The Mystery of Christ
The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience

by Father Thomas Keating

Chapter 2 Part X

The Easter-Ascension Mystery

The Burial

     It was now around midday, and darkness came over the whole land until midafternoon. . .Jesus uttered a loud cry and said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." After he said this, he expired.
    The centurion, upon seeing what had happened, gave glory to God by saying, "Surely this was an innocent man." After the crowd assembled for this spectacle witnessed what had happened, they returned beating their breasts. All his friends and the women who had accompanied him from Galilee were standing at a distance watching everything.
    There was a man named Joseph. . .from Arimathea. . .and he looked expectantly for the reign of God. This man approached Pilate with a request for Jesus' body. He took it down, wrapped it in fine linen, and laid it in a tomb hewn out of rock, in which no one had yet been buried.
    That was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed along behind. They saw the tomb and how his body was buried. Then they went back home to prepare spices and perfumes. they observed the Sabbath as a day of rest, in accordance with the Law. [Luke 23:44 - 56]
From the Gospel of Passion Sunday

    Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath. His body was taken down in a hurry and laid in the tomb. The Sabbath commemorates the seventh day of creation, the day God rested from all his works. In honor of creation and at God's express command, the Jewish people observed the Sabbath as a day of complete rest. But its most profound meaning is contained this particular Sabbath in which, having laid down his life for the human family, Jesus, the Son of God, rested.

    Out of respect of the death of the Redeemer, there is no liturgical celebration on Holy Saturday. In honor of Jesus' body resting in the tomb, the church also rests. There is nothing more to be said, nothing more to be done. On this day everything rests.

    In the Hebrew cosmology of the time, the souls of the just after death were thought to descend through the waters of the Great Abyss to a place of rest called Sheol, where they awaited their deliverance at the time of the Messiah. Accordingly, when Jesus died on Good Friday, his soul was believed by the first Christians to have passed through the waters of the Great Abyss to the place of Sheol, where he released the souls of the just. In Matthew's Gospel it is recorded that "After Jesus' resurrection they came forth from their tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many." [Matt. 27:52 - 53]

    In the Old Testament, water is often the symbol of destruction. Water destroyed the wicked at the time of Noah. Water destroyed the Egyptians in the Red Sea when they tried to pursue the Israelites. At the same time, water also appears in the Old Testament as the symbol of life. In the Book of Genesis we read that the Spirit breathed over the waters of primeval chaos and they brought forth living creatures.

    As Jesus' soul descended through the waters of the Great Abyss, the sins of the world which he was bearing were completely destroyed. In the ceremonies of baptism, we ritually descend into the waters of the Great Abyss together with Jesus, identifying with his holiness as he identified with our sinfulness. All our sins are destroyed in the waters of baptism. The one who emerges from the baptismal pool after being submerged in it joins Jesus in his ascent out of Sheol into the New Creation. The resurrection of Jesus is not the resuscitation of a corpse or the mere vindication of a just man. It is totally a new way of being. As Jesus' soul is reunited with his glorified body--baked, so to speak, in the limitless energy of the Spirit--he moves triumphantly into the heart of all creation. God's answer to Jesus' double-bind is to bestow upon him complete and unlimited participation in the Father's glory.

    Creation is totally new in the light of the resurrection. The Sabbath belongs to the old world of sin that has passed away in the destruction of Christ's body on the cross. The New Creation, the eighth day, the day after the Sabbath, is the first day of eternal life in union with Christ, a day that will never end.

    This new life is the significance of Jesus' death, his descent into Sheol and his resting in the tomb. The revelation of the enormous energy of the New Creation awaits the moment of his resurrection. God's first creative word, "Let there be light!" [Gen. 1:3] becomes, "Let there be life!"

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Mystery of Christ by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.