Relics

Today's newspaper declares, "Catholic Relics Coming to Oahu." Among the items arriving "on tour" are "pieces of the cross, the crown of thorns and the column where Jesus was scourged as well as a picture of the Shroud of Turin and replicas of nails believed to have been used to crucify Christ."

As a protestant Christian I do not get all excited about such matters. My faith, being a gift from God, is complete insofar as it is grounded in the Word of God. "Things" in and of themselves are not "holy" simply because of some temporal association with a person of devout faith or, as some believe, with Jesus himself. For me, seeing them or touching them does not bring me any closer to the living presence of God than I am already.

Relics can and do, however, serve as icons, or "windows," that help us to see through the veil that hides the eternal world from our own. Icons and relics must never be venerated in and of themselves. They possess no hidden, magic powers. Unlike the sacramental elements of bread, wine and water, through which God uniquely proclaims his spiritual claim on our lives and sustains us in faith, relics are "holy" because people who hunger for the power and presence of God in their lives want them to be "holy."

Can God use such relics to further the spread of his Kingdom among us? Can relics serve as vehicles for God's providence to inspire and deepen faith among us? The answer, of course, is "Yes." God can also work through such items to bring miraculous healing to those who cling to them in hope and faith. A relic of Mother Marianne of Kalaupapa, who is now being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, is claimed to have brought a miraculous healing to a child in Syracuse, New York some years ago. The relic was a fragment of a bookmark on which Marianne had written a short blessing.

On the other hand, I have seen people healed by the laying on of hands, and even while kneeling on a linoleum floor in prayer. Are the hands to be considered as "holy relics?" Are the linoleum tiles to be considered as "holy relics?" Of course not! "Things," whether human hands, linoleum tiles, bookmark fragments, a piece of the cross of Christ or even the Shroud of Turin are only a "means" through which God can, if he so chooses, use to achieve his desired "end."

We must never forget that Christ did not die on the cross to make a piece of that cross a holy relic. Christ died on the cross to declare our sins to be forgiven and to proclaim the great and boundless love that God has for each of us. We must never confuse the cross with Christ. The one is simply a symbol, an icon, a relic. The other is the Lord and Giver of Life himself, who with the Holy Spirit and the Father, is to be worshiped and glorified.

We must be careful to avoid being like King Herod, who was more interested in seeing Jesus perform a miracle than he was in seeing Jesus!