Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,<\/p>\n
Blessed Easter! Christ is risen, Alleluia! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! What a wonderful gift to celebrate together that Christ has conquered sin and death and that the gates of Heaven are thrown open for the faithful! Some of you might remember that last year I reviewed through how we understand the three days that Jesus was in the tomb\u2026I recently had two people ask me if we could review that again. Since it has been a full week, I thought I would rework that bulletin column to answer those folks\u2026and hopefully provide a good review for everyone else. As I have shared before, we celebrate on Easter that Jesus has kept His promises, fulfilled His mission, and opened the door for our reconciliation to God. We also recall that Jesus has fulfilled the many prophecies of old\u2026as well as many that He gave us Himself.<\/p>\n
One of those prophesies is specifically about the reference to \u201cthree\u201d days in the tomb\u2014most of us would likely say that sounds familiar. We certainly do hear it often in the Gospels\u2014did you know that Jesus said something (or a reference is made to what Jesus said) about being in the tomb three days at least 11 times in the Gospels! If you are interested in a mediation on these prophecies, check out any of the following: Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 23:19, 27:63; Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34; and Luke 9:22, 18:33, 24:7, 24:46. For now, here is one:\u00a0 \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day\u201d (Mt 16:21).<\/p>\n
From these passages, it is clear that Jesus saw this coming\u2026and that He fulfilled it perfectly\u2026Amen! Alleluia! However, for some, a practical question might remain\u2026all those Scripture passages say Jesus will be in the tomb for three days\u2026we remember His death and burial on Good Friday, but we celebrate His resurrection on Saturday night. To many of us, that might only seem like one day\u2026or a day and a half if we stretch. So a big question: how does the timeframe we observe fulfill what the Scriptures say about three days in the tomb?<\/p>\n
The three days actually make perfect sense if we add in some background from Jewish culture. In our reckoning of time, each day begins at midnight\u2026when the clock strikes twelve we move from Friday night to Saturday morning. The Jewish people, however, reckoned time in a different way. For them, the next day begins at sunset (I always thought it was interesting to think about beginning a new day with a nice long sleep\/rest! (= ).\u00a0 So, if we take the days with a Jewish understanding of time\u2026Jesus died around 3pm on Good Friday and was placed in the tomb soon after (Friday is the 1st<\/sup> day). At sundown on Friday, the next day (Saturday\u2014the 2nd<\/sup> day) begins. Jesus remains in the tomb all during the day Saturday and then at sundown the 3rd<\/sup> day (Sunday) begins. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at the Easter Vigil (which begins at sundown) because it is the soonest moment we arrive at three days in the tomb.<\/p>\n I continue to be struck with great joy to think about the time of Jesus in the tomb in that way–He is only in the tomb the shortest amount of time possible to fulfill the prophecy. Said another way, death could only hold Him the shortest amount of time possible to fulfill all the Scriptures! Now that is worth celebrating this Easter! Know that all of you are in my prayers and that I look forward to continuing our Easter celebration in the weeks ahead: Christ is risen, Alleluia! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!<\/p>\n I will be away for a family visit this coming week, but know of my blessing! Thanks to Fr. Albert for covering everything while I am away!<\/p>\n In Christ,
\nFather Luke<\/p>\n