The Fifth Gospel

José Humberto Cardoso Resende

At that time the Jews did not use to keep clothes stained with blood, but in the year 33, on Easter Sunday in Jerusalem, Maria Maddalena and her friends went early in the morning to Jesus´ sepulchre to render the last homage to the Messiah. They would have spread parfume and balsam on Jesus´ corpse according to the Jewish ritual.

Once they got there, they saw the empty sepulchre, the stone pushed to the side of the entrance and the empty clothes. Jesus had resuscitated according to the profecies. The cloth that covered Jesus´ corpse in the grave, the so-called Shroud, was protected by faithfuls and kings. it passed through different cities and countries before reaching Turin, in Italy, on the 14th September 1578.

The miracle of the positive-negative inversion of the Holy Shroud picture became visible in May 1898, after the discovery of the photo and the development by Secondo Pia under Pope Leo XIII. Photos, tests and studies on the Linen show us a new Gospel.

The wounds on Jesus´ head caused by the crown of thorns symbolize the conscience freed through the sufferings of Jesus who made us free from the sins. A free mind leads us to good actions and pure thoughts. The regret for offending God and his Son with more than seventy pointed thorns of the "ziziphus spina" tree which replaced the real crown of a King: a King who instead deserved diamonds and emeralds for opening the doors of God´s kingdom. "Father forgive them , for they don´t know what they are doing". In the deepest agony of the Calvary he taught us forgiveness. Violaceous eyes because of the punches and kicks of Thursday night, calm and closed eyes contemplating our soul and offering us regret and forgiveness like He did with Peter and many others. The greatness of the interior forgiveness of all the sins of the Earth, of injustice, hunger, illnesses and betrayals...offers us a new vision of the mankind so that we can contemplate the joy offered to the world freed from sin and saved from the look of the Messiah on the cross. The pain from the beating on the Messiah´s head calls for a conversion that turns the hearts petrified by Evil and war into joyful and peaceful hearts.

Beatified those men who listened to the words of God, words uttered by a mouth covered with blood, the same mouth asking for water along the Calvary whereas it received only vinegar and bile. What was unbelievable happened to that mouth which taught us the real meaning of life through the lines of the Gospels.

Looking at the closed lips of Jesus on the Shroud, we can feel that the great SPEECH of the Holy Linen is the silence of Jesus. The thirst of the Holy Friday appears to us today as thirst for love, truth, honesty, tolerance, regret, justice and charity. "Beatified those whose spirit is pure...". Beatified those who will believe in the teachings of the Shroud, clear proof of resuscitated Jesus.

Let’s remember the teachings of Good, the pure words, the prayer: "Our Father that art in Heaven, holy be Thy name...". So that the power of prayers can generate a lively faith, the same faith that made the blind man see and the crippled one walk and that taught us which path to follow: "Go and no longer sin". The beard covered with blood and pulled out by an executioner during one of the falls along the Calvary frames the face of the most portrayed and painted Man, object of devotions, conversions and admiration of the converted.

The Holy Face of Jesus, loved by Joao, Terezinha, Francisco and Clara, must represent a mirror so that we do not sin and offend God any longer: it should enlighten our faces so we can contemplate a new life, where health is not only a physical condition but also a spiritual one. May the voice that cried in the desert cry loud through the Sacred Linen and echo in our hearts, never allowing us to offend Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beatified those who believe in the words of the Gospel uttered by the apostles and confirmed by the Man of the Shroud, proof of the greatest suffering ever inflicted to an innocent man to this day. Arms wounded by the whipping of a "flander" with three leather strips ending with two lead balls. The blood dripping from His face reminds us of the professional carpenter that with these arms helped His mother Mary after His father Joseph´s death. Strong arms that transformed wood into furniture and pulled a fishing net out of the Jordan river and that today invite us to fill the net with redeemed souls. Physical power turned into the power of Good which prevent the sacrifice of lambs to praise God as He offered himself to His Father to save all His brothers. Brother, that was actually Son, that was actually Father and that together with the Holy Spirit forms the Holy Trinity. Hands perforated by nails that were only paralized when hammered to the gallow but despite that blessed us leaving us the memory of the Last Supper, the Holy Mass, when He raised the bread and wine asking us to do this in His name: "This is my body...This is my blood..." which is our Eucharist. Blessed hands that bless the children of all races and ask us to go on with our action aimed at spreading the Gospel.

The wounds on the shoulders caused by the gallow weighing more than 70 kilos which He carried on the Calvary symbolize the burden caused by the original sin which was removed from our shoulders by the Messiah. Painful open wounds inviting us to work in joy and to carry out our duties with resignation and persistence. This is the extraordinary document of an unfair suffering for a redeeming cause. Wounded knees from the falls on the ground of Jerusalem which teach us how to get up again as many times as necessary on our way to heaven.

Bare feet perforated by a long nail hammered into the wood as final step of the crucifixion of the Holy Man, light of the world and redeemer of the Earth. For He taught us constancy and rectitude and showed us the path and the right direction in the happy and sad moments of life. The Shroud, proof of the blood shed by Jesus of Nazareth, is the live Relic of the Lord´s passion, death and resurrection.

The torment, the crucifixion and the death of Jesus caused by scourge originates, through resurrection, the hope of a new life documented by the relic, work of the greatest artist of the world, graduated from the Pontifical University of Heaven, product of the Divine Science whose author is God.