Day 89: Jesus Christ Was Buried (2026)

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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to

the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension.

In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity

in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 89 we're reading

paragraphs 624 to 630. As always, I'm using the ascension edition of the Catechism which includes

the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism

of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash CIY. Also, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for

daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, it is day 89. We're reading paragraphs 624 to 630.

This section today, it's an entire section. We talked about in the last couple days how

Christ's trial, the fact that he was crucified, that he offered himself. Yesterday, we talked about

how Christ was a sacrifice. His whole life is an offering to the Father and how his sacrifice

is substitutes our disobedience with his obedience. And we get to participate in his sacrifice.

All these things are so powerful. The next note, the next thing to note is that Jesus actually died.

And I don't know if you've ever thought about that. The fact that, okay, wait, what is it to say

that Jesus died? Because here's here's Jesus who again, remember, he was sinless. He did not

experience original sin and one of the consequences of original sin is death. And yet, so he didn't need

to experience death. But because he united himself so fully to us, because he loves us so fully,

he not only entered into suffering, not only entered into near death, he actually entered into death

with a couple notable exceptions. One is the resurrection. Obviously, he already experiences

the resurrection. The second is that even when Jesus had died, death is the separation of body and

soul. It's maybe what you can just one way to define death is separation of body and soul.

When Jesus experienced death, when he entered into death, he, yes, separation of body and soul,

but he still remained, he retained possession of his body and he retained possession of his soul.

If that makes any sense to you, it is one of those mysteries. Again, God did not have to experience

death. He willed to experience death, so as to enter into the depths of what we experience.

And tomorrow we'll talk about how he descended into hell. Like, what is that? But today we get to

note this incredible love of God, not only offering himself as a sacrifice, but going so far as to

hold on to that union with humanity, even in death. He didn't have to do that. We don't have to do

any of this, but just as worth, it's worth pausing for a moment and just saying, gosh,

Lord, thank you. You did not have to do any of this, but you did this out of love for me and

out of obedience to the Father. And so we, as we start this day, let's say, per Jesus Christ,

you are the Redeemer, you're the Savior of the world. You are the offering for sin, and you

are the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To accomplish your Father's plan,

you allowed death to overwhelm you. To accomplish the Father's plan, you entered into death,

you descended to hell. To accomplish the Father's plan, you rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

To accomplish your Father's plan, you sent the Holy Spirit into our lives.

Lord, God, we thank you and praise you. We just give you, give you every good gift because you

are the giver of every good gift. We give you all praise, all glory belongs to you. All of our

hearts belong to you. All of our love goes to you. Help us to love you the way you deserve.

In your Holy Name, Jesus, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. As we said many times this day,

day 89 reading paragraphs 624 to 630.

Paragraph 3 Jesus Christ was buried

By the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for everyone. In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his

Son should not only die for our sins, 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 reveals

God's great Sabbath rest after the fulfillment of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole

universe. Christ in the tomb in his body. Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his

passable 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 forevermore. As St. Gregory of Nessa wrote, 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.

Since the author of life who was killed is the same living one who has risen. The divine person

of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human soul and body separated from each other

by death. As St. John Damocene wrote, by the fact that at Christ'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 all those separated from each other both remained

with one in the same person of the word. You will not let your holy ones seek corruption.

Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence,

but because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body,

his was not immortal corpse like others, for it was not possible for death to hold him

and therefore divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption. Both of these statements can

be set of Christ. He was cut off out of the land of the living and my flesh will dwell in hope.

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor let your holy ones seek corruption.

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. Buried with Christ, 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. As St. Paul wrote,

when 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 the newness of life. In brief, to the benefit

of every man, Jesus Christ tasted death. It is truly the Son of God made man who died and was buried.

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. Okay, now we have it. It's kind of a short little section today, but powerful.

And again, something maybe many of us have never really considered. What is it to say that Jesus

has died? So recap. Let's go back to this. I'd love this in paragraph 624. Not only does it say,

by the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for everyone, right? In the case, plan of salvation, God

ordained that his son should not only die for our sins, but also taste death, experience the

condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body. And that's remarkable. But there's

this mystery of Holy Saturday in this way. They say it here in the Catechism is poetic and beautiful

and powerful. It says paragraph 624. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday. When Christ lying in the

tomb reveals God's great Sabbath rests after the fulfillment of man's salvation, which brings peace

to the whole universe. Remember that the Sabbath is Saturday. And so here is, you know, at the end of

six days of work, God rests on the Sabbath. But this new great work of God, this new great work of

salvation, God rests on the Sabbath, right? He descends into hell on the Sabbath. I'd just love

how they say this. It reveals God's great Sabbath rest, which of course is a reference to the book of

Hebrews chapter four versus seven through nine. But it just reminds us all reminds me right now

that what God is doing is not random, right? It's it's not arbitrary. It's so fitting.

And it's so intentional. And it's just an incredible sign. Not only have God's love for us,

but of his incredible wisdom. Now going on, we highlighted the fact that what is death? Death is

separation of body and soul. And Christ, his death was a real death where his body and soul were

separated at the same time. It is unique in that because the divine person of the word, right? The

second person of the Trinity, his soul and body you've separated and yet he possessed both.

And this is important because of the promises of the Old Testament and not only because it's true,

but also because of the promises of the Old Testament, you'll not let your holy ones see corruption.

And so because the divine person retained both his soul and his body, even though they were

separated, because of that, his soul and body were preserved from corruption. Another thing to

note in paragraph 627 is Jesus' resurrection on the third day with a sign of this also that he

wouldn't see corruption because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.

Now, what is that? Remember in John's Gospel, chapter 11, you have the story of Lazarus, the

brother of Mary and Martha. And he had been dead for four days. And so that's why I think it's

Martha. Maybe it's Mary. One of the sisters says to Jesus when he says, roll back the stone.

Lord, he's been dead for four days. There'll be a stench because begin corruption was said to

set in on day four. Jesus rose from the dead after the third day, on the third day.

And so that recognition of another way in which Jesus not only fulfills, though he noted about

three days later, I'll rise from the dead, not only the way Jesus fulfills the story of Jonah

in the whale, right? If he's in Billy of the whale for three days and the son of man was in the

earth for three days. But Jesus also fulfills this promise that you will not let your holy one

seek corruption. That I love this. It's the Acts of the Apostles, chapter two, but it actually is

a quote from Psalm 16 where it notes, my flesh will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul

to Hades, nor let your holy one seek corruption. Again, that's Acts of the Apostles, chapter two,

quoting Psalm 16. And this is the promise of God that has been fulfilled. The last thing here,

the last paragraph paragraph 628 highlights baptism. And you might not think, okay, wait a second.

So we're talking about Jesus's death. Why would we talk about baptism? Well, because baptism,

the original, it says in surrogate 628, the original and full sign of which is immersion,

efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb, the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in

order to live a new life. The idea is that you're essentially dunked or immersion right into water

that three times that would be a sign of like, here's Christ's descent into the earth for three days.

And that would be a reminder now when we just have now our baptism, which is fine, where you pour

water over the person's head. That's beautiful. It's still efficaciously, it's still powerful,

still does what it needs to do. But the sign value of going down beneath the waters has always

pointed the Christian to the reality that here is Jesus who descended into death. And we,

when we are baptized, lead ascend into his death to, we enter into his death to us to rise

to new life with him. Now, tomorrow, what is it to say that Jesus descended into hell?

We'll talk about that tomorrow because it's from, if you haven't ever asked the question,

what does it mean to say Jesus died? You might not have asked the question. What does it mean to say

that Jesus descended into hell? We say this every time we prayed the apostles creed, what is that? Well,

you're in luck because day 90 is tomorrow and day 90 is the day that we're going to dive deeply.

And to what it means to descend into hell. But today, today, we just pray about the reality that

Jesus did. He'll allow his, he entered into death to be one with us, he entered into death to save

us from death. He entered into death to conquer death at the same time. He did this as the divine

person he is. So he retained his body and his soul. He did not see corruption because God is

faithful to his promises. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot

wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.