Hey everyone! Sorry for the hiatus… W and I had a FABULOUS time in Italy with our family and now I find myself typing this on hour 6 of our long 10.5 hour flight back to the states. Although, I’m not really sure that anyone reads this thing, so maybe no one even noticed the hiatus since I’m pretty sure the two of us and mom are our only regular readers. Haha!
Anyway, our Italy trip included visits to many of the major Italian cities, including Pisa, Florence, Siena, Rome, and Venice. I could write for days about how beautiful everything was or how much pasta I ate, but what I want to talk about for the moment is my experience in Rome. I actually went to Rome twice during the trip, first with the BF (yes, he came with… big deal kind of!) and then later with the family. While I can’t say that Rome was my favorite of all the Italian cities, it did leave me with a distinct spiritual impression that I thought would be appropriate for this blog.
I’ll cut to the chase and just say it: people in Rome and in the Vatican really act and talk like Christ existed. Now, those of us who are Christians should not be surprised by the knowledge that He existed. His very existence and resurrection is the foundation upon which we build our beliefs and live our lives. Moreover, even totally secular history books confirm that a man named Jesus lived, died, and that Christianity was born out of his legacy. However, here in America at least, it’s still easy to think of Jesus more as a myth than as a man. It’s easy to think that Jesus (along with the other Biblical characters like David or Paul) was a magical guy that didn’t really experience earth the way that we do. What I loved about Rome was that I came face-to-face with actual history that was shaped largely by the actual existence of Jesus. It was incredible!
(I also learned a lot about the Apostles Peter and Paul, who came to Rome after Christ’s death and were imprisoned and eventually martyred there. I will save my additional thoughts on that for the next post!)
One of the favorite sites we visited in Rome was the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. I don’t remember all of the specifics, but long story short is that Saint Helen went to Jerusalem and collected all these relics from the time of Christ and brought them back to Rome to be kept safely there while the Middle East was experiencing all this conflict. Anyway, at the Church of the Holy Cross, we got to see these relics, which included a bone from “doubting Thomas’s” finger (that he put into Jesus’ side), a nail that was driven through Jesus’ hand or foot, a thorn from the crown of thorns, a piece of wood from the cross, and (definitely the coolest) the actual sign that hung above Jesus on the cross, which read “INRI” (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). There was also the world’s only exact replica of the Shroud of Turin, which has the image of Christ divinely burned into it. (Pics below). Now, there is certainly speculation about whether these relics are legit or not… and there are a lot of conspiracy theories about the Shroud as well. However, I don’t really care if it’s the actual nail or the actual shroud… Whether they are the real deal or not does not take away their suggestion of the reality of Christ’s life and death. This is especially significant when paired with the myriad paintings, mosaics, and sculptures dedicated to Him throughout all of Rome. It is glaringly obvious that this man lived and died according to what we’ve been taught to believe.
Take the Shroud for example… As you can (hopefully) make out from this picture, you can see how Christ’s body was laid in the tomb. You can understand his humanness by seeing his height, the width of his pelvis, and the cross of his arms, limp in death. You can also understand his suffering, making out actual stains of blood coming from this scalp, abdomen, running down his arms, and pooling at his hands and feet. Then, of course, you can understand his divinity by questioning how the image of his face and body came to be “burned” into this fabric… something that, to this day, no one has been able to figure out or replicate. And to me, the question of whether this is “the shroud” or not is unimportant… the reality is that there was a shroud, and Christ laid in it, limp and bleeding as this suggests. I was blown away by how real it all became.
All of this really makes me want to go visit Jerusalem sometime. Can you imagine?? How cool would that be!?
For now, my hope and prayer is that I don’t lose this feeling of awe and conviction. I want to live my life like I truly, sincerely believe that Christ Jesus walked the earth, suffered a bodily death, and rose for me… just as the Bible says. I hope that I can be inspired by the sacrifice of time, energy, and life that the early church made for their deep conviction of Jesus’ divinity, which is so evident in the culture, art, and history of Rome and probably throughout other major cities that were once in the Roman Empire. I don’t want to take for granted this gift we have of the evidence of Jesus… both within the words of scripture and the history of our world.
I also want to watch a documentary on the Shroud. Anyone want to join me?!
