103. “For our sake (Jesus) was crucified under Pontius Pilot, he suffered death and was buried …” Nicene Creed

“For our sake (Jesus) was crucified under Pontius Pilot, he suffered death and was buried …” Nicene Creed

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 103

Ave Maria series

103  Was Jesus really dead?  Maybe he was able to rise again because he only appeared to have suffered death.

Jesus really died on the Cross; his body was buried.  All the sources testify to this.  [627]

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Fresco by Fra Angelico, Dominican monastery at San Marco, Florence, showing the lance piercing the side of Jesus on the cross (c. 1440). …..10

In John 19:33ff., the soldiers even make an explicit determination of death: They open the side of Jesus’ dead body with a lance and see blood and water come out.  Furthermore, it says that the legs of the men crucified with him were broken—a step that hastened the dying process; this was not required in Jesus’ case since his death had already occurred.

“In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption.  Thus each man, in his suffering can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.”  Pope John Paul II (1920-2005), Apostolic Letter “Salvifici doloris”

[627]

"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 earthly 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" (Acts of the Apostles 2:24.)⁴⁷⁰ and therefore "divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, 51, 3.)⁴⁷¹ Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of the living", (Isaiah 53:8)⁴⁷² and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." (Acts 2:26-27; compare Psalm 16:9-10)⁴⁷³ 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. (Compare 1 Corinthians 15:4; Luke 24:46; Matthew 12:40; Jonah 2:1; Hosea 6:2; compare John 11:39)⁴⁷⁴ --Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

JP  Fesco