ARTICLE 4 - "JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED
UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED,
DIED AND WAS BURIED"
571 The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the
Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the
world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all"[313] by the redemptive death
of his Son Jesus Christ.
572 The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus
gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should
suffer these things and enter into his glory?"[314] Jesus' sufferings took their historical,
concrete form from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and
the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and
crucified".[315]
573 Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully
handed on by the Gospels[316] and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to
understand the meaning of the Redemption.
Paragraph 1. Jesus and Israel
574 From the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, certain Pharisees and partisans of
Herod together with priests and scribes agreed together to destroy him.[317] Because of
certain acts of his expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, his novel
interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and his familiarity with tax
collectors and public sinners[318]--some ill- intentioned persons suspected Jesus of
demonic possession.[319] He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious
crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning.[320]
575 Many of Jesus' deeds and words constituted a "sign of contradiction",[321] but more
so for the religious authorities in Jerusalem, whom the Gospel according to John often
calls simply "the Jews",[322] than for the ordinary People of God.[323] To be sure,
Christ's relations with the Pharisees were not exclusively polemical. Some Pharisees
warn him of the danger he was courting;[324] Jesus praises some of them, like the scribe
of Mark 12:34, and dines several times at their homes.[325] Jesus endorses some of the
teachings imparted by this religious elite of God's people: the resurrection of the
dead,[326] certain forms of piety (almsgiving, fasting and prayer),[327] the custom of
addressing God as Father, and the centrality of the commandment to love God and
neighbour.[328]
576 In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against essential institutions
of the Chosen People: - submission to the whole of the Law in its written
commandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral tradition; - the
centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God's presence dwells in a
special way; - faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.
I. JESUS AND THE LAW
577 At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a solemn warning in
which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during the first covenant, in light of the
grace of the New Covenant:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to
abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,
not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. Therefore,
whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the
same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches
them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.[329]
578 Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, was to
fulfil the Law by keeping it in its all embracing detail - according to his own words, down
to "the least of these commandments".[330] He is in fact the only one who could keep it
perfectly.[331] On their own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in
its entirety without violating the least of its precepts.[332] This is why every year on the
Day of Atonement the children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for their transgressions
of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, and St. James recalls,
"Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it."[333]
579 This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was
dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus'
time to an extreme religious zeal.[334] This zeal, were it not to lapse into "hypocritical"
casuistry,[335] could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God
through the perfect fulfilment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all
sinners.[336]
580 The perfect fulfilment of the Law could be the work of none but the divine
legislator, born subject to the Law in the person of the Son.[337] In Jesus, the Law no
longer appears engraved on tables of stone but "upon the heart" of the Servant who
becomes "a covenant to the people", because he will "faithfully bring forth justice".[338]
Jesus fulfils the Law to the point of taking upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred
by those who do not "abide by the things written in the book of the Law, and do them",
for his death took place to redeem them "from the transgressions under the first
covenant".[339]
581 The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi.[340] He often
argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law.[341] Yet Jesus
could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his
interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people "as one who had authority, and not
as their scribes".[342] In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount
Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the
Beatitudes.[343] Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate
interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But
I say to you. . ."[344] With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human
traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void the word of God".[345]
582 Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life,
by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: "Whatever goes
into a man from outside cannot defile him. . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.). . .
What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of
man, come evil thoughts. . ."[346] In presenting with divine authority the definitive
interpretation of the Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law
who did not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the divine
signs that accompanied it.[347] This was the case especially with the sabbath laws, for he
recalls, often with rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not violated by serving
God and neighbour,[348] which his own healings did.
II. JESUS AND THE TEMPLE
583 Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in
Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph and Mary presented him forty days after his
birth.[349] At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his
parents that he must be about his Father's business.[350] He went there each year during
his hidden life at least for Passover.[351] His public ministry itself was patterned by his
pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts.[352]
584 Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God. For
him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered
that its outer court had become a place of commerce.[353] He drove merchants out of it
because of jealous love for his Father: "You shall not make my Father's house a house of
trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume
me.'"[354] After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the
Temple.[355]
585 On the threshold of his Passion Jesus announced the coming destruction of this
splendid building, of which there would not remain "one stone upon another".[356] By
doing so, he announced a sign of the last days, which were to begin with his own
Passover.[357] But this prophecy would be distorted in its telling by false witnesses
during his interrogation at the high priest's house, and would be thrown back at him as
an insult when he was nailed to the cross.[358]
586 Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the essential part of his
teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the Temple-tax, associating with him Peter, whom he
had just made the foundation of his future Church.[359] He even identified himself with
the Temple by presenting himself as God's definitive dwelling-place among men.[360]
Therefore his being put to bodily death[361] presaged the destruction of the Temple,
which would manifest the dawning of a new age in the history of salvation: "The hour is
coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
Father."[362]
III. JESUS AND ISRAEL'S FAITH IN THE ONE
GOD AND SAVIOUR
587 If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could be occasions of opposition to Jesus by
Israel's religious authorities, his role in the redemption of sins, the divine work par
excellence, was the true stumbling-block for them.[363]
588 Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax collectors and sinners as familiarly
as with themselves.[364] Against those among them "who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others", Jesus affirmed: "I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance."[365] He went further by proclaiming before the
Pharisees that, since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind
to themselves.[366]
589 Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward sinners
with God's own attitude toward them.[367] He went so far as to hint that by sharing the
table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet.[368] But it was most
especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the
horns of a dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can
forgive sins but God alone?"[369] By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man
who made himself God's equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make
present and reveal God's name.[370]
590 Only the divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so absolute a claim as "He who
is not with me is against me"; and his saying that there was in him "something greater
than Jonah,. . . greater than Solomon", something "greater than the Temple"; his
reminder that David had called the Messiah his Lord,[371] and his affirmations, "Before
Abraham was, I AM", and even "I and the Father are one."[372]
591 Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the
Father's works which he accomplished.[373] But such an act of faith must go through a
mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above" under the influence of divine
grace.[374] Such a demand for conversion in the face of so surprising a fulfilment of the
promises[375] allows one to understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of
Jesus: they judged that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer.[376] The
members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of "ignorance" and the
"hardness" of their "unbelief".[377]
IN BRIEF
592 Jesus did not abolish the Law of Sinai, but rather fulfilled it (cf. Mt 5:17-19) with
such perfection (cf. Jn 8:46) that he revealed its ultimate meaning (cf.: Mt 5:33) and
redeemed the transgressions against it (cf. Heb 9:15).
593 Jesus venerated the Temple by going up to it for the Jewish feasts of pilgrimage, and
with a jealous love he loved this dwelling of God among men. The Temple prefigures
his own mystery. When he announces its destruction, it is as a manifestation of his own
execution and of the entry into a new age in the history of salvation, when his Body
would be the definitive Temple.
594 Jesus performed acts, such as pardoning sins, that manifested him to be the Saviour
God himself (cf. Jn 5:16-18). Certain Jews, who did not recognize God made man (cf. Jn
1:14), saw in him only a man who made himself God (Jn 10:33), and judged him as a
blasphemer.
Paragraph 2. Jesus Died Crucified
I. THE TRIAL OF JESUS
Divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus
595 Among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the Pharisee
Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples of Jesus, but
there was also long-standing dissension about him, so much so that St. John says of
these authorities on the very eve of Christ's Passion, "many.. . believed in him", though
very imperfectly.[378] This is not surprising, if one recalls that on the day after Pentecost
"a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith" and "some believers. . . belonged
to the party of the Pharisees", to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many
thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all zealous
for the Law."[379]
596 The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take
towards Jesus.[380] The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers.[381] To
those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and
destroy both our holy place and our nation", the high priest Caiaphas replied by
prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that
the whole nation should not perish."[382] The Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus
deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to put anyone to death,
hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts him
in the same category as Barabbas who had been accused of sedition.[383] The chief
priests also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to death.[384]
Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death
597 The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The
personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone.
Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole,
despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the
apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost.[385] Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the
cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem
and even of their leaders.[386] Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of
different times and places, based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on
our children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence.[387] As the Church declared at
the Second Vatican Council: . . . neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews
today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . the Jews should
not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.[388]
All sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion
598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church
has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings
that the divine Redeemer endured."[389] Taking into account the fact that our sins affect
Christ himself,[390] the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest
responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they
have all too often burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins
made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves
into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them)
and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in
us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, "None of the
rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory." We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our
deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him.[391]
Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still,
when you delight in your vices and sins.[392]
II. CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S
PLAN OF SALVATION
"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"
599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of
circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews
of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus [was] delivered up according
to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."[393] This Biblical language does not
mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written
in advance by God.[394]
600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he
establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free
response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus,
whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take
place."[395] For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts
that flowed from their blindness.[396]
"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to
death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as
the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin.[397] Citing a confession of faith
that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in
accordance with the scriptures."[398] In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's
prophecy of the suffering Servant.[399] Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of
his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant.[400] After his Resurrection he
gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the
apostles.[401]
"For our sake God made him to be sin"
602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of
salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your
fathers... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end
of the times for your sake."[402] Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by
death.[403] By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen
humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God."[404]
603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned.[405] But in the
redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our
waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"[406] Having thus established him in
solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all",
so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son".[407]
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love
604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of
benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God
but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."[408] God "shows
his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."[409]
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes
no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish."[410] He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this
last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person
of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.[411] The Church, following the
apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has
been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."[412]
III. CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS
FATHER FOR OUR SINS
Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father
606 The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the
will of him who sent [him]",[413] said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do
your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all."[414] From the first moment of his Incarnation the
Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food
is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work."[415] The sacrifice of
Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"[416] expresses his loving communion with the
Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as
the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."[417]
607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole
life,[418] for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he
asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I
have come to this hour."[419] And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has
given me?"[420] From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst."[421]
"The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world"
608 After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at
Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world".[422] By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant
who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the
multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first
Passover.[423] Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many."[424]
Jesus freely embraced the Father's redeeming love
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to
the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends."[425] In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect
instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men.[426] Indeed, out of
love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted
his Passion and death: "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord."[427] Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his
death.[428]
At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life
610 Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared
with the twelve Apostles "on the night he was betrayed".[429] On the eve of his Passion,
while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of
his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: "This is my body which is
given for you." "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins."[430]
611 The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his
sacrifice.[431] Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate
it.[432] By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant:
"For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."[433]
The agony at Gethsemani
612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at
the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in
the garden at Gethsemani,[434] making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ."[435] Thus he expresses the horror
that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for
eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death.[436]
Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the "Author of
life", the "Living One".[437] By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be
done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on
the tree."[438]
Christ's death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
613 Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive
redemption of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world",[439] and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion
with God by reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins".[440]
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.[441]
First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to
sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the
Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through
the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.[442]
Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience
615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's
obedience many will be made righteous."[443] By his obedience unto death, Jesus
accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering
for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted
righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities".[444] Jesus atoned for our faults and made
satisfaction for our sins to the Father.[445]
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross
616 It is love "to the end"[446] that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption
and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered
his life.[447] Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has
died for all; therefore all have died."[448] No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to
take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence
in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human
persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his
redemptive sacrifice for all.
617 The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the
source of eternal salvation"[449] and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood of
the cross merited justification for us."[450] And the Church venerates his cross as she
sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."[451]
Our participation in Christ's sacrifice
618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and
men".[452] But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself
to every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the
paschal mystery" is offered to all men.[453] He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross
and follow [him]",[454] for "Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that
[we] should follow in his steps."[455] In fact Jesus desires to associate with his
redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.[456] This is achieved
supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other
person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.[457] Apart from the cross there is no
other ladder by which we may get to heaven.[458]
IN BRIEF
619 "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" (I Cor 15:3).
620 Our salvation flows from God's initiative of love for us, because "he loved us and
sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (I Jn 4:10). "God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
621 Jesus freely offered himself for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper,
he both symbolized this offering and made it really present: "This is my body which is
given for you" (Lk 22:19).
622 The redemption won by Christ consists in this, that he came "to give his life as a
ransom for many" (Mt 20:28), that is, he "loved [his own] to the end" (Jn 13:1), so that
they might be "ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [their] fathers" (I Pt 1:18).
623 By his loving obedience to the Father, "unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8),
Jesus fulfils the atoning mission (cf. Is 53:10) of the suffering Servant, who will "make
many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities" (Is 53:11; cf. Rom 5:19).
SECTION TWO
Paragraph 3. Jesus Christ was Buried
624 "By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for every one".[459] In his plan of
salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins"[460] 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] reveals God's great
sabbath rest[462] after the fulfilment[463] of man's salvation, which brings peace to the
whole universe.[464]
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] is the same "living one [who has]
risen",[468] 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 Chnst'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 have 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 earthy human existence.
But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was
not a mortal corpse like others, for ‘it was not possible for death to hold him’ [NT] and
therefore ‘divine power preserved Christ’s body from corruption.’ [470] Both of these
statements can be said of Christ: ‘He was cut off out of the land of the living’, [471] and
‘My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your
Holy One see corruption.’ [472] Jesus’ Resurrection ‘on the third day’ was the sign of
this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death. [473]
"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).
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