Day 32 – Jesus Dies, the Word is Silenced
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew:
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. (Matthew 26:57-61)
From Pope Saint John Paul II’s Address in Turin May 24, 1998:
The Shroud is also an image of powerlessness: the powerlessness of death, in which the ultimate consequence of the mystery of the Incarnation is revealed. The burial cloth spurs us to measure ourselves against the most troubling aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation, which is also the one that shows with how much truth God truly became man, taking on our condition in all things, except sin. Everyone is shaken by the thought that not even the Son of God withstood the power of death, but we are all moved at the thought that he so shared our human condition as willingly to subject himself to the total powerlessness of the moment when life is spent. It is the experience of Holy Saturday, an important stage on Jesus’ path to Glory, from which a ray of light shines on the sorrow and death of every person. By reminding us of Christ’s victory, faith gives us the certainty that the grave is not the ultimate goal of existence. God calls us to resurrection and immortal life.
The Shroud is an image of silence. There is a tragic silence of incommunicability, which finds its greatest expression in death, and there is the silence of fruitfulness, which belongs to whoever refrains from being heard outwardly in order to delve to the roots of truth and life. The Shroud expresses not only the silence of death but also the courageous and fruitful silence of triumph over the transitory, through total immersion in God’s eternal present. It thus offers a moving confirmation of the fact that the merciful omnipotence of our God is not restrained by any power of evil, but knows instead how to make the very power of evil contribute to good. Our age needs to rediscover the fruitfulness of silence, in order to overcome the dissipation of sounds, images and chatter that too often prevent the voice of God from being heard.
Reflection:
Like all of us, Jesus ended as He began: helpless, powerless, and silent. This was His victory. He never fled from the limitations of our humanity, from His first moment in Mary’s womb to His last breath on the Cross, He lived our humanity to its extremes. He drank the full cup of our humanity all the way to the dregs. As Saint John Paul II reminds us, this comforts us in knowing that we are never alone when we experience the weakness and powerlessness that is a part of being human. We are never abandoned by the One who can share it with us and so also carry us through it. And just as Jesus was accompanied in His weakest moments by Mary His Mother, He gives her to us to accompany us in the same way. When we feel most weak and poor, we can know that we are safely enclosed in the womb of Mary who always loves us and cares for us.
Litany of the Powerlessness of Jesus
Litany of Christ Living in the Womb of Mary
Prayer of St Thomas Aquinas before Holy Communion
Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary