Regarded by all Christians as an event engulfed in mistery, The Holy Light that appears at the tomb of Jesus has sparked a lot of controversy during time.

The Orthodox community thinks it is a divine sign from God that makes the Orthodox Church more special than the others, the other churches see it as a sign that Christianity is in the center of God's attention. Seen by many as one of the greatest miracles, because it is repetitive, the Divine Light is an event taking place in Jerusalem. We are trying here to offer a glimpse of this special phenomena.

A Pilgrim's description
The Holy Grave has many altars. Saturday morning all the candles from the Holy Grave and Golgotha had been extinguished. In the Grave there are only some small rays of Sun entering from a small window. There are monks guarding it, because the Church has many relics, the church is closed and all people go to their homes after the Good Friday service, only to return Saturday around 11. At this hour, the army is very helpful, because they select the people coming to the church, separating them by their faith: Catholics, orthodox, Lutherans etc. Each confession has its own special place. The crown then enters the church and 20 bishops enter, all dressed in special garments, and also 400 priests. All of them have 33 candles glued together. Around 12 noon, the Patriarch also comes, bear foot and with nothing on his head, dressed in a large white shirt. The 33 candles are tied together and on them there is the image of the Resurrection of Christ. The Patriarch is searched by the army for matches or other fire starters, in front of all people. Then, he is dressed by bishops. Around 13 hours, the Patriarch pays in 3 languages: "May the Holy Light come to us!". The Patriarch is held by deacons when he falls to his knees and his prayer lasts around half an hour. When the vesper has reached the moment of the chant "Holy Light", a bluish-greenish cloud enters the Church, that blinds you when you look at it. Three lightning strikes got off the cloud, one of them got over the Iconostasis and gently went straight to the Tomb of Christ and when it touched the stone of the Tomb, all the cotton on it was lit and all the candles simply began to burn. Those sitting on the upper balconies were surprised to see their candles were also lit. The Patriarch called the army, who broke the seals and when the gates of the Tomb were opened, inside there were blue-white flames. The Patriarch takes the burning cotton and puts it in a closed iron box with handles and closes it inside. The soldiers take the box and from its holes the faithful light their own candles after the Patriarch addresses them the words : "Come, take light!".

(Description of the events in Jerusalem taken from "The Romanian Pilgrim", translation Lucian Dragos)

Light and Its Meaning
As you might have seen in our description of the icons related to the Resurrection of Christ, the risen body of Christ spreads light around it and has special features, as described in the Gospels.
It is not surprising that the Orthodox Church considers the events in Jerusalem with pious reverence. Over the time and especially after the separation of churches, the miracle of the Holy Light in Jerusalem was used by the Orthodox Churches to sustain their spiritual superiority over the other churches. In fact, the miracle in Jerusalem (if one's ready to accept it as a miracle) is more a responsibility of the Church, not a recognition of a superiority.
During time there were a lot of voices to spoke about fraud, about mass illusion and about other things. For good faith Christians, it is a sign from God, a sign that appears before all kinds of Christians.
The light in the Tomb of Christ in Jerusalem may be the light of the risen Christ. If we believe it is truly a miracle or it is just an unexplainable thing that will be explained in time, it is a personal choice. But maybe this is truly a miracle: people of all faiths gathered around the tomb of the Lord, singing and praising Him for His greatest act: the resurrection of Man.

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto:

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.