By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--December 25, 2014
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“It is the missing image of Jesus Christ, for which all of Western civilization senses the need. Today, finally, it must be regarded as rediscovered.” Yearning Christians have wondered down through the ages, what Jesus looked like. “What did Jesus look like?” Badde asked in his Inside the Vatican Photo Essay in October of 2004. ”A bit like Jim Caviezel in the film The Passion of The Christ? Or like the portraits of Christ by Durer and El Greco and other artists, which hang in the Vatican Museum?
“The image fades away against light, it darkens in shadow, yet it endures through the centuries, unchanging. “It shows the bearded face of a man with Jewish side-curls at the temples (peyes), a man whose nose has been smashed like one of the hostages of today’s “jihadists” (“God’s warriors”)--or one of the detainees in the Abu Ghreib prison. “The right cheek is swollen, the beard partly ripped off. The forehead and lips have on them hints of pink, suggesting freshly healed wounds. “Inexplicable peace fills the gaze out of the wide open eyes. Amazement, astonishment, surprise. Gentle compassion. No despair, no pain, no wrath. “It is like the face of a man who has just awakened to a new morning. His mouth is half open. Even his teeth are visible. If one had to give a precise phrase to the vowel and word the lips are forming, it would be a soft “ah”.”Many have heard about the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that is thought to have held the body of Jesus in the tomb, from which He resurrected on Easter Sunday. Fewer have heard about the smaller ‘sudarium’ ‘byssus’ (sea silk) cloth that covered His Face. To see this image in the quiet of a tiny Capuchin church with your own eyes, would mean making a trip to Manoppello, Italy. We cannot all travel to Italy, but CFP can transport you there with this beautiful 24-minute video, sent to us for all to see this Christmas Day, by the renowned ‘Face of God’ author/historian Paul Badde. The Face of God is yours forever. A Christ-blessed Merry Christmas to each and every one!
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