XIV. Jesus is laid in the Sepulchre

Joseph of Arimathea, having taken the body of Jesus down from the Cross, ““ wrapped Him in fine linen, and laid Him in a sepulchre that was hewed in stone, wherein never yet any man had been laid.”’

St Paul says that Christ was “in all things to be made like unto His brethren’’; even in His burial, Jesus is one of us. They bound the body of Jesus, says St John, “in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”’ But the body of Jesus, united to the Word, was not “to suffer corruption.”” He was to remain scarcely three days in the tomb; by His own power, Jesus was to come forth victorious over death, resplendent with life and glory, and death was no more to “have dominion over Him.”

The Apostle St Paul tells us again that “we are buried together with Him by baptism ”’ so that we may die to sin: Consepultt enim sumus cum illo per bapticmum im mortem. The waters of baptism are like a sepulchre where we have left sin behind, and whence we come forth, animated by a new life, the life of grace. The sacramental virtue of our baptism ever endures. In uniting ourselves by faith and love to Christ laid in the tomb, we renew this grace of dying to sin in order to live only for God.

Lord Jesus, may I bury in Your tomb all my sins, all my failings, all my infidelities ; by the virtue of Your Death and Burial, give me grace to renounce more and more all that separates me from You; to renounce Satan, the world’s maxims, my self-love. By the virtue of Your Resurrection grant that, like You, I may no longer live save for the glory of Your Father! AMEN.