Homily for Easter Sunday

(using material taken from The Turin Shroud and Paschal Events by Fr Maurice Hogan in Far East, March/April 2026, pgs 12-13)

Back when I was starting secondary school in the early nineties, we looked in

our science lessons at the subject of radioactivity and carbon dating. In the

course of this, the subject textbook mentioned the Turin Shroud, claiming that

carbon dating had shown it to be a mediaeval forgery. Well, that was back then,

and since then, new tests have been done and reasons worked out for the

inaccurate result of the 1988 test.

Firstly, though, what is the Turin Shroud? Well it is a large burial cloth,

measuring 4.4 by 1.1 metres (14.5 by 3.5 feet) which has been on display in

Turin Cathedral, Italy, since 1578, and it contains an image of what is claimed

to be Christ’s body after it was buried in the tomb. The Church has never

officially endorsed it, but has diplomatically referred to it as an icon of

Christian devotion. Fr Maurice Hogan, a Columban missionary, has written

that:

“A photographic negative of the cloth shows a three-dimensional image of a

crucified man so accurate in anatomic detail that scientific tests today can

diagnose his multiple injuries. Its 372 bloodstains point to a crucifixion

resembling that of Jesus by Roman authorities in 33 AD.”

The image is unique for many reasons. Firstly, no one knows any method that

could produce the image in the way it has been made on the cloth. It was not

produced by any paint, dye or chemical, and it has no brush strokes.

So how might the image have been made? There is no known process. It

seems the most favourable hypothesis is that of a burst of particle radiation,

caused by Christ’s Resurrection, imparting the image to the cloth, without

distorting any of the blood stains. There is also the question of the lack of

ageing of the cloth, although it did suffer a fire, and repairs to it afterwards in

1532 are thought to be behind the reason for the inaccurate carbon dating result

in 1988.

Whether you are convinced that it is an image of the risen Christ or not, it is a

useful “icon” for us of the Resurrection of Christ, who appeared to the disciples

later on with His glorified body. And in Romans, St Paul speaks of baptism as

a sharing in His resurrected life today. As Christians, we are called to be icons

of the resurrection in our own way too. He writes (Romans 6:4, 11):

“We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that, just

as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might

walk in newness of life. ... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Through baptism, we retain our own identity, just like the 372 blood stains on

the Shroud of Turin, but we are also permanently changed by the grace of

baptism. Just as the Shroud has the image of Christ, so when we are changed

by God in baptism, we too should be affecting those around us and bringing

Christ’s image to them as well. Even if we don’t bring someone completely to

Catholic faith, we can still find ourselves being at least a bit of an influence for

the better in other people’s lives.

So because of Christ’s Resurrection, we, through baptism, live a new life. And

just like the theory that the Turin Shroud was changed by contact with Christ,

so now we go on to change the world for the better.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk