He is Risen - and so are we!

On that fateful Friday evening a small group of his loyal friends and family had lovingly prepared the Body of the Lord for burial. They had scarcely time to mourn over him, the Sabbath rest was beginning and the work of burial had to be done quickly. They placed his lifeless body in the tomb and rolled a large stone in place over the opening, sealing the Lord of Life inside – he was dead now and with him so much of the joy and beauty of life had died too. It doesn’t get more final than that. That tombstone, like every tombstone seemed to be so final.

But this tombstone was different in one important way, because it would not long serve to mark the spot were death had its ultimate victory. Our tombstones mark the final resting place of the mortal remains of our loved ones and indeed of ourselves in our turn. His tombstone, rolled away on Easter Morning, bears witness to Christ’s great and final victory over death. His open and empty tomb is the first of many open graves, for he rose from the dead to prove that he had the power to keep his promise: that those who believe in him would not be held in death, would not be defeated forever, but that their tombs would open and that their bodies would rise too on the last day to new and glorious life.

This great feast day is the greatest feast day we have in our faith, and it is our feast day, the day when Christ’s promise to each of us, and to each and every one we love and have mourned for, is placed before us. He promises life to us – because he is the victorious Lord of life whom death could not hold and death will not hold those who belong to him. And that is our great hope for our loved ones and indeed for ourselves.

Unlike the tombstones we place over the graves of our loved ones – Jesus’ tombstone had nothing written on it. His grave was the beginning of something new, a page of history not yet written. Until that day – death was final, death was the end of all life, all hopes, all dreams and all mankind. But now we inscribe the gravestones of our dead with signs of life eternal. With the Cross as the tree of eternal life, with prayers that the departed soul may rest in peace, and with sentiments that long for the Resurrection of the Dead on the last day. Indeed the prayer of blessing at the burial speaks well of how the Christ has changed the very meaning of death and the grave:

Lord Jesus Christ, by your own 3 days in the tomb you hallowed the graves of all who believe in you and so made the grave a sign of Hope that promises Resurrection even as it claims our mortal bodies.

Grant that our brothers and sisters may sleep here in peace until you awaken them to glory, for you are the Resurrection and the life.

Because of his Resurrection and his promise to let us share the same destiny – death is not disaster to the eyes of the believer. Yes it can be hard, yes it can leave us in great distress, but it cannot break the back of those who believe, because it is precisely the belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is the backbone of our faith. He is Risen Alleluia – and all our hope is that we will rise with him too – for without that – how difficult this life would be. As the Hymn of the Easter Exsultet – sung at the Easter Vigil puts it: What good would life have been to us if Christ had not come as our Redeemer?

The Way of the Cross - 14th Station

JESUS’ BODY IS LAID IN THE TOMB

John 19: 40-42
They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Romans 6: 3-6
All of us when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his; realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.


Though the burial is done with haste and lacked the time necessary, the carefully and lovingly prepared body of Jesus is placed in a new tomb. A stone is rolled into place and darkness fall. The Passover has begun and the proper burial rites will have to wait a few days. Death seems to have won the day. His body sealed up in the bowels of the earth, Jesus’ tomb proclaims to the world that death has the final say, that evil has triumphed over good, that all is vanity and the life of man, any man, is futile and ultimately dissolves into nothingness. A few years and who would remember the carpenter from Galilee who ruffled a few too many feathers among those who mattered and paid the ultimate price for it. Until that day, every tomb that had been ever used told a similar tale of woe for mankind.

But this tomb was new, no one had ever been buried in it and certainly no-one like Jesus had ever been buried in any tomb before. The tomb which mocks man and puts an end to his hopes and aspirations, would become a symbol which would put new heart into him. As the Cross, that horrible instrument, a symbol of torture and death was to become the symbol of healing and life, so too in Jesus the tomb was to become a symbol of life. For though on Good Friday the tomb of Jesus seemed to proclaim the end, on Sunday morning that same tomb proclaims the beginning of new life, the conquest of sin and death. Death where is your victory, death where is your sting? For Easter Morning will deny you your ability to boast and taunt mankind.

Lord, help us to face death when it comes to us with great faith and trust. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life and so we submit ourselves to your holy will regarding our own time to depart this life. Give us the grace to be ready and we ask that you allow your Mother to prepare us well for that day, she whom we have countless times asked to pray for us at the hour of our death.

The Way of the Cross - 13th Station

JESUS’ BODY IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

Luke 23: 50-53
And now a member of the Council arrived, a good and upright man named Joseph. He had not consented to what the others had planned and carried out. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and he lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He then took it down, wrapped it in a shroud and put it in a tomb which was hewn in stone.

Luke 2:7
And she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.


Mary receives the life-less body of her precious Son from the Cross. Her heart on fire with joy she had received him from the Father’s hands, full of life, and she had wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Now her heart pierced through with bitter sorrow she must hand him back to the Father, life-less, and once again she wraps him in clothes, this time a burial shroud. Who can say what anguish filled her soul. Her Son the Redeemer has given every last drop of blood in his body as a sign of the extremes of love and extremes of suffering that the Father’s will has brought him to. She has no more tears left to give, all have been poured out in the preceding hours; signs of her co-operation in her Son’s work of Salvation, of the great sorrowful suffering which she offered in union with her Lord. And with great faith she renews now her yes: “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done according to your will.” She grieved her Son, but she grieved as one with hope, and no-one ever grieved as faithfully and filled with hope as she did. All according to your will Lord, according to your will.

We pray for all those who mourn the death of one they love, that they may not grieve without hope. Lord give them the strength to endure this bitter trial and give them the gifts of faith and hope, that even amid the darkness of death they may persevere in their expectation of the light of Resurrection.