The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 89: Jesus Christ Was Buried (2024)

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

When he was crucified, Jesus experienced a real human death, the separation of his soul from his body. Because of his divinity, though, Jesus’ body did not see corruption, and his body and soul were reunited in the Resurrection. The risen Christ is the meeting point of death and life. We learn that as Christians, in Baptism, we die to sin, are buried with Christ, and then in him, we rise to new life. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraph 624-630. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 89, we're reading paragraphs 624 to 630. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with

any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y and also you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications As I said, it is day 89. We're reading paragraphs 624 to 630 this section today. It's an entire section You know, we talked about in the last couple days how Christ's trial the fact that he was crucified that he offered himself Really yesterday we talked about how Christ was a sacrifice his whole life is an offering to the Father.

And how his sacrifice substitutes our disobedience with his obedience. And we get to participate in his sacrifice. All these things are so powerful. The next note, the next thing to note is that Jesus actually died. And I don't know if you've ever thought about that. The fact that, okay, wait,

what is it to say that Jesus died? Because here's here's Jesus who again remember he was sinless He did not experience original sin and one of the consequences of original sin is death and yet so he didn't need to experience death But because he united himself so fully to us because he loves us so fully He not only entered into suffering not only entered into near death, he actually entered into death with a couple notable exceptions. One is the resurrection, obviously. He already experiences the resurrection. The second is that even when Jesus had died, you know, death is the separation of body and soul. That's maybe what you can just,

one way to define death is separation of body and soul. When Jesus experienced death, when he entered into death, he, yes, separation of body and soul, but he still remained, he retained possession of his body and he retained possession of his soul. If that makes any sense to you, it is one of those mysteries. Again, God did not have to experience death. He willed to experience death so as to enter into the depths of

What we experience and tomorrow we'll talk about how he descended into hell like what is that? But today we get to note this incredible Love of God not only offering himself as a sacrifice but going so far as to Hold on to that union with humanity, even in death. He didn't have to do that. Well, he didn't have to do any of this,

but it's worth pausing for a moment and just saying, gosh, Lord, thank you. You did not have to do any of this, but you did this out of love for me and out of obedience to the Father. And so as we start this day, let's say a prayer. Jesus Christ, you are the Redeemer, you're the Savior of the world.

You are the offering for sin, and you are the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To accomplish your Father's plan, you allowed death to overwhelm you. To accomplish the Father's plan, you entered into death. You descended to hell. To accomplish the Father's plan, you rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

To accomplish the Father's plan, you sent the Holy Spirit into our lives. Lord God, we thank you and praise you. We just give you every good gift because you are the giver of every good gift. We give you all praise, all glory belongs to you. All of our hearts belong to you. All of our love goes to you.

Help us to love you the way you deserve. In your holy name, Jesus, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. As we said many times, this is day 89, reading paragraphs 624 to 630. Paragraph 3. Jesus Christ was buried. By the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for everyone. In His plan of salvation, God ordained that His Son should not only die for our sins, but should also taste death, experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was raised

from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ lying in the tomb reveals God's great Sabbath rest after the fulfillment of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe. Christ in the tomb in his body. Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passable state before Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the living one can say, I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

As St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, God the Son did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the resurrection, so that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts. Since the author of life who was killed is the same living one who has risen, the divine person of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human soul and body separated from each other by death. As Saint John Damascene wrote,

By the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one person is not itself divided into two persons. note, by the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one person is not itself divided into two persons, for the human body and soul of Christ have existed in the same way from the beginning of his earthly existence in the divine person of the Word, and in death, although separated from each other, both remained with one and the same person of the Word. You will not let your Holy One see corruption. Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to His earthly human existence.

But because of the union which the Person of the Son retained with His body, His was not a mortal corpse like others. For it was not possible for death to hold Him, and therefore divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption. Both of these statements can be said of Christ, He was cut off out of the land of the living and, My flesh will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon My soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption. Jesus' resurrection on the third day was the sign of this also, because bodily decay

was held to begin on the fourth day after death. Buried with Christ Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life. As St. Paul wrote, We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.

In brief, to the benefit of every man, Jesus Christ tasted death. It is truly the Son of God made man who died and was buried. During Christ's period in the tomb, His Divine Person continued to assume both His soul and His body, although they were separated from each other by death. For this reason, the dead Christ's body saw no corruption." Okay, there we have it. It's kind of a short little section today, but powerful and again something that maybe many of us have never really considered. What is it to say that Jesus has died? So, recap, let's go back to this. I love this in paragraph 624. Not only does it say, by the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for everyone, right? In his plan of

salvation, God ordained that his son should not only die for our sins, but also taste death, experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body. And that's remarkable. But there's this mystery of Holy Saturday. The way they say it here in the catechism is poetic and beautiful and powerful. It says, paragraph 624, it is the mystery of Holy Saturday when Christ lying in the tomb reveals God's great Sabbath rests after the fulfillment of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe. Remember that the Sabbath is Saturday. And so here is, you know, at the end of six days

of work, God rests on the Sabbath. But this new great work of God, this new great work of salvation, God rests on the Sabbath, right? He descends into hell on the Sabbath. I just love how they say this. It reveals God's great Sabbath rest, which of course is a reference to the book of Hebrews chapter four verses seven through nine, but it just reminds us all, reminds me right now that what God is doing is not random, right? It's not arbitrary, it's so fitting, and it's so intentional,

and it's just an incredible sign, not only of God's love for us, but of his incredible wisdom. Now going on we highlighted the fact that what is death? Death is separation of body and soul and Christ, his death was a real death where his body and soul were separated. At the same time it is unique in that because the divine person of the word, the second person of the trinity, his soul and body separated and yet he possessed both. And this is important person of the word right the second person of the Trinity his soul and body is separated and yet he possessed both and this is important because of the promises of the Old Testament and will not only because it's

true but also because of the promises the Old Testament you will not let your Holy One see corruption and so because the divine person retained both his soul and his body even though they were separated because of that it was soul and body were preserved from corruption. Another thing to note in paragraph 627 is Jesus' resurrection on the third day with a sign of this also that he wouldn't see corruption because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death. Now, what is that?

Remember in John's Gospel, chapter 11, you have the story of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, and he had been dead for four days. And so that's why I think it's Martha, or maybe it's Mary. One of the sisters says to Jesus when he says, roll back the stone, Lord, he's been dead for four days. There'll be a stench because again, corruption was said to set in on day four.

Jesus rose from the dead after the third day, on the third day. And so that recognition of another way in which Jesus not only fulfills what he noted about three days later, I'll rise from the dead, not only the ways Jesus fulfills the story of Jonah in the whale, right, if he's in the belly of the whale for three days and the Son of Man was in the earth for three days, but Jesus also fulfills this promise that you will not let your Holy One

see corruption. That I love this, it's the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, which actually is a quote from Psalm 16, where it notes, my flesh will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption. Again, that's Acts the Apostles, chapter two, quoting Psalm 16. And this is the promise of God that has been fulfilled. Now the last thing here, the last paragraph, paragraph 628, highlights baptism. And you might not think, okay, wait a second. So we're talking about Jesus' death.

Why would we talk about baptism? Well, because baptism, the original, it says in paragraph 628, the original and full sign of which is immersion Efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb of which the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life You know that the idea is that you're you know, essentially dunked immersion right into water that three times That would be a sign of like here's Christ's descent into the earth for three days And that would be a reminder

now when we just have now our baptism which is fine where you pour water over the person's head that's it's beautiful it's still efficacious it's still powerful still does what it needs to do but the sign value of going down beneath the waters has always pointed the Christian to the reality that here is Jesus who descended into death and we, when we are baptized, we descend into his death too. We enter into his death who has to rise to new life with him. Now, tomorrow, what is it to say

that Jesus descended into hell? We'll talk about that tomorrow, because it's from, if you haven't ever asked the question, what does it mean to say Jesus died? You might not have asked the question. What does it mean to say that Jesus descended into hell? We say this every time we pray the apostles creed. What is that?

Well, you're in luck because day 90 is tomorrow and day 90 is the day that we're going to dive deeply into what it means to descend into hell. But today, today we just pray about the reality that Jesus did. He'll allow it. His, he entered into death to be one with us. He entered into death to save us from death. He entered into death to conquer death. At the same time, he did this as the divine person he is.

So he retained his body and his soul. He did not see corruption because God is faithful to his promises. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.