Saturday, April 15 - Holy Saturday

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
(John 19: 38-40)

Loving Last Mitzvah

Some friends come out of duty to ask of need;

Good friends don’t wait to begin the giving.

Joseph and Nicodemus come out of the shadows

before the sundown doing one more deed of love.

Risking suspicion of being accomplices, they offer

to take Pilate’s trash out of sight and Jesus’

body out of slight by more scandal and abuse.

They warm the cold body with their hands

as they wipe the dirt, sweat and blood away

sacrificing their Sabbath purity giving honor

for the friend they lost, comfort to his family

and safety to hiding disciples. God alone knows

what kind of God friends we would be if it were

some danger to do a mitzvah before being asked?

Father Tom Wilson+ 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT7Z8yPT7t4