By Marina Spanos
HellasFrappe Editor
The "Miracle" of the Holy Light of Jerusalem, is a recurring 'miracle' that happens each year with clock work precision, in the Holy Church of the Resurrection otherwise known as the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to the delight of a large congregation of Christians of the Orthodox Church. Many pilgrims travel to Jerusalem repeatedly for the occasion.
The 'Miracle' takes place on Saturday no on preceding Easter Sunday. The substance of the 'miracle' is the appearance of a supernatural fire in a tomb, thoroughly searched and secured beforehand to exclude any source of fire by Israeli authorities. The 'Miracle' is a privleage of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, who is ceremoniously searched and then stripped before entering the tomb.
The searches are witnessed by representatives of other Orthodox Churches, especially of the Armenian Church, who also have certain traditional rights in the specific Church, as well as representatives of local authorities, and officials from the Jerusalem police.
The patriarch enters the tomb and apparently prays and then he makes his way to the second part of the tomb and a little while later appears with the miraculous light, to the ecstasy of the attending crowd of thousands. At the same time, fire is reported to appear lighting the candles in and out of the Church spontaneously. Wax torches held by the pilgrims are also sporadically seen to be lighted by "divine" intervention.
In fact blue-white lightning is reported to sometimes appear and travel through the air. The miraculous fire lighting the patriarchs' candle has been reported to be different from normal fire, in that a hand placed in the flame is not burned (at least the hands of the believers, and only for the first 33 minutes after the miracle).
The Holy Light is brought back to Greece with a special flight and greeted with honors normally reserved for Foreign Heads of State, after all it is the most revered 'miracle' of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Special flights are used to distribute the Holy Light throughout Greece, so it is made available late Saturday night during the Mass of the Resurrection in many Churches.
Following the customary "Christos Anesi" (Christ has Risen) at midnight, believers return this light to their homes and burn a cross on their front door beams, thus preserving the mark of the Holy Light throughout the year .Then they take the Holy Light to the family altar make the sign of the cross and light a candle which they allow to burn all night.
Science cannot explain this great miracle and skeptics say that it is unthinkable to see such neolithic superstitions reign in the land that gave birth to philosophy and the sciences. Indeed, the call of the Ancient Greeks was: "Remember to Doubt!" (*Memniso Apistein, a quote of Epicharmus mentioned by Lucianus in Hermotimus). Such scepticism can never coexist with "believeth all things" (1 Corinthians 13.7) of the Christian dogma.
Our opinion, however, here at hellasfrappe is simple. Miracles do not involve lots of hocus pocus magic that we sometimes view on our television screens, and do not necessarily occur in times when we are the most troubled. Miracles are real.. and they are all around us. The small things we ignore and that occur everyday in our lives are the real miracles.
- The fact you can smile is a miracle.
- The fact that you can see is a miracle.
- The fact that you will have food on your table tonight is a miracle.
- The fact that you have love/ed is a miracle.
- Take a good look around you...This earth is the real miracle.
When a woman gives birth and then holds that baby in her arms is a miracle because that child is a sure sign that a Supernatural force exists. Whether we call this force God Allah, Buddha or Zeus... does not really make a difference it is still a power that we as humans are not in any position to explain.
The point is to grasp the meaning behind the Miracle of the Holy Light and what it actually represents. For believers and non believers the symbolism is one in the same. Humility, forgiveness and undying love: three simple words that if adopted by all the nations of the world would resolve all the problems we face on this planet in just one second. (such as poverty, famine and war).
And for Orthodox Christians it has an even more profound meaning...
To quote from a related religious site:
"The Holy Light symbolizes and recalls in a miraculous manner the Resurrection of Christ. It is a god sent miracle through the centuries, from the Light which is Jesus Christ to the world".
That is what we as a society should absorb tonight ... But a little mageritsa would not hurt either...
Kali Anastasi To Everyone
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