624
"By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for everyone".459 (Heb 2:9. ) In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not
only "die for our sins"460 (I Cor 15:3. ) 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,461 (Cf. ⇒ Jn 19:42. ) reveals God's great sabbath rest 462 (Cf. ⇒ Heb 4:7-9.) after the fulfilment463 (Cf. ⇒ Jn 19:30. ) of man's
salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe. 464 (Cf ⇒ Col 1: 18-20. )
Christ
in the tomb in his body
625
Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible 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 for
evermore":465
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.466
626
Since the "Author of life" who was killed 467 (Acts 3:15. ) is the same "living
one [who has] risen",468 (Lk 24:5-6. ) The divine person of the Son of God necessarily
continued to possess his human soul and body, separated from each other by
death:
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 has 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.469
"You
will not let your Holy One see corruption"
627
Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human
existence. But because of the union his body retained with the person of the
Son, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for "divine power preserved
Christ's body from corruption."470 (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, 51, 3.
) Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of the living",471 (Is 53:8. ) and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption."472 (Acts 2:26-27; cf. ⇒ Ps 16:9-10. ) Jesus' Resurrection "on the third day" was the proof of this, for bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.473 (Cf. ⇒ I Cor 15:4; ⇒ Lk 24:46; ⇒ Mt 12:40; ⇒ Jon 2:1; ⇒ Hos 6:2; cf. ⇒ Jn 11:39. )
) Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of the living",471 (Is 53:8. ) and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption."472 (Acts 2:26-27; cf. ⇒ Ps 16:9-10. ) Jesus' Resurrection "on the third day" was the proof of this, for bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.473 (Cf. ⇒ I Cor 15:4; ⇒ Lk 24:46; ⇒ Mt 12:40; ⇒ Jon 2:1; ⇒ Hos 6:2; cf. ⇒ Jn 11:39. )
"Buried
with Christ. . ."
628
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. "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 newness of life."474
IN
BRIEF
629
To the benefit of every man, Jesus Christ tasted death (cf ⇒ Heb 2:9). It is truly
the Son of God made man who died and was buried.
630
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" (⇒ Acts 13:37).
Copyright © 2020 by Ekklesia Katholos (9:31)
CHAPTER TWO
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.
No comments:
Post a Comment