Christianity

This is a story about the Bible and truth. More precisely, it's about biblical antiquities and how they can be seen to prove that the stories told in the Bible really happened.Five-and-a-half years ago the world of biblical archaeology was rocked to its foundations, and all because of a box. It was a stone box - called an "ossuary" - that had been discovered in Israel. Ossuaries were used to hold the bones of the dead some 2,000 years ago, in the time of Jesus. And this ossuary was said hold the bones of Jesus' brother, James.As correspondent Bob Simon reports, the discovery created more excitement amongChristian scholars than anything since the Shroud of Turin.

And like the shroud, no sooner was it unveiled that charges of forgery surfaced. In fact, a trial has been underway in Jerusalem for almost three years. The box is made of limestone. It's not terribly large, but it attracted a very large crowd, over a 100,000, when it was first exhibited. It made the New York Times and the cover of Biblical Archaeology Review. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington, who wrote a book about the box, was at that first exhibit. "There was a lot of excitement. There was, you know, the atmosphere was kind of palpable really. And there were various of us just sort of buzzing around this exhibit," he remembers. Actually, ossuaries are quite common. The Israel Antiquities Authority keeps hundreds in its basement. Whatwas so special about this one was the mysterious engraving on its side, sort of a Da Vinci Code in stone. It's written in ancient Aramaic and it reads "James, Son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus." The first question: could this box have contained the bones of the man the Gospels mention as Jesus' brother? "If it can be proven it's probably one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the century," says Steve Pfann, who like his wife Claire, is a scholar of early Christianity, and based in the Holy Land. The Pfanns believe the ossuary is the first firm archaeological evidence that Jesus once lived there. "That is really a great thing just to be able to confirm, from an extra-biblical source, that a man named Jesus existed," Claire Pfann explains. The idea that Jesus hada bro......

The Catholic Encyclopedia © 2007
by Kevin Knight

Mystical Stigmata: To decide merely the facts without deciding whether or not they may be explained by supernatural causes, history tells us that many ecstatics bear on hands, feet, side, or brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings. These are called visible stigmata. Others only have the sufferings, without any outward marks, and these phenomena are called invisible stigmata.

Facts: St. Catherine of Siena at first had visible stigmata but through humility she asked that they might be made invisible, and her prayer was heard. This was also the case with St. Catherine de' Ricci, a Florentine Dominican of the sixteenth century, and with several other stigmatics. The sufferings may be considered the essential part of visible stigmata; the substance of this grace consists of pity for Christ, participation in His sufferings, sorrows, and for the same end--the expiation of the sins unceasingly committed in the world. If the sufferings were absent, the wounds would be but an empty symbol, theatrical representation, conducing to pride.

If the stigmata really come from God, it would be unworthy of His wisdom to participate in such futility, and to do so by a miracle. With many stigmatics these apparitions were periodical, e.g., St. Catherine de' Ricci, whose ecstasies of the Passion began when she was twenty (1542), and the Bull of her canonization states that for twelve years they recurred with minute regularity. The ecstasy lasted exactly twenty-eight hours, from Thursday noon till Friday afternoon at four o'clock, the only interruption being for the saint to receive Holy Communion. Catherine conversed aloud, as if enacting a drama. This drama was divided into about seventeen scenes. On coming out of the ecstasy the saint's limbs were covered with wounds produced by whips, cords etc...

St. Januarius is still making headlines. Even though his blood has been liquefying with baffling regularity—and even more baffling irregularity—for centuries, it’s still making a fuss.On September 19, 2005, as the citizens of Naples gathered to honor their favorite saint by watching his blood bubble, the skeptical group CICAP held a press conference. A spokeswoman, Margherita Hack, declared that the miracle was a hoax: the famous relic was nothing but hydrated iron oxide. The response was uproarious. Neapolitan celebrities protested; and the mayor, Rosa Russo Jervolino, insisted that the traditional miracle was “a sign that San Gennaro stillprotects our city.”The excitement was somewhat puzzling, since CICAP’s claim was nothing new.

But then, Naples is an excitable place. After all, its legendary founder was Par­thenope, a siren jilted by Odysseus. What can you expect from a town started by a lovelorn mermaid? The miracle has a long history. San Gennaro (it seems more fitting to use his Neapolitan name) was a bishop tortured and executed in 305, as part of a Christian purge by the Emperor Diocletian. According to tradition, a woman—often identified as his nurse, Eusebia—caught his blood in two small vials. He was buried near the site of his martyrdom, a sulfur spring just west of Naples. About a century later, the body was disinterred and taken to Naples. His blood then supposedly rejoined his bones—and, for the first time,liquefied. The remains were carried off to Benevento in the ninth century, and Montevergine in the 12th, but returned to Naples in 1497, where they’re now the prize of the cathedral. In 1389, we find the first record of the liquefaction: “On the following day, August 17 (1389) a very great procession was made for the miracle that Our Lord Jesus Christ showed in the blood of blessed Januarius, which was in an ampoule, and which was seen liquefied as if it had that day left the body of blessed Januarius.” (This anonymous chronicle, the Chronicon Siculum, is now in the Vatican; it was published in 1887. The translation is mine.) After that, the records are fairly continuous; San Gennaro’s blood would not settle down. The vials are now glued into a reliquary, probably from the 14th century; an outer caseand handle ......

The birth of Jesus must be understood in all three worlds: as an historical phenomenon, as a psychic, mystical phenomenon, and as a Cosmic phenomenon. Today I am concerned with the mystical phenomenon.St Luke was the most scholarly of the Evangelists. In his telling of the birth of Jesus, he revealed the events that take place in the soul of every human being in the form of images. It is these symbolic images that I want to show you now.For the Christ Child to be born, there must be parents, a father and mother: the father, Joseph, is the mind, the spirit; the mother, Mary, is the heart, the soul. When the heart and soul are pure, then the Child is born, not ofthe mind and spirit, but of the Universal Soul, the Holy Spirit in the form of Fire, or Divine Love...

a pure flame that invades and fertilizes the human heart and soul. The soul and heart represent the feminine receptive principle, whereas the mind and spirit represent the masculine principle, and together they prepare the conditions for the Holy Spirit, Universal Soul, or Fire, to take possession of the soul of Mary. That is when the Christ Child is born. But as this birth must take place in all three worlds, the child must also be born on the physical plane. You see, it is much more complex than you imagined.

No room at the inn When Mary and Joseph sought refuge at the inn, there was no room for them, that is, human beings who are too busy eating and drinking and amusingthemselves, have no room for the Initiate who has received the Child. This Divine Child which is conceived in him as a Light may be an ideal he has long cherished and nourished, but where can he go with It? No one will open the door to him, that is, no one understands him. But wait, yonder is a stable. The stable and its manger are symbolic, first of all, of poverty, of difficulty with material conditions. Yes, for one who is inhabited by the Spirit it will always be thus: humans will never appreciate him, they will always refuse to receive him, but thanks to the Light projected by him around the manger, he will be seen from afar by others who will come and visit him.

The five-pointed star This Light represented by a star with five points is an absolute reality: it shines above the head of every Initiatewho......