New
to www.unitypublishing.com True
or false the Greek Fire
Greek Pascal fire:
Testing Seven
issues. Your answer!
By Prof.
Every
Saturday noon before Easter Sunday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem
enters Jesus’s tomb alone with 66 candles and comes
out with fire on them, even if the tomb was previously sealed and he was
checked for matches before entering.
This
video is impressive but doesn’t address 7 issues which question it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-lBVLg7cqU
1.
Timing
Summa
Theologica: “Now Christ's
resurrection was at night, as Gregory
says in a homily
for Easter”
(xxi in Evang.) http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5077.htm
Bl.
Anne
It
was towards eleven o’clock at night when the Blessed Virgin, incited by
irrepressible feelings of love, arose, wrapped a grey cloak around her, and
left the house quite alone…
Mary
then went to Calvary; but when she had almost reached it, she stopped suddenly,
and I saw the sacred body and soul of our Saviour standing before her…
It
was then, I think, past midnight, for the pilgrimage of Mary over the Way of
the Cross had taken up at least an hour…
It
was about half-past three when our Lord appeared to Magdalen,
and
http://www.jesus-passion.com/DOLOROUS_PASSION_OF_OUR_LORD_JESUS_CHRIST.htm
Mt
28,1: After the sabbath,
as the first day of the week was dawning,*
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
Lc
24,1: But at daybreak on the first day of the week
they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. http://www.usccb.org/bible/
One
thing is unquestionable: Jesus resurrected on Sunday before dawn. Word of God. Amen.
Why
would a miracle related to his resurrection occur on the wrong day and time? (Saturday 12:00 PM).
Why
does the miracle is not punctual and differs by many
minutes each year?
2.
Natural calendar
God
is the Lord of history. He still rules the motions of the earth, moon and sun. Emmerick explains that some feasts are related to their
position. That’s why Resurrection Sunday lies the closest after the first full
moon after spring (vernal equinox).
Old
Julian Calendar, used by the Orthodox Greeks, does not
follow God’s natural order as well as our Gregorian Calendar: it has a much
larger deviation with respect to the movement of celestial bodies!
God
does not make mistakes. He is omnisapient and omnipresent.
Why
God would choose a false cosmological date?
3.
Supernatural calendar
The
Pascal time (50 days after Resurrection) is a period for rejoicing. We even
pray joyful Regina Coeli instead of the Angelus. This
liturgical period overcomes even nature: for instance, in the Southern
Hemisphere it is the beginning of “sad” winter.
Bl.
Anne
Mt
16,18-19: And so I say to you, you are Peter, and
upon this rock I will build My church (note: Jesus didn’t say “my
churches”), and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give
you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Note:
in the Old Testament we learn that the keys are transferred to the next
occupant of the position, in this case, the Seat of Rome.
Emmerick had even thematic visions according to the feasts of her local
diocese. Why? The Pope, by delegating his power, allows bishops to establish
some feasts, but not all, and especially not Resurrection Sunday.
Why
wouldn’t God prefer the calendar of the only “One, Holy, Catholic and
*Nicene Creed 381 AD
4.
God can’t lead away from His Church
Some
Orthodox use this ‘miracle’ to deny the infallibility
of the Seat of Peter bestowed by Jesus.
Doctor
of the Church, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort
in the best book ever, about Virgin Mary, the “Treaty of the True Devotion to
Mary”, wrote that God can’t do miracles which would not point to the Roman
Catholic Church. If not, He would be leading people away from Truth.
Big
checkable miracles happen only in the Catholic Church. In the separated
orthodox churches, there are no incorrupt bodies of saints, no Eucharistic
miracles, no miracles of the Sun (like Fatima), no healings due to the
canonization of a Saint, no stigmatists
(non-Catholics, convert to Catholicism, the true Church), no messages from Our
Lady, no liquefying blood of saints, no holy oil emanating from saint’s bodies,
etc.
Why
would God lead you away from the only Church which has the fullness of the
means of salvation (Catechism of the Catholic Church #816, Unitatis
redintegratio 3 § 5), according to the II
Ecumenical Vatican Council?
Example:
the person who filmed the above video said he was converted by the Greek fire
to the Greek Church. According to St.
5.
Historical records
Before
870 AD, there are no testimonies, even among dozens of documented pilgrimages
to the
Why
would God the Son wait nearly a thousand years to honor his resurrection with
such sign?
Why
are there so few comments, especially among Roman Catholics?
6.
Is God Greek?
There
was at least one period formally assumed by a non-Greek patriarch (Russian): no
fire.
“Historically,
attempts to detach the Miracle from the local (Greek) Bishop have been just as
unsuccessful”
Why
would it prefer the Greek Patriarch among other orthodox ones or even among
other bishops with more antiquity, local roots and faithfulness to Jesus Church
(Peter’s) like the Maronite (Syrian-Lebanese Roman Catholic rite)?
Why
would God not favor the Latin rite Roman Catholic Bishop or even the Pope?
God
does not discriminate. God is not unfair. He is perfect justice. It makes no
sense that over a thousand years only all Greek Patriarch “deserved” this honor
even if other bishops would have a higher right, either formally (closeness to
Peter’s Cathedra) or subjectively (personal sainthood).
If God
wanted a testimony for all nations, why would He choose a national Church
(Greek), instead of a truly “universal” one: the Roman Catholic Church, the one
He founded?
7.
Should you trust your own very eyes?
a)
Why isn’t anybody allowed to witness the actual lighting? Why does it take so
long to light the 66 candles? Wouldn’t an angel do it in an instant? Why it
fails with other Patriarchs? Hidden match? Phosphorus in a
detachable part of the clothes? Delayed chemical reaction in the
candles?
b)
It’s easy to digitally edit a video
c)
Digital CMOS sensor and autofocus processing algorithms cause weird effects
sometimes.
d)
Daemons have power over the material, if God allows. Check youtube
videos of self called pentecostal
charismatic evangelical protestants, falling and flying off when touched by the
“pastor”.
Only
the Pope of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church has the authority to say that
something is really a trustworthy miracle (constat
de supernaturalitate). Why didn’t it happen in
over a thousand years?
“When the apparently uninitiated
Crusaders took over the Orthodox clergy in charge of the fire, it failed to
appear, increasing the skepticism. In 1238, Pope
Gregory IX, who canonized St. Francis of
Wikipedia:
not 100% trustworthy but might contain some truths
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Fire
As with all
alleged miracles, many question the validity of the Holy Fire, noting, for
instance, that cold-handed pilgrims generally withstand the fire for the same
very brief periods of time as can be achieved with any fire.
Criticism dates at least to the days of
Islamic rule of
The Ottoman traveller,
Evliya Celebi, claimed that
a hidden zinc jar of naphtha was dripped down a chain by a hidden
monk.[13]
Edward Gibbon wrote scathingly about the
alleged phenomenon in the concluding volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth
century, was devoutly cherished by the Latin crusaders, and is annually
repeated by the clergy of the Greek, Armenian, and Coptic sects, who impose on
the credulous spectators for their own benefit and that of their tyrants.[14]
Some Greeks have been critical of the Holy
Fire, such as Adamantios Korais who condemned
what he considered to be religious fraud in his treatise "On the Holy
Light of Jerusalem." He referred to the event as "machinations of
fraudulent priests" and to the "unholy" light of
In 2005 in a live demonstration on Greek
television,
If phosphorus is dissolved in an appropriate
organic solvent, self-ignition is delayed until the solvent has almost
completely evaporated. Repeated experiments showed that the ignition can be
delayed for half an hour or more, depending on the density of the solution and
the solvent employed.
Kalopoulos
also points out that chemical reactions of this nature were well known in
ancient times, quoting Strabo, who states "In Babylon there are two kinds
of naphtha springs, a white and a black. The white naphtha is the one that
ignites with fire." (Strabon Geographica16.1.15.1-24) He further states
that phosphorus was used by Chaldean magicians in the early fifth century
BC, and by the ancient Greeks, in a way similar to its supposed use today by
the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.[15]
Russian skeptic Igor Dobrokhotov has analysed the evidence for an alleged miracle at length at
his website, including the ancient sources[16] and contemporary photos and videos.[17] He has also reproduced fire-bathing
and has uncovered contradictions in the story of the "column split by
lightning."
Dobrokhotov
and other critics, including Russian Orthodox researcher Nikolay
Uspensky,[18] Dr. Aleksandr
Musin of Sorbonne, and some Old Believers quote excerpts from the diaries
of Bishop Porphyrius (Uspensky)
(1804-1885)[19] which told that the clergy in
Jerusalem knew that the Holy Fire was fraudulent.
Porphyrius
was a Russian Orthodox archimandrite who was sent on the official
Church-related research mission to
Homework: please paste your answers
to each of the questions in a blank sheet. Then read them and make your own
objective conclusion.
Blessings
in the Eucharistic Heart of the Holy Family of the Holy Trinity,
Prof.