6 APRIL – EASTER SATURDAY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The seventh day of the gladdest of weeks has risen upon us, bringing with it the memory of the Creator’s rest after the six days of Creation. It also reminds us of that other rest which this same God took in the tomb; like a warrior, who, when sure of the victory, calmly reposes before the final combat with the enemy. Our Jesus slept His rest in the sepulchre after permitting death to vanquish Him: but when He awoke by His Resurrection, what a victory over the tyrant! Let us today visit this holy sepulchre and venerate it: it will speak to us of Him we love, and make our love the warmer. Here, we will say to ourselves, “here rested our dear Master after He had died for us! Here was the scene of the glorious victory, when He arose again, and this, too, for us!”

The Prophet Isaias had said: “In that day, the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of people, Him will the Gentiles beseech; and his sepulchre will be glorious” (Isaias xi. 10) The prophecy has been fulfilled. There is not a nation under the sun where Jesus has not His adorers. The tombs of other men are either destroyed, or they are monuments of death. The tomb of Jesus is everlasting and speaks but of life. What a sepulchre this, the sight of which fills us with thoughts of glory, and whose praises had been celebrated so many ages beforehand! When the fulness of time came, God raised up in Jerusalem a holy man named Joseph of Arimathea who secretly but sincerely became one of the disciples of Jesus. He was a rich counsellor, or senator. He had prepared his own tomb, and the place he chose was on the side of the hill of Calvary. It was hewn out of the live rock and consisted of two cells, one serving as a sort of entry into the other. Joseph thought he was labouring for himself, whereas he was preparing the sepulchre of a God. He only thought of the debt which every man has to pay in consequence of Adam’s sin, but Heaven had decreed that Joseph should never lie in that tomb, and that here should originate man’s immortality.

Jesus had expired on the Cross amid the insults of His people. The entire city had risen up against the Son of David whom, but a few days before, it had hailed as its King. Then did Joseph brave the fury of the deicides, and ask permission from the Roman Governor to be allowed the honour of burying the body of the Crucified. He at once repaired to Calvary accompanied by Nicodemus and, having taken down the sacred corpse from the Cross, he devoutly laid it upon the stone which he had intended as his own resting-place. He felt that it was a happiness and honour to give up his own to the dear Master, for whom he had not been ashamed to profess, and that in the very court of Pilate, his devoted attachment. Right worthy are you, Joseph, of the thanks of mankind! You were our representative at the burial of our Jesus! And Mary, too, the afflicted Mother, who was present, recompensed you in her own way for the sacrifice you so willingly made for her Son!

The Evangelists draw our attention to one special circumstance of the sepulchre. Saint Matthew, Saint Luke and Saint John tell us that it was new, and that no man had ever been laid in it. The Holy Fathers teach us that we must see here a mysterious dispensation and one of the grand glories of the holy tomb. It marks, as they observe, the resemblance that exists between the sepulchre, which restored the Man-God to the life of immortality, and the virginal womb which gave Him birth that He might be a Victim for the world’s redemption: and they bid us learn from this how God, when He deigns to dwell in any of His creatures, would have the dwelling to be pure and worthy of His infinite holiness. Here, then, is one of the glories of the Holy Sepulchre — that it was an image of the incomparable purity of the Mother of Jesus. During the few hours that it possessed the precious trust where was there glory on earth like to what it enjoyed? Within that silent cave there lay wrapped in shrouds that were be-dewed with Mary’s tears, the body which had ransomed the world. Hosts of holy Angels stood in that little rocky cell, keeping watch over the corpse of Him who was their Creator. They adored it in its sleep of death. They longed for the hour to come when this Lamb that was slain would arise a Lion in power and majesty. And when the moment, fixed by the eternal decree, came, that humble spot was made the scene of the grand prodigy — Jesus rose to life, and, swifter than lightning passed through the rock to the outer world. An Angel then rolled back the stone from the entrance to the sepulchre, thus proclaiming the departure of the divine captive. Other Angels showed themselves to Magdalene and her companions, when they came to visit it. Peter, too, and John were soon there. Oh! truly, most holy is this place! The Son of God deigned to dwell within it. His Mother honoured it with her presence and her tears. Angels adored in it. The holiest souls on earth visited, venerated and loved it. Sepulchre of the Son of Jesse, you are indeed glorious!

Hell witnesses this glory and would fain destroy it. The sight of this sepulchre is insufferable to Satan’s pride, for it is the trophy of the defeat of death, the offspring of sin. He flatters himself on having succeeded when Jerusalem is destroyed by the Roman legions, and, on her ruins, there rises up a new and pagan city called Aelia. But no! Neither the name of Jerusalem, nor the glory of the Holy Sepulchre, will perish. The pagans cover it with a mound of earth on which they build a temple to Jupiter: it was the same spirit that dictated their raising an altar to Venus on Calvary, and another to Adonis over the cave of Bethlehem. But all these sacrilegious efforts only serve to tell the Christians the exact site of these several sacred places. The pagans think by this artifice to turn the respect and homage of the Christians from Jesus to their false gods: here again they fail. The Christians abstain from visiting the Holy Places as long as they are desecrated by the presence of these idols, but they keep their eye fixed on what their Redeemer has endeared to them and wait, in patience, for the time when it will please the Eternal Father to again glorify His Son.

The time comes. God sends to Jerusalem a Christian Empress, mother of a Christian Emperor: she is to restore the Holy Places, the scenes of our Redeemer’s love. Like Magdalene and her companions Helen hastens to the sepulchre. God would have it so, woman’s privilege in all that happened on the great morning of the Resurrection is to be continued now. Magdalene and her companions sought Jesus. Helen, who adores Him as her Risen Lord, only seeks His sepulchre: but their love is one and the same. The pious Empress orders the temple of Jupiter to be pulled down, and the mound of earth to be removed, which done, the trophy of Jesus’ victory once more gleams in the light of day. The defeat of death is again proclaimed by this resurrection of the glorious sepulchre. A magnificent temple is built at the expense of the Imperial treasury, and is called the Basilica of the Resurrection. The whole world is excited by the news of such a triumph. The already tottering structure of paganism receives a shock which hastens its destruction, and pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre are begun by Christian people throughout the world, forming a procession of universal homage which is to continue to the end of time.

During the three centuries following, Jerusalem was the holy and free city, and the sepulchre of Jesus reflected its glory on her, but the East became a very hot-bed of heresies, and God, in His justice, sent her the chastisement of slavery. The Saracen hordes inundated the land of prodigy. If the torrent of invasion was checked, it was for a brief period, and the waters returned with redoubled power. Meanwhile, what becomes of the Holy Sepulchre? Let us not fear: it is safe. The Saracens themselves look upon it with awe, for it is, they say, the tomb of a great Prophet. True a tax is imposed on the Christians who visit it, but the sepulchre is safe. One of the Caliphs presented the keys of the venerable sanctuary to the Emperor Charlemagne, hereby evincing, not only the respect he had for this greatest of Christian monarchs, but, moreover, the veneration in which he held the sacred grotto. Thus did our Lord’s Sepulchre continue to be glorified, even in the midst of dangers which humanly would have wrought its utter destruction. Its glory shone out still more brightly, when, at the call of the Father of Christendom, the Western nations rose up in arms and marched under the banner of the Cross to the deliverance of Jerusalem. The love of the Holy Sepulchre was in every heart, its name on every tongue. The first engagement drove back the Saracen, and left the city in the possession of the Crusaders. A sublime spectacle was then witnessed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: the pious Godfrey of Bouillon was consecrated King of Jerusalem and the holy mysteries were celebrated for the first time in the language and ritual of Rome under the oriental dome of Saint Helen’s Basilica. But the reign of Japheth in the tents of Sem was of short duration, owing partly to the short-sighted policy of the Western sovereigns which kept them from appreciating the importance of such a conquest; and, partly, to the treachery of the Greek Empire, which betrayed the defenceless Jerusalem once more into the hands of the Saracens. Still, the period of the Latin Kingdom in the Holy City was one of the glories of Jesus’ sepulchre foretold by Isaias.

Epistle – 2 Peter ii. 2‒10

Dearly beloved, laying away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions, as newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow to salvation; if so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweet. Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honourable by God, be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore it is contained in the scripture, “Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that will believe in him, will not be confounded.” To you therefore that believe, He is honour: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner: and a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, whereunto also they are set. But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare His virtues, who has called you out of darkness into His admirable light, who in time past were not a people; but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy; but now have obtained mercy.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The neophytes could not have received any more appropriate instruction than this which the Prince of the Apostles addresses to us all. Saint Peter wrote this first Epistle to the newly-baptised of those days. He affectionately calls them new-born babes. He urges them to that virtue which so becomes the age of infancy, the virtue of simplicity. He tells them that the doctrine they have been taught will be to them a milk which will feed and strengthen them. He invites them to taste how sweet is the Lord they have now vowed to serve. After this he speaks of one of the leading characteristics of Christ, namely, His being the foundation and corner-stone of God’s house. It is on Him that must rest the faithful, who are the living stones of the spiritual edifice. He alone can give them solidity and hence, when about to return to His Father, He chose and established on earth another Rock — a Rock that should be ever visible, united with and based upon His own divine self, and partaking of His solidity. The Apostle’s humility forbids his developing the whole truth as related in the Gospel (Matthew xvi. 18) and which tells us of his glorious prerogative but, if we remember the words spoken by our Lord to Saint Peter, we understand the whole doctrine implied in our Epistle.

The Apostle is silent about his own dignity as the Rock on which Jesus has built His Church, but observe the glorious titles he gives to us who have been made members of that Church by Baptism. You are, says he, a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people! Oh, yes, what a difference there is between one that is baptised and one that is not! Heaven is opened to the one, and shut against the other. The one is a slave of the devil, and the other is a King in Christ Jesus, the eternal King, whose brother he has now become. The one cut off from God, the other offering Him a sacrifice of infinite worth by the hands of the great High Priest, Jesus. And all these gifts have been bestowed on us by a purely gratuitous mercy we had done nothing to merit them. Let us then offer to the Father, who has thus adopted us, our humble acts of thanksgiving. Let us go back in thought to the time when we ourselves were neophytes, and renew the promises which were made in our name as the essential condition of our being admitted to all these graces.

Gospel – John xx. 1‒9

At that time, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early when it was yet dark to the Sepulchre, and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. She ran therefore, and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them: “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him.” Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre; and they both ran together, and that other disciple outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying, but yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that had been about His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up in one place. Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw and believed: for as yet they knew not the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This incident which happened on the morning of our Lord’s Resurrection has been reserved by the Church for today’s liturgy because it again brings Saint Peter before our notice. This is the last day of the neophytes assisting at the holy Sacrifice in their white garments. After this there will be nothing to distinguish them exteriorly from the rest of the faithful. It is important, therefore, to give them a clear idea of the foundation of the Church — a foundation without which the Church could not exist, and upon which they must rest if they would persevere in the faith in which they have been baptised. They cannot obtain salvation unless they keep their faith inviolate. Now they alone have this firm and pure faith, who are docile to the teachings of Peter, and recognise him as the Rock on which our Lord has built His Church. In the episode related in our Gospel we are taught by an Apostle what respect and deference are due to him, whom Christ appointed to feed both lamb and sheep, that is, the whole flock. Peter and John run together to the sepulchre. John, the younger of the two, arrives there before Peter. He looks in, but does not enter. What means this humble reserve of the disciple who was so specially beloved of Jesus? For whom does he wait? He waits for him, whom the Master has placed over all, and who is to act as their Head. Peter, at length, comes to the sepulchre. He goes in. H examines the holy place and then, John also enters. It is John himself who writes this, and gives us the admirable instruction embodied in what he relates. Yes, it is for Peter to lead the way, and judge and decide as Master. It is the Christian’s duty to follow him, to listen to his teachings, to honour and obey him. How can we have any difficulty in doing this, when we see an Apostle, and such an Apostle, behaving thus to Peter, and this, too, at a time when Peter had received the promise only of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which were not really given to him until some days after?