If I can find my notes I’ll post them here.
The Entombing of our Lord
Filled with grief, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas took the lifeless body of Jesus from the arms of His mother to prepare it for burial. The Body was given to Joseph because of the Jewish Law. (Deut. 21:22-23) The new, never before used tomb was opened and the body reverently placed in it. As Christ said “the Son of Man has no place to lay His head“, this applies even in his death, for the tomb was not His, for the tomb belonged to Joseph’s family. The entrance was closed with a large stone being rolled in front of it. All that now remains now is the empty Cross and the closed tomb!
What is the significance of the burial? It is somber proof that Christ has really died. His human soul has separated from His human body, but yet His Divinity remained united to both His Body and His soul, known as the “Hypostatic Union“ of His human and divine natures. We know where His Body was laid. This was to fulfill the Prophet Jonah, and what Christ Himself said in Matthew 12:40. “The Son of Man” refers to His human nature, The Son of God refers to His Divine nature.
I now ask where was His soul?
The soul of Christ went down into Limbo, “The Limbo of the Fathers” St. Luke referred to it as “Abraham’s Bosom”. It is Catholic doctrine that only those who receive the Grace of Baptism can enter Heaven. So those who died before the Redemption went to this place to await entrance into Heaven.
“He went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19) We hear in the creed the words “Christ descended into Hell” This was not “Gehenna” the Hell of the lost, but “Hades”. While His body lay in the grave He passed into this unseen world. He gathered around Him the souls of the righteous ones, from Able onwards, those who had held the Faith from the beginning of the world. Let’s look at the description of this in Luke 16:19-31. He took these souls to rest in paradise along with the “Good Thief” until the Resurrection and the Ascension when He would open the gates of Heaven for them.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem says “”He (Christ) was laid truly as man in a tomb of rock… He descended to the regions beneath the earth, that from thence also He might redeem the Just… and that those who from Adam had been imprisoned a long while should now obtain deliverance.” This was the reason the Gospel “was preached even to the dead,…” (1 Peter 4:6) Can you picture the joy of those souls, their hour of deliverance is at hand. Can we picture ourselves being buried in our grave and Possibly waiting in Purgatory and then experiencing our deliverance from waiting into the glory of Heaven. Our bodies will also be placed in the grave separated from our souls from the moment of death until the General Resurrection. When Body and soul will be reunited in Eternal Life. At death when God judges us, His judgments ARE irrevocable and we will know that immediately after death your souls and mine will be judged and their destiny will be sealed, irrevocably, for all Eternity. We will either be on our way to Heaven, with a likely stop in purgatory, or on our way to Hell. The absoluteness of this being symbolized by the empty Cross and closed tomb. It is recorded in the books of the Maccabees that many were willing to face tortures and death rather than apostatize, because of their belief in an Eternal blessedness. It is a “godly and righteous thing to pray for the dead, and to offer sacrifices for their pardon and peace.” (2 Macc. 12:41-45) Those who are in a state of imperfect blessedness can be helped by the prayers of those still here earth that loved them.
Holy Saturday Individual Reflections
After spending a few minutes reflecting on the presentation meet with your sponsor as you did with the other reflections.
Read Matthew 27:57-66 (Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56, John 19:38-42)
Try to understand the emptiness, the sense of loss of direction and fear that the Apostles had from the arrest in the garden to the closing of the tomb.
Reflect on the empty Cross and the closed tomb. What do they mean to you?
Are you next will they come to find you and accuse you of being with Him, and do the same to you?
Are you willing to take up your Cross and follow in the footsteps of Christ?
To die the same death He did to “drink of the same cup”?
What did the Apostles and disciples do?
What do you do in times of crises?
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i feel so depressed, so alone, so trapped. i’d like to attribute this to satan but thats too simple an explanantion. i tried to talk to my sponsor but i couldnt quite convey my terror. i dont know where else to turn to.
