The Descent of the Holy Fire

 Sixth Tuesday of Easter

Lectionary Texts;

1 Peter 4

1 Peter 5

Last week I talked about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Remember that it is the only church with  six branches of Christianity having a part of it: Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic.

The Church has an annual miracle. That's right. I said an annual miracle. In the middle of the church is a tall (about 25 feet) black structure called the aedicule. it has a door. A priest is always inside. The aedicule stands directly over the tomb of Jesus. 

Every Easter Eve the church us jam packed with Christians of all sorts. Approaching midnight, two large Armenian monks enter the aediule with unlit torches. Excitement mounts. It seems to take a long time. The crowd becomes more and more frenzied. Some become anxious as the seconds, minutes, pass. Then the two monks dramatically burst forth from the door, their torches blazing with flames going high in the air. The crowd is ecstatic. The miracle has happened,

Does a miracle really happen? I'm very skeptical, but I'm not totally ruling it out. I saw a presentation by a very intelligent man a couple of weeks ago who believes it is a real miracle. The aedicule is open to everyone during the day. I've been in it several times. There is no fire source there. Of course, one of the monks could be sneaking in a match, but they are carefully checked out by monks from other branches of Christianity. There are theories. The one that makes most sense to me is that the stones, or one of the stones on the floor of the aedicule has a phosphorus compound that will set the torches alight when they are rubbed on it. Of course the fact that no one other than the torchbearers and a Greek Orthodox priest inside actually see the miracle diminishes credence.

The rivalry among the different traditions of monks is intense. They are assigned sections to stand in beforehand on an annually rotating basis. Sometimes some monks don't follow the prescribed order of standing. Fights break out, including two in the last decade. At times fights have turned into riots. On several occasions there have been fires, including one in the 1840's that killed about 300 people. 

Western observers have tended to be horrified by the superstition of it all or mystified by the overwhelming visible faith of the Christians there.

The Descent of the Holy Fire goes back at least to the 14th century.

It is now, of course, in a recording on U-Tube.

God of Spirit, God of Fire,

Bring us to both greater faith and greater discernment. Bring safety to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during this violent time in Jerusalem. In the name of the Christ of all branches of Christianity,

Faithfully

Christian