Reflection on the Shroud of Turin & Good Shepherd Sunday (Br Gregory Chan)

In 1988 - I was only 22 years old then - half a life-time ago, the Shroud of Turin was pronouned by a group of experts to be a medieval fake. Carbon dating from a sample taken from a particular location of the shroud showed that the fabric only reached back to the 12th/13th century. I remembered it when it was announced. I felt deceived & duped into thinking that something was genuine when it was not so. Twenty-two years later, the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. New evidence was uncovered to show that the experts got it wrong in 1988. The sample was taken from a particular area from the shroud, an area which was repaired by a group of nuns using a particular technique called "interweaving" where fabric of the old & fabrc of the new was interwoven together.


Today, scripture reading for Lauds speaks to us about the mission to preach the gospel to the people & to testify that he is the one whom God has appointed Judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10: 40 - 43) To testify is to bear witness to, to verify the genuineness of a thing. This is particularly important, for it is Good Shepherd Sunday today. As we are called to give sharings on our vocation story, we are called to authenticate Christ and His message. In order for us to authenticate Christ, we ourselves must be authentic. We must live authentic lives. It is particularly important that we do so today, for the world is waiting to point their finger at us, and say "Fake!" I say this in the light of the allegations hurled at the priesthood over the sex-scandals. These allegations, in themselves do not invalidate the priesthood. A small portion in itself does not render the entire invalid. However, we can only refute these allegations if we ourselves are genuine.

So, today, as we pray, let our prayers rise up, in authentic witness to God. For the Holy Father reminds us that it is authentic witness which awakens vocations (Catholic News, 25.04.2010) .

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Jovita Ho on 29th Apr 2010.