31 March 2018
Holy Saturday
After the body of Our Lord was taken down from the cross, it was “bound with burial cloths” by Joseph of Arimathea (Jn 19:40). Ten centuries later, a Greek Orthodox bishop named Theophylactus of Ochrida wrote a reflection on this passage that St. Thomas Aquinas selected for inclusion in his great Catena Aurea.
“Be therefore a Joseph, and cover Christ’s nakedness, and, not once, but continually by contemplation, embalm Him in your spiritual tomb, cover Him, and mix myrrh and bitter aloes; considering that bitterest sentence of all, ‘Depart, you cursed into everlasting fire.’”
Holy Saturday is a good day for us to accept the advice of Theophylactus. Contemplate Christ’s body and soul. The body was lifeless but incorrupt. It was taken down from the cross, anointed, bound and laid in a new tomb in a nearby garden. The soul of Christ descended into hell for the salvation of some of the souls caught there in everlasting fire.
Today is also a good day to remind ourselves of Christ’s promise that at the last judgment he would utter “the bitterest sentence of all” to those on his left: “Depart, you cursed into the everlasting fire” (Matt 25:41).