A Living Crucifix

In chapter 6 of Galatians as Paul is about to close the letter, he makes a peculiar and very interesting declaration. In this declaration, he emphasizes something he wants the readers in Galatia to remember about himself; something they have indeed already seen about Paul. Paul is emphatic in his point:

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. … From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”[1]

This is a very curious passage. What on earth does it mean, to “bear in your body the marks” of Jesus?

Within the Greek, the specific word-for-word translation of the last part of this sentence is,

“… ego bastazo en mou soma stigma kurios Iesous.”

This sentence translated word-for-word into English is,

“… I bear in my body [the] marks [of the] Lord Jesus.”

The word stigma appears only once within the entire New Testament and is used only by Paul to denote a very specific kind of “sign” or “mark”—a religious mark, in fact.[2]

In the Greek language, the true and full meaning of stigma is so much more than a mere “mark” or brand—it has a deep religious and spiritual meaning and significance as well. Galatia’s spiritual father is in actuality issuing a stern warning to the churches, admonishing them,

“Leave me alone! Don’t mess with me; I have the religious brands, the wounds (cuts), the bodily imprints of Jesus Christ himself, upon me!” [3]

If we take Paul’s commentary in the Greek language at face value and also take into account the mimicking of Christ that was apparent within the ministry of his singular gospel message, it becomes well apparent that the “illness” Paul had while he was in the company of the people of Galatia was indeed a supernatural condition known as “stigmata”.

Stigmata are a very real condition where the “wounds of Christ” which Jesus received during his crucifixion supernaturally appear, to varying degrees, on the “stigmatic” or “victim”. In essence, mysterious deep wounds appear in the palms/wrists, feet/legs, side, and/or on the brow of the victim. The wounds are real and they bleed just like any other wound and they heal very slowly, if at all.

In Roman Catholic circles, this condition has historically been considered to be a form of high blessing as one is physically, not just emotionally or spiritually, sharing in the suffering tortures of Christ, as well as sharing in what is believed to be the redemptive nature of Christ.

In his book, They Bore the Wounds of Christ: The Mystery of the Sacred Stigmata, Catholic author Michael Freze states:

Paul responds literally to the words of our Lord to take up His cross and follow Him if he is to remain a true disciple. Because he [Paul] offers himself up voluntarily and unconditionally to atone for sinners, he becomes one specially marked by God to be His victim for others—to help Jesus carry His unending Cross for humanity: ‘Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church’ (Col 1:24). Paul puts ‘on the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom 13:140, ‘conquering evil with good’ (Rom 12:21), and does so out of love and compassion for sinners everywhere:

 

Even if I am to be poured as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all (Phil 2:17).

 

I appeal to you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1).

 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake… (Col 1:24).

Freze also notes,

In general, those who sacrifice themselves for the sake of sinners are called victim souls. These souls help atone for our sin in union with Christ. … They are free to reject the role of victim, because God wants the consent of His chosen ones first before He assigns them to this supernatural task. … Once the soul consents, however, God is free to do whatever He wills with the person who will be His redemptive helper … usually, however, the chosen ones freely offer their sufferings up to God with the specific intention of making atonement or expiation for their own sin, or for the sins of others. … With some of these servants, God answers their prayers and offerings and takes them at their word. In even fewer cases, God sometimes chooses to unite them even more intimately with the Son on the Cross; hence, they become stigmatists—true victims of divine love who offer their lives for the ransom of many.[4]

 

Like many Protestants, I originally had absolutely no idea of what “victim souls” or “co-redemption” or even “stigmata” were. I did not become familiar with this condition until Mel Gibson released his movie, The Passion of the Christ. While I was researching the film to determine if it was something I should view, I discovered an interview in which Gibson talked about an old book that had helped him to create many of the extra-Biblical scenes within the film (scenes that were in the film but not the Gospels). This book, as it turns out, was the main source of Gibson’s inspiration for the movie’s many “additions” to the Biblical account of the crucifixion story.

Gibson recounted the story of how he discovered the source for his inspiration while mulling through his library of old books. He reached up to grab a book off the shelf and suddenly another book, close by the one he was reaching for, literally jumped off the shelf into his hand. That book was The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a composition of the writings of one Anne Catherine Emmerich.

Emmerich was an Augustinian mystic, a Roman Catholic nun who lived from 1774 to 1824 in Germany. Her brief life has been described as being one of poverty, hardship, and terrible suffering. She spent the final years of her life bedridden and in constant pain. During this time, she experienced visionary meditations or “visions” on the passion of Christ. These visions were recorded by the poet Klemens Brentano and published in 1833.[5]

Emmerich’s life was far from being extraordinary simply because of her visions. Emmerich was also a stigmatic. To top Emmerich’s list of supernatural sufferings, she also levitated, many times against her will.[6]

I am not familiar with any part of the Character of God that insists on afflicting His obedient and humble children with any kind of painful wounds, crucifixion wounds or otherwise, so that we might somehow share in the suffering of Jesus Christ. Indeed, one can see the true Character of our heavenly Father within these verses in Matthew where Jesus himself is illustrating the true Character of his God:

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”[7]

Think about it: Which of us can imagine torturing our own children with bleeding wounds that never heal as some kind of “blessing”? True, human suffering is a fact of life, but it is not the Nature nor is it the desire of Almighty God to give his children horrific “gifts” to reward them for their devotion and obedience to Him.

Consider for a moment the untold amounts of pain experienced by these “blessed” stigmatic mystics and consider whether you really think these so-called gifts were from a truly loving God.

In his previously mentioned book, They Bore the Wounds of Christ, Freze describes the well-documented experience of Louise Lateau of Belgium, 1850-83:

“Louise first began to suffer the pains of the Passion on January 3, 1868, and on every following Friday until April 24, when blood began to flow from the upper surface of the feet. On May 8, the hand wounds appeared, thus completing her stigmatization. The pain caused by these wounds became so intense that she was no longer able to attend Mass in the church; instead, Communion had to be brought to her every day in her own home. … According to Dr. Lefebvre, Louise hemorrhaged some 800 times from the wounds of her stigmata, which bled weekly from April 24, 1868, until her death on August 25, 1883. He even reported that on one day the blood flowing from the wounds was about 250 grams. In addition to receiving the Five Sacred Wounds, Louise Lateau experienced the crown of thorn wounds. There were 12 to 15 circular marks around the head that frequently issued forth blood.”[8]

While the Roman Catholic Church continues to officially consider stigmata to be a “gift” or high blessing from God, stigmatic wounds and suffering are clearly not the signs of the truly loving God worshipped by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, these signs are easily the mark of the adversary, Satan. Jesus said that we would know false prophets by their fruits.[9]

Why Isn’t the Catholic Church Preaching More about Paul’s Stigmata?

While historically many Christians within the Roman Catholic Church have observed that it seems quite obvious through the reading of Paul’s letters that Paul could indeed have been the first recorded stigmatic, those in Roman Catholic authority seem to downplay and enigmatically dismiss without further comment this “high blessing” resting upon Paul. Their reaction to Paul being a stigmatic is rather mysterious: If this condition is truly God’s mark upon an individual allowing them to share in the suffering of Christ, if it is such a “high blessing”, why are they so unwilling to admit that this sacred and powerful “blessing” has been bestowed on him?

The online Catholic Encyclopedia, available at NewAdvent.org, acknowledges that the possibility of Paul being a stigmatic has been well known for centuries, yet it offers the following politically correct repudiation regarding the possibility of Paul himself being a stigmatic:

Under any circumstances it is noteworthy that the first recorded instance of stigmata (if we leave out of account the doubtful case of St. Paul) was that of St. Francis of Assisi. Since his time there have been over 320 similar manifestations which have reasonable claims to be considered genuine.[10]

Outside of Paul, the earliest recorded accounts of stigmata began surfacing from Europeans around the early 4th century—about the same time the Roman Catholic Church was finalizing its authoritative list of orthodox books that would become the foundation for our modern Bible. For Roman Catholic Christians in early 300 CE, the term stigma(ta) was indeed well understood, used and applied to denote the mysterious “bleeding wounds (and pain) of Christ” that appeared on the victim. The etymology of the term hasn’t really evolved at all since Paul’s usage of it in c. 50 CE.

Despite the ambiguity of what the Catholic leadership says, many Roman Catholics unofficially but firmly believe that Paul was indeed the very first recorded case of stigmata.

Within his book, Freze interviewed Father Ulrich Veh, O.F.M. Cap., who knew the famous Catholic stigmatist, Therese Neumann, personally. Mr. Freze inquired of Vey,

“You know, St. Paul once said that even though Christ died once and for all for our sins, nevertheless some souls are called to make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for His Church. Do you think it’s possible that St. Paul might have been a stigmatist himself?”

Father Veh replied,

“Oh yes, I do believe that. At the end of the letter to the Galatians, Paul had said that he bore in his body the marks of Christ. You can think otherwise, but Therese Neumann through her ecstasies knew that he was.”

Veh confirms that Neumann saw Paul as a fellow stigmatic within her ecstatic visions.  One might think that such religious evidence of one of its more renowned visionary stigmatists might encourage the Roman Catholic leadership to do an about face in its downplaying of Paul’s stigmaticism. Yet curiously, they have not done so.

In discussing the nature of stigmata, Freze writes,

Our Blessed Lord appears to have rewarded Paul’s intense desire for the Cross by making of him a living crucifix, a victim of love who follows in the footsteps of Christ. Paul himself seems to indicate that he has been given the gift of the stigmata”. (Gal 6:17) If Paul was truly a victim soul, a living stigmatist, then the question must be raised: why Paul and not the Apostles John or James? Why Paul and not John the Baptist or Simeon? This remains a mystery, for God’s ways are not our own.

Freeze continues with his explanation:

… Perhaps it was because Paul was so intimately associated with the Cross of Christ and with His Passion—a choice he freely made—that God rewarded his fidelity with the most precious grace; perhaps it was because he offered himself up voluntarily to be God’s victim for sinners, to help cooperate in the plan of redemption through the Cross of our Lord. More than likely, it was a combination of the two that explains Paul’s extraordinary gift. Besides, how many souls in Sacred Scripture so loved the Cross as Paul? How many would offer themselves as living sacrifices as he did? For Paul and the other victims of God’s love, there is always hope and confidence in the future. They all recognize that the sufferings of this life will one day be no more, and for the sake of the Kingdom they endure, storing up treasure for their heavenly reward.

 

… Although we can never prove if St. Paul bore the Sacred Stigmata, the internal evidence from his own pen seems quite strong and convincing. What else could he possibly mean by ‘I bear on my body the marks of Jesus’ (Gal 6:17)? I must conclude privately that this indeed seems to be the case, although the Church has never formally recognized this to be so. (I didn’t think she’s denied it either, for that matter.) I submit to her judgment if she were to decide otherwise.[11]

There is no doubt at all that Freze has a lot of love and passion for his church! However, it is to a deep fault. Only within the twisted pagan logic of Roman Catholicism’s ghastly dogma—which Protestants have to a large degree abandoned—is the pain, bleeding, and terrible horrific suffering that accompanies the stigmatic condition considered to be a “good gift” and one who receives it to be called a ‘victim of God’s love’. Within this supernatural condition, one is actually physically sharing in the suffering of Christ as Roman Catholics believe, and as Paul himself testifies about himself and his “gospel”.[12]

The orthodox Christian mind typically wants to dismiss the substantial evidence and even tradition surrounding Paul’s stigmatic condition as “loose”, or merely “circumstantial” and therefore totally “unsupportable”. However, bear in mind that the evidence surrounding Paul’s stigmatic condition is substantially more Biblically based than many other foundational doctrines of Christian faith which have substantially even less scriptural support than Paul’s stigmatic condition. Christmas and Easter are never mentioned within the Scriptures as festivals of AHYH, yet millions of Christians celebrate them as if God Himself had commanded them. Peter is said to have died in Rome, crucified upside down on a cross, yet this martyrdom isn’t even “Biblical”; the only evidence for this is the non-canonical (non-Biblical) book called the Acts of Peter. The paying of Indulgences, praying to Mary and other saints … this list of non-Biblical doctrines and beliefs could be easily well expanded.

Stigmata Is NOT of Almighty God

The effects of stigmata wounds are observable, documented and real. They are excruciating as the victim experiences real physical injuries and bleeding of the same types of wounds that Christ Himself experienced while on the cross.

The practice of marking one’s self with wounds in worship of one’s god, stigma, came out of the pagan religions as a means of physically marking one’s flesh by cutting deep gashes that would form scars, piercing the body or carving symbols into one’s flesh. The wounds would heal as large raised scars. It was a means of identifying someone with his or her spiritual god. While stigma can be traced to the Hellenistic (Greek) culture, such marking is a specifically prohibited act within the Law of God:

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am AHEYEH.”[13]

As such, it leads to reason that God would not be “marking” his faithful children with stigma when He Himself had specifically prohibited this action within His own Law, which is a reflection of His own Character.

Were Paul’s marks – his stigmata – really a blessing and sign of heavenly authority, as he claimed? Or were they in reality a punishment sent by God?