Pat Archbold has a interesting take on the shoulder injury story that appeared in yesterday’s Vatican Insider. It appears in his blog space in the National Catholic Register.
Centuries ago, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in ecstasy asked Jesus which was His greatest unrecorded suffering and the wound that inflicted the most pain on Him in Calvary and Jesus answered:
"I had on My Shoulder, while I bore My Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous Wound which was more painful than the others and which is not recorded by men. Honor this Wound with thy devotion and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit and in regard to all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins."
Read the whole posting.
The bruised shoulder had been noted before, but the extent of the bruise and its relationship to saintly revelations has not been discussed. That’s the intriguing part of the story. Also, it goes much deeper into other conditions that I do not recall having been extensively analyzed.
Here’s what Bucklin had to say in http://www.shroud.com/bucklin.htm
“An interesting finding is noted over the shoulder blade area on the right and left sides. This consists of an abrasion or denuding of the skin surfaces, consistent with a heavy object, like a beam. Resting over the shoulder blades and producing a rubbing effect on the skin surfaces.”