Station 14 of stations of the cross, 2026

Stations of the Cross reflection, 2026, delivered at St. Francis of Assisi, Louisville, KY

Station 14: Jesus is laid in the tomb

    We adore you, oh Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

    When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of     Jesus. He went o Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered to be given to him. Then         Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb which he        had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door tomb.

Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus when it was taken down from the cross. He did this to preserve Jesus’ dignity and his holiness in the face of an unjust death. Joseph of Arimathea’s example continues today as the volunteers of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society in Louisville lovingly accept, and pray for, and bury the bodies of people who have died. These people we bury are the people who Jesus reached out to in his day; My eyes have witnessed the burial of people who are forgotten, or excluded, or called sinful, or who were too poor to pay for a funeral. They have been rejected in some way by family, or friends, or the community they lived in, rejected sometimes by things that they did. They may have been addicted, or abused, or abandoned, or the last in their family to die. My heart has witnessed the volunteers of the Society answer God’s call to love everyone unconditionally, and we express that love by lifting up the lowest and the least who have died. We restore their dignity so that they become the greatest, the first in God’s eyes as children of God. We pray for them and mark their grave so that they are not forgotten and their death not ignored. The service of the volunteers to the dead is also a first step on a journey. Our journey is to bring the love that Jesus showed to everyone in his time to everyone in our time. If we learn to show love to people we never knew who have died, we can show it to people who are alive and all around us, people like you and me. On this day we remember Jesus’ death on the cross for us, and the passion he had for our salvation. Let us also keep in our hearts and minds those known only to God who have died without anyone remembering them. 

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