Session 7: The Tomb
Let soft darkness envelope me…let silence resound about me… let memories of pain recede…
Ask for the grace to remember what has happened to Jesus and know that it was all done for your sake…
He was welcomed under the shroud of Jerusalem’s walls, bidden enter as a king to his city…At Mary’s house she anointed his feet…shame confused with honour… rich confused with poor… the scent of that perfume still fills the air… I held all these things in my heart as I peered at their faces lit by flickering wicks…a meal shared but divided by a morsel of bread… how could silver weigh more than friendship…? As though to show us what friendship was really worth, he washed our feet to reveal what our lives would become: honouring each other in love…How did agony and pain, like great drops of blood, flow from a gesture so sweet…? The last breath of a Son was exhaled in love for his Father… He rests now cold in the tomb.… He rests now still in the earth… He rests now waiting in silence…
As Jesus lies in the tomb, imagine the disciples and Mary the mother of Jesus as they gather to grieve… recall with them the events of the week that led up to this moment… remember with them how those events have touched your heart… beginning with Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem…the anointing at Mary’s house in Bethany…the breaking of the disciple’s fellowship… the betrayal of Judas…the washing of the feet… the death of Jesus…When you have finished going through the events of the last week, let your gaze rest on Jesus’ body lying undisturbed, cold, still and silent, in the tomb…
As you ponder all these things, what one moment remains most deeply embedded in your heart? Live it once again… see it again… hear it again… touch it again… smell it again… taste it again… how does that one moment speak to you as you contemplate the broken body of Jesus…?
Speak to Jesus, as one friend speaks to another, talk to him about everything that has happened during the passion, seek to understand that he did all of this for your sake, then listen to his response…
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.