The fourteenth station: Jesus is laid in the tomb
The final scene of the awful tragedy is drawing to a close. Reverently the faithful few bear the dead Christ down the hill of shame, that body from which all the care of loving hands cannot remove the marks of the cruel scourge, the rending nails, the lance’s gaping thrust. Into the tomb they bear Him, the burial place of a stranger, best suited to Him Who during His life had not where to lay His head. Reverently they lay Him down; one last, fond embrace of His own Mother before they lead her hence, and then in silence and in sorrow they leave Him, their dearest Master, to the watchful care of God’s own angels. Sin has done its work! Sin has triumphed, but its very triumph will prove its own undoing.
Great meditations on the Stations of the Cross. It’s so poignant to think of Our Lady, embracing her Son following His cruel death; did She recall holding Him in the stable at Bethlehem, gently, securely holding Him upon the donkey, guided by St. Joseph on their rushed journey to safety into Egypt, hugging Him with the happiness of a Mother so many times during all those hidden years at Nazareth? At the foot of the Cross, She held Him, with tenderness. At the tomb, a final embrace; it would be Her last, until He appears to Her in the early morning of the Resurrection, an intimate encounter that on one here would witness,a moment when indeed, Mary’s sorrow would be turned into a joy that is eternal.
Father Doyle, please remind us each time we escort our loved ones to their final, earthly resting place, that, with Mary, it is only a temporary separation, and within the Communion of Saints, they are still very much part of our lives, until the joy of reuniting with them arrives.