NOTES for Mar 15:43

Today in the Gospel we read about one manifestation of true human greatness. The faithfulness and love that moved Joseph of Arimathea are truly worthy of every praise and imitation. When every hope had ceased, when Jesus had died on the Cross and everything was over, at precisely that moment there remained people faithful to Him.

It is not easy to remain near the Crucified God. It is still harder to mourn His death. What did Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and Mary Magdalene experience and think on Holy Saturday, when the Lord lay in the tomb in the flesh? And how did Joseph dare to go in to Pilate to ask for the Body of Christ, disregarding both the laws about ritual defilement, since that morning the chief priests would not enter the house of the pagan Pilate, and the danger of being accused of complicity in the case of the Executed One? They pass through the horror of Friday and Saturday to the end and remain together with the One who has died and with His Mother. To be with God to the end, wherever He goes. And when He descends into hell, where people cannot go with Him, they weep and wait for Him on earth.

And this waiting does not remain in vain.