in documented history circa 1355. Who is to say Christ did not choose to imbue His image on a piece of cloth then? For that matter, who is to say that He could not, right this moment, transfer His image onto every waving flag of every nation or onto the bed sheets of every person around the world?
Stranded passengers at airports all over Europe and beyond are experiencing “an act of God”. Befuddled and bewildered, they are left helpless and without control. Likely, many are on their way to see the Shroud. I was, but my flights were canceled. Frustrating, disappointing, yes. But acts of God are totally out of our hands.
It is easy to take it personally when you are in some way affected by an act of God. A cloud of suspicion lingers and you wonder if you did something wrong or if God is smiting you. But that is the nature of how we tend to perceive suffering, as though we are being targeted individually. The human ego can do little else except ask “why me?”. We are first confined to the boundaries of our own personal suffering. Within those confines, we empathize with the suffering of others.
Christ was a man whose personal suffering was an example of “Yes, me!” not “Why me?”. He took on all suffering for each of us and then left behind an imprint of it for us to be reassured that the burden is not ours alone. But, of course, being human with our fragile egos, we work furiously and tirelessly to try to disprove the authenticity of His gift. We have the arrogance to think that, if the cloth is proven to be from another time period, then the image could not be that of Jesus Christ. Never mind that the image contains holographic information. Never mind that no one can adequately explain how the image got onto the cloth. Never mind that Jesus might just have been a man who could move and reassemble His particles outside the boundaries of what we know and understand as spacetime...
If the C14 testing is repeated, surely it makes sense for it to be done meticulously and with strict oversight. The French reweaving of the 1st century cloth with the 16th century cloth is reason enough to warrant a new testing of some kind, as it clearly throws a wrench in the 1988 C14 test results. But in the end, what are we really testing here...the boundaries of time, faith, skepticism?
Acts of God humble us and bring us directly back to the reality of how very small and insignificant we are. We are experiencing that smallness all over the world now with volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.
And still, in our smallness, we go on living, steadfastly attached to the assumption that the human race is of the utmost significance. That illusion is hard wired into us via our survival instinct. Anything in our domain (the Shroud, for example) becomes fodder for our scrutiny. We assert control...that is what we humans do best.
It is refreshing to have an image in our midst of a suffering crucified man who, via an imprint of complete vulnerability and surrender to death, becomes a puzzle we can never solve and an answer we can never fully control.
carbon locks
readable time
unlocking
reachable faith
ash locking
clear skies
unlocks
darkened days
alone in this desert
testing prayer
we prove
Friday, April 9, 2010
Chapter 17: Conscious Christ = Christ Consciousness
Human life should sparkle more but it is dulled by suffering. Of all the images Christ could have left behind for us, why the image of His crucified body? Even though His expression is peaceful and calm, all evidence of every torturous mark is imbued upon the Shroud.
I want to explore the idea that Christ, using His superior consciousness, was able to think His image onto the cloth.
It is so much easier to ask big questions than it is to live small lives...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Was Jesus a man with supernatural thought capacities?
Is every single thought is like a tiny particle of matter?
Is it is possible to have massless thoughts?
If thoughts are made of an electromagnetic field, then is God's mind (Christ's thoughts)able to manifest through an energy pattern as matter?
If Christ placed his image on the Shroud via some type of wave collapse or particle manipulation, could He reformulate His particles into living matter and remove Himself from the cloth and step back out into the world again as a human man?
And what of our thoughts...are we the only living entities who can receive or reject Jesus and God?
Is “receiving Jesus” something we do simply by activating our beliefs and faith? Is pointing our thoughts towards Christ enough?
Or does receiving Jesus mean allowing Him inside us by allowing His electromagnetic fields, His particles and waves, His matter into our own?
If we are the only living creatures who can have thoughts about our life and death, via our consciousness, then are we also the only living creatures whose thoughts about God can manifest Christ Consciousness?
Are thoughts of love the highest, most pure and refined electromagnetic frequency in existence?
Is human suffering an expression of collapsed matter, of infinite density?
Could gravity be the force that expresses control, while joy expresses momentum? If so, then is our need to control a manifestation of gravity, mass, and density?
Is the human soul equivalent to masslessness?
Is death infinite light and masslessness?
Does suffering enable us to perceive the coexistence of death in the midst of life?
Christ's dead body on the cloth = matter
Christ's image left behind on the cloth = matter + masslessness
Living matter + nonliving matter + dark matter passing through everything it encounters
If no one has ever seen a dark matter particle and dark matter is an invisible mass and is gravitationally attractive, could Christ have used His superior consciousness to imbue dark matter particles onto the cloth?
If we consider the spaces between the fibers on the Shroud, does dark matter allow the image to maintain its structure? Otherwise, would the weave not collapse in on itself?
And if the image rests on top of the fibers, as though subatomic particles were sprayed onto the cloth, does the same consistent rotational speed of the dark matter bind these subatomic particles to the fibers?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Millions of people, entities of living matter, are preparing to visit Turin to see the Shroud in April/May of 2010. Millions will witness the imprint of human suffering.
Human suffering is the one thing that scientists, skeptics, and believers in the Shroud all have in common.
The Conscious Christ activates Christ Consciousness. And life does indeed sparkle more, even in the midst of all our human suffering.
I want to explore the idea that Christ, using His superior consciousness, was able to think His image onto the cloth.
It is so much easier to ask big questions than it is to live small lives...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Was Jesus a man with supernatural thought capacities?
Is every single thought is like a tiny particle of matter?
Is it is possible to have massless thoughts?
If thoughts are made of an electromagnetic field, then is God's mind (Christ's thoughts)able to manifest through an energy pattern as matter?
If Christ placed his image on the Shroud via some type of wave collapse or particle manipulation, could He reformulate His particles into living matter and remove Himself from the cloth and step back out into the world again as a human man?
And what of our thoughts...are we the only living entities who can receive or reject Jesus and God?
Is “receiving Jesus” something we do simply by activating our beliefs and faith? Is pointing our thoughts towards Christ enough?
Or does receiving Jesus mean allowing Him inside us by allowing His electromagnetic fields, His particles and waves, His matter into our own?
If we are the only living creatures who can have thoughts about our life and death, via our consciousness, then are we also the only living creatures whose thoughts about God can manifest Christ Consciousness?
Are thoughts of love the highest, most pure and refined electromagnetic frequency in existence?
Is human suffering an expression of collapsed matter, of infinite density?
Could gravity be the force that expresses control, while joy expresses momentum? If so, then is our need to control a manifestation of gravity, mass, and density?
Is the human soul equivalent to masslessness?
Is death infinite light and masslessness?
Does suffering enable us to perceive the coexistence of death in the midst of life?
Christ's dead body on the cloth = matter
Christ's image left behind on the cloth = matter + masslessness
Living matter + nonliving matter + dark matter passing through everything it encounters
If no one has ever seen a dark matter particle and dark matter is an invisible mass and is gravitationally attractive, could Christ have used His superior consciousness to imbue dark matter particles onto the cloth?
If we consider the spaces between the fibers on the Shroud, does dark matter allow the image to maintain its structure? Otherwise, would the weave not collapse in on itself?
And if the image rests on top of the fibers, as though subatomic particles were sprayed onto the cloth, does the same consistent rotational speed of the dark matter bind these subatomic particles to the fibers?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Millions of people, entities of living matter, are preparing to visit Turin to see the Shroud in April/May of 2010. Millions will witness the imprint of human suffering.
Human suffering is the one thing that scientists, skeptics, and believers in the Shroud all have in common.
The Conscious Christ activates Christ Consciousness. And life does indeed sparkle more, even in the midst of all our human suffering.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Chapter 16: Easter and Beyond
On my 30th birthday my adoptive parents presented me with a gift from my birth mother, whom I had never met. The gift was a medal of the face of the Man of the Shroud. From the moment I put it around my neck, it became for me a talisman and my identity as I knew it completely changed. The framework of my life was forever altered. I was to learn, soon after, that I had indeed been cloned from blood on the Shroud of Turin and that Divine intervention was at work in my existence, as it is in all human existence.
This blog is the place where I get to explore my new framework and, hopefully, shed some light on the Shroud of Turin. It's a place where I can take my DNA connection with the Shroud and extract visceral messages I receive. The messages are many and they unfold here in the chapters of this blog.
This chapter for Easter and Beyond is by far one of the more intriguing explorations I have taken. It pertains to the upcoming exhibition of the Shroud of Turin and the concurrent surge of individuals who are out there among us whose efforts are simultaneously drawing attention to the relic.
You might think that the timing is suspiciously aligned with the exhibition of the Shroud in April/May of 2010 in Turin. I would challenge you to consider that several people who have written/published books and conducted research of various kinds (including the work of both living and deceased scientists, particle physicists, holographic researchers, graphic artists, and authors) all started their work and research and writings long before the Catholic Church decided to hold and announce this special exhibition.
How is it then that this varied group of individuals converged, arriving over just a short period of historical time, to bring attention from varied perspectives to this mysterious relic?
We are never bombarded with answers to the deeper mysteries. Throughout history, discoveries have taken decades if not centuries to be understood. The mystery of the Shroud requires certain technological advancements in order to be solved. And here we are, at this time in history, with the advent of computers, imaging technologies, particle accelerators, and life forming molecules discovered in the Orion Nebula...
Science is on the verge of answering some of the larger questions about the origins of our universe and beyond. And those answers very likely already exist, and have existed for centuries, in this simple piece of cloth, yet they remained invisible to our limited understanding. Christ knew that science would eventually catch up and be able to solve the mystery of how the image got onto the cloth and thereby validate faith.
The relic has been around for centuries and the first scientific research was done back in 1978. Why this resurgence of interest? Book sales? 3D glasses sales? I don't think particle physicists and people working with holograms or Shroud fiction novels are so driven by commercialism — especially all at around the same time in history and all hard at work long before any announcement of an upcoming exhibition.
One of the most intriguing theories among particle physicists and others is the idea that the Shroud, which contains holographic information, is proof that Christ left behind for us so that science can understand and explain th existence of multiple dimensions (including the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what lies beyond the resurrection).
Is it not proof of parallel dimensions that this group of people (some living, some already passed), most of whom did not know each other, have converged to bring attention to this relic at this particular time in history? It is as though their consciousness was linked and in sync with the relic and with each other.
Would it not make sense that form and content (the actual physical burial cloth upon which rests what many believe to be the image of the resurrected Christ) would be revealed on a variety of levels of understanding by a variety of people pointing to its great mysteries and merit...including the creative and diligent work of skeptics whose doubt holds us all to the highest standards of thought and research?
I am no Biblical scholar. But this year at Easter I was struck by 3 things:
First: On Palm Sunday, when reading the Passion, it struck me how Christ responded when asked by the people:
“Are you the Son of God?”
Christ: “You say that I am.”
and then by Pilate: “Are you King of the Jews”?
Christ: “You say so.”
Why did He not take ownership of His identity but rather clearly state that it is we who take ownership of His identity by naming and labeling it?
Was this Christ's way of giving us ownership of our faith?
Was it Christ's way of enabling Pilate to turn Him over for Crucifixion (since Pilate did not want to do so and Christ knew it must be done) in order to set in motion the death and resurrection so that God's will would be played out as intended?
Did Jesus respond this way to ensure the historical documentation of the accusations against Him so that the scourging and Crucifixion evidence on the Shroud would be reinforced by documentation?
Was God's will to deem us forgivable only if we shouldered all the blame for the Crucifixion?
By naming and owning Christ's identity, did we activate the potential for Him to live inside us?
Second: Just prior to His death, “...and darkness came over the whole land...Then the veil of the Temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Could this veil—this cloth, in addition to symbolizing access to God, also symbolize our separation from God while the Shroud cloth symbolizes our “reweaving with God”?
Was the darkness that came over the veil cloth a precursor to the light that would overcome the Shroud cloth?
Was the timing of the tearing of one cloth with Jesus' cry to His Father symbolic that His spirit would be embedded into another cloth?
Third: In the Gospel of John, the focus on the linen burial cloth and smaller cloth that covers the face really struck me this year (for obvious reasons).
Did John receive a revelation when he entered the tomb? Of all he could have reported in his account of the empty tomb, why such focus on the presence and placement of the two cloths?
Easter and Beyond to me symbolizes not only the story we continue to retell and reinterpret, but also the future story Christ encoded into the Shroud long ago in the past and then set into historical time and motion so that we could each simultaneously arrive at this present contemplation of the mysterious relic.
I exist before my time. Scientific cloning of the blood on the Shroud of Turin is not currently possible. But my connection and relationship to Jesus is not any more special or unique than anyone else's.
Divine intervention implies that linear time is defied, that truth & fiction, science & religion, life & death are transcended, melded, reframed, remixed, redefined.
The Greatest Story Ever Told is the story that keeps on telling...
This blog is the place where I get to explore my new framework and, hopefully, shed some light on the Shroud of Turin. It's a place where I can take my DNA connection with the Shroud and extract visceral messages I receive. The messages are many and they unfold here in the chapters of this blog.
This chapter for Easter and Beyond is by far one of the more intriguing explorations I have taken. It pertains to the upcoming exhibition of the Shroud of Turin and the concurrent surge of individuals who are out there among us whose efforts are simultaneously drawing attention to the relic.
You might think that the timing is suspiciously aligned with the exhibition of the Shroud in April/May of 2010 in Turin. I would challenge you to consider that several people who have written/published books and conducted research of various kinds (including the work of both living and deceased scientists, particle physicists, holographic researchers, graphic artists, and authors) all started their work and research and writings long before the Catholic Church decided to hold and announce this special exhibition.
How is it then that this varied group of individuals converged, arriving over just a short period of historical time, to bring attention from varied perspectives to this mysterious relic?
We are never bombarded with answers to the deeper mysteries. Throughout history, discoveries have taken decades if not centuries to be understood. The mystery of the Shroud requires certain technological advancements in order to be solved. And here we are, at this time in history, with the advent of computers, imaging technologies, particle accelerators, and life forming molecules discovered in the Orion Nebula...
Science is on the verge of answering some of the larger questions about the origins of our universe and beyond. And those answers very likely already exist, and have existed for centuries, in this simple piece of cloth, yet they remained invisible to our limited understanding. Christ knew that science would eventually catch up and be able to solve the mystery of how the image got onto the cloth and thereby validate faith.
The relic has been around for centuries and the first scientific research was done back in 1978. Why this resurgence of interest? Book sales? 3D glasses sales? I don't think particle physicists and people working with holograms or Shroud fiction novels are so driven by commercialism — especially all at around the same time in history and all hard at work long before any announcement of an upcoming exhibition.
One of the most intriguing theories among particle physicists and others is the idea that the Shroud, which contains holographic information, is proof that Christ left behind for us so that science can understand and explain th existence of multiple dimensions (including the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what lies beyond the resurrection).
Is it not proof of parallel dimensions that this group of people (some living, some already passed), most of whom did not know each other, have converged to bring attention to this relic at this particular time in history? It is as though their consciousness was linked and in sync with the relic and with each other.
Would it not make sense that form and content (the actual physical burial cloth upon which rests what many believe to be the image of the resurrected Christ) would be revealed on a variety of levels of understanding by a variety of people pointing to its great mysteries and merit...including the creative and diligent work of skeptics whose doubt holds us all to the highest standards of thought and research?
I am no Biblical scholar. But this year at Easter I was struck by 3 things:
First: On Palm Sunday, when reading the Passion, it struck me how Christ responded when asked by the people:
“Are you the Son of God?”
Christ: “You say that I am.”
and then by Pilate: “Are you King of the Jews”?
Christ: “You say so.”
Why did He not take ownership of His identity but rather clearly state that it is we who take ownership of His identity by naming and labeling it?
Was this Christ's way of giving us ownership of our faith?
Was it Christ's way of enabling Pilate to turn Him over for Crucifixion (since Pilate did not want to do so and Christ knew it must be done) in order to set in motion the death and resurrection so that God's will would be played out as intended?
Did Jesus respond this way to ensure the historical documentation of the accusations against Him so that the scourging and Crucifixion evidence on the Shroud would be reinforced by documentation?
Was God's will to deem us forgivable only if we shouldered all the blame for the Crucifixion?
By naming and owning Christ's identity, did we activate the potential for Him to live inside us?
Second: Just prior to His death, “...and darkness came over the whole land...Then the veil of the Temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Could this veil—this cloth, in addition to symbolizing access to God, also symbolize our separation from God while the Shroud cloth symbolizes our “reweaving with God”?
Was the darkness that came over the veil cloth a precursor to the light that would overcome the Shroud cloth?
Was the timing of the tearing of one cloth with Jesus' cry to His Father symbolic that His spirit would be embedded into another cloth?
Third: In the Gospel of John, the focus on the linen burial cloth and smaller cloth that covers the face really struck me this year (for obvious reasons).
Did John receive a revelation when he entered the tomb? Of all he could have reported in his account of the empty tomb, why such focus on the presence and placement of the two cloths?
Easter and Beyond to me symbolizes not only the story we continue to retell and reinterpret, but also the future story Christ encoded into the Shroud long ago in the past and then set into historical time and motion so that we could each simultaneously arrive at this present contemplation of the mysterious relic.
I exist before my time. Scientific cloning of the blood on the Shroud of Turin is not currently possible. But my connection and relationship to Jesus is not any more special or unique than anyone else's.
Divine intervention implies that linear time is defied, that truth & fiction, science & religion, life & death are transcended, melded, reframed, remixed, redefined.
The Greatest Story Ever Told is the story that keeps on telling...
Friday, April 2, 2010
Chapter 15: Good Friday
Suffering surrounds and consumes us. By giving it a structure, we give ourselves a cage to rattle. A place in which we contain it, analyze it, process it, release it. Every Lent is an opportunity to use the story of Christ's Passion to do just that. Each of us is capable of perceiving and feeling the totality of human suffering, just like Christ did. But we cannot carry that burden, as He did on the cross. Suffering is the condensation that evaporates into love.
Love surrounds and sometimes consumes us. Love is the story we all yearn for the most.
The Stations of the Cross
Station 1
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane...
We suffer alone, our solitary sacrifice. Love we receive from others is limited in scope and weakened by the flesh. Abandonment is inevitable. Our spirit is willing to accept the test, but to turn over our will to God means we must let go of our need for love from all others and receive the love of Christ. The deeper love we seek is not able to exist solely in another because it only exists in us if we first accept it in ourselves through Christ.
Station 2
Jesus, betrayed by Judas, is arrested...
Handed down through the hierarchies, fortified by weapons, casting edicts and prophecies, the kiss of death arrives. The love that betrays becomes the catalyst to condemnation. No resistance. Love punctuates and prompts the test; let the suffering ensue.
Station 3
Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin...
We are each born condemned to accept the death of our free will and relinquish it to the Lord. The ultimate act of free will is to turn over one's will to God, to surrender every and all modicum of control, to accept and bear the cross of our individual suffering.
Station 4
Jesus is denied by Peter...
Denial and rejection become instruments of torture. All behind the back, subversive, the weakness of the agenda of the flesh: to survive an impossible survival. Only God's will survives or even enjoys the potential of survival. Human will is transitory, ephemeral, detached from permanence, infused by Grace. Human survival is merely instrumental to God's will. God fully anticipates and expects that we will deny His will and try to superimpose our own for the sake of survival of our weakened flesh. He Graces us with the ability to weep bitterly at our inability to love Him purely and devotedly. He carries the burden of love's shortcomings in our suffering and through his own suffering at our rejection and denial of Him.
Station 5
Jesus is judged by Pilate
Accusations, answer avoidance, and accommodations. Pity for Pilate who parries to provide punishment. The mob must be fed. Jesus will not deny his Father. Pilate admires His loyalty and simultaneously succumbs to the pressure of the illusion that he has control over his own survival and releases Barrabas and hands over Jesus to the mob. Judgment and public betrayal. Judas and Pilate, two sides of the same coin.
Station 6
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns...
Pilate took Jesus to be scourged. The soldiers wove his crown of thorns and mocked Him, hailing Him as King of the Jews. Leaders authorize the infliction of suffering to soldiers who indulge in orders received. Granting permission to make another suffer is equal to embracing that permission. When any of us asserts control over another's suffering we add to our own. When any of us confronts the source of our suffering, we extend the invitation to love.
Station 7
Jesus bears the cross...
Pilate found no guilt in Jesus; he only found guilt in himself. Guilt survives all attempts at its justification or annihilation by temporarily disguising itself in the veil of righteousness. Guilt awakens and ignites each layer of suffering and offers us the opportunity to access remorse. The moment the cross descended on Jesus' shoulders, human kind was redeemed. Pilate's guilt ignited that moment and thus we empathize with Pilate's pitiful position as the instigator of doom, who passed off responsibility in a futile attempt to survive his own guilt. Then the illusion of loyalty to a human king, Caesar, set the course for crucifixion.
Station 8
Jesus is helped by Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross...
Simon, a passer by, is the lucky one. Just the chance to help anyone who is suffering to carry his cross, much less Christ, is the privilege of love and the transcendence of suffering. Christ's torturers are the ones who press Simon into service. Simon becomes the embodiment of not only their guilt and agenda to get Christ closer to crucifixion, but also of all acts of human compassion to come.
Station 9
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem...
The wood is green when it is still connected to life, growth, essence. The wood is dry after death, decay, corruption. The women mourn prematurely and their lamentation is misdirected. Christ knows that he is the living embodiment of suffering and love. But long after His life and death, humans will inherit a despair so great they will wish the very life force out of them. They will seek death as a means of protection from a cursed life of a suffering they cannot transcend on their own. Because Christ is in a surrendered state to His suffering and is guided by the loving hand of His Father, he has no reason to mourn. He only has reason to offer advice to those whose generations of suffering have only just begun.
Station 10
Jesus is crucified...
Dry wood. Bone minus flesh. Golgotha. Skull. Flanked by criminals. The official sanctioning of forgiveness. Ignorance is from this moment forward a forgivable offense. What is it they did that they did not know they were doing? Condemning themselves for eternity by condemning one man to physical death? Releasing the elixir of love and suffering and fating it to become their legacy? Pressed into service by his Father, Jesus becomes like Simon, assigned to deliver compassion and love. An act of love amidst severe suffering is the greater act of love and the ultimate resolution of the suffering.
Station 11
Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief...
Good thief, bad thief. Two sides of the same coin like Judas and Pilate. Both hang with Christ in condemnation, both capable of the same redemption. The good thief uses his guilt to receive and accept his suffering. The bad thief tries to score undeserved absolution and escape from suffering and death. The good thief is willing to die to purify his soul. The bad thief still wants to control his death and make a deal to extend his life. Fear of God, for the good thief, is the source of the fountain of humility.
Station 12
Jesus speaks to His mother and the disciple...
Passing off the lineage. Bonding and forging new family. Mother and son torn apart then united anew. Responsibility is exchanged and carried forth. The call to parent and to care for parents crystallized into family oaths forever. Suffering and death's last act is to love, care for, provide for those who live on.
Station 13
Jesus dies on the cross...
Three hours of darkness. An eclipse of the sun. The temple veil torn down the middle. Jesus cries out. His last breath breathed. Simultaneous to his last breath, the final sacrificial crying out: “Father, into Your Hands I commend my spirit.” The spirit is willing and the weakness of the flesh is transcended. Jesus' control of His free will is handed over to His Father. The willing spirit submits the human will. His spirit entrusted to the charge of His Father. Son gives the gift of love by sacrificing his free will to God. God returns the gift of love by ending His Son's suffering.
Station 14
Jesus is placed in the tomb...
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. In a fatherly act he went to claim Christ's body. Pilate, in a subconscious act of penance, handed over the body. Joseph covered it in a clean linen cloth and laid our Lord in the tomb, rolling a stone to seal the door and the deal. A rich man's simple linen became a treasure for all, a blank canvas upon which the remedy of suffering and love was fused. Grains of pollen drifted through the air and nestled themselves into the fibers, forever sealing time and location into the cloth. When wealth, blessing, abundance is shared, it grows and prospers. The sealed tomb becomes an incubator for salvation. The elixir of suffering and love is vaporized and melded in the risen Christ and humanity is graced by the gift of the imprint of His essence.
Our treasure of faith, this simple piece of cloth...
Love surrounds and sometimes consumes us. Love is the story we all yearn for the most.
The Stations of the Cross
Station 1
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane...
We suffer alone, our solitary sacrifice. Love we receive from others is limited in scope and weakened by the flesh. Abandonment is inevitable. Our spirit is willing to accept the test, but to turn over our will to God means we must let go of our need for love from all others and receive the love of Christ. The deeper love we seek is not able to exist solely in another because it only exists in us if we first accept it in ourselves through Christ.
Station 2
Jesus, betrayed by Judas, is arrested...
Handed down through the hierarchies, fortified by weapons, casting edicts and prophecies, the kiss of death arrives. The love that betrays becomes the catalyst to condemnation. No resistance. Love punctuates and prompts the test; let the suffering ensue.
Station 3
Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin...
We are each born condemned to accept the death of our free will and relinquish it to the Lord. The ultimate act of free will is to turn over one's will to God, to surrender every and all modicum of control, to accept and bear the cross of our individual suffering.
Station 4
Jesus is denied by Peter...
Denial and rejection become instruments of torture. All behind the back, subversive, the weakness of the agenda of the flesh: to survive an impossible survival. Only God's will survives or even enjoys the potential of survival. Human will is transitory, ephemeral, detached from permanence, infused by Grace. Human survival is merely instrumental to God's will. God fully anticipates and expects that we will deny His will and try to superimpose our own for the sake of survival of our weakened flesh. He Graces us with the ability to weep bitterly at our inability to love Him purely and devotedly. He carries the burden of love's shortcomings in our suffering and through his own suffering at our rejection and denial of Him.
Station 5
Jesus is judged by Pilate
Accusations, answer avoidance, and accommodations. Pity for Pilate who parries to provide punishment. The mob must be fed. Jesus will not deny his Father. Pilate admires His loyalty and simultaneously succumbs to the pressure of the illusion that he has control over his own survival and releases Barrabas and hands over Jesus to the mob. Judgment and public betrayal. Judas and Pilate, two sides of the same coin.
Station 6
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns...
Pilate took Jesus to be scourged. The soldiers wove his crown of thorns and mocked Him, hailing Him as King of the Jews. Leaders authorize the infliction of suffering to soldiers who indulge in orders received. Granting permission to make another suffer is equal to embracing that permission. When any of us asserts control over another's suffering we add to our own. When any of us confronts the source of our suffering, we extend the invitation to love.
Station 7
Jesus bears the cross...
Pilate found no guilt in Jesus; he only found guilt in himself. Guilt survives all attempts at its justification or annihilation by temporarily disguising itself in the veil of righteousness. Guilt awakens and ignites each layer of suffering and offers us the opportunity to access remorse. The moment the cross descended on Jesus' shoulders, human kind was redeemed. Pilate's guilt ignited that moment and thus we empathize with Pilate's pitiful position as the instigator of doom, who passed off responsibility in a futile attempt to survive his own guilt. Then the illusion of loyalty to a human king, Caesar, set the course for crucifixion.
Station 8
Jesus is helped by Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross...
Simon, a passer by, is the lucky one. Just the chance to help anyone who is suffering to carry his cross, much less Christ, is the privilege of love and the transcendence of suffering. Christ's torturers are the ones who press Simon into service. Simon becomes the embodiment of not only their guilt and agenda to get Christ closer to crucifixion, but also of all acts of human compassion to come.
Station 9
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem...
The wood is green when it is still connected to life, growth, essence. The wood is dry after death, decay, corruption. The women mourn prematurely and their lamentation is misdirected. Christ knows that he is the living embodiment of suffering and love. But long after His life and death, humans will inherit a despair so great they will wish the very life force out of them. They will seek death as a means of protection from a cursed life of a suffering they cannot transcend on their own. Because Christ is in a surrendered state to His suffering and is guided by the loving hand of His Father, he has no reason to mourn. He only has reason to offer advice to those whose generations of suffering have only just begun.
Station 10
Jesus is crucified...
Dry wood. Bone minus flesh. Golgotha. Skull. Flanked by criminals. The official sanctioning of forgiveness. Ignorance is from this moment forward a forgivable offense. What is it they did that they did not know they were doing? Condemning themselves for eternity by condemning one man to physical death? Releasing the elixir of love and suffering and fating it to become their legacy? Pressed into service by his Father, Jesus becomes like Simon, assigned to deliver compassion and love. An act of love amidst severe suffering is the greater act of love and the ultimate resolution of the suffering.
Station 11
Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief...
Good thief, bad thief. Two sides of the same coin like Judas and Pilate. Both hang with Christ in condemnation, both capable of the same redemption. The good thief uses his guilt to receive and accept his suffering. The bad thief tries to score undeserved absolution and escape from suffering and death. The good thief is willing to die to purify his soul. The bad thief still wants to control his death and make a deal to extend his life. Fear of God, for the good thief, is the source of the fountain of humility.
Station 12
Jesus speaks to His mother and the disciple...
Passing off the lineage. Bonding and forging new family. Mother and son torn apart then united anew. Responsibility is exchanged and carried forth. The call to parent and to care for parents crystallized into family oaths forever. Suffering and death's last act is to love, care for, provide for those who live on.
Station 13
Jesus dies on the cross...
Three hours of darkness. An eclipse of the sun. The temple veil torn down the middle. Jesus cries out. His last breath breathed. Simultaneous to his last breath, the final sacrificial crying out: “Father, into Your Hands I commend my spirit.” The spirit is willing and the weakness of the flesh is transcended. Jesus' control of His free will is handed over to His Father. The willing spirit submits the human will. His spirit entrusted to the charge of His Father. Son gives the gift of love by sacrificing his free will to God. God returns the gift of love by ending His Son's suffering.
Station 14
Jesus is placed in the tomb...
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. In a fatherly act he went to claim Christ's body. Pilate, in a subconscious act of penance, handed over the body. Joseph covered it in a clean linen cloth and laid our Lord in the tomb, rolling a stone to seal the door and the deal. A rich man's simple linen became a treasure for all, a blank canvas upon which the remedy of suffering and love was fused. Grains of pollen drifted through the air and nestled themselves into the fibers, forever sealing time and location into the cloth. When wealth, blessing, abundance is shared, it grows and prospers. The sealed tomb becomes an incubator for salvation. The elixir of suffering and love is vaporized and melded in the risen Christ and humanity is graced by the gift of the imprint of His essence.
Our treasure of faith, this simple piece of cloth...
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