When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, a respected member of the council who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, and who was also a disciple of Jesus though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews.  Joseph went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Pilate ordered it to be given to him so he bought a clean linen cloth and took the  body down.  Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.  Then Joseph took the body, wrapped it in the cloth with the spices, and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn in the rock.  The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid.  He then rolled a great stone against the door of the tomb.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

See with what courage Joseph approaches Pilate and asks permission for the body of Jesus.  See with what care and tender devotion he removes the body from the cross and wraps it in a clean linen cloth with myrrh and aloes.  Watch the holy procession to the garden near where Christ was crucified.  It was a garden in which Christ first began to suffer and evil men processed him out of it wrapped in chains.  Now a devout band of holy men and women process Christ back into a garden, his body wrapped in spices and linen.  Witness the clean, empty new tomb which the devout man Joseph, having prepared it for himself, now gives to Jesus.  With exquisite tenderness the lifeless body of Jesus is lain on the hewn rock.  Under the watchful eye of the women from Galilee his body is positioned just so.  The dead body of God's only Son is then hidden from the prying eyes of the world by a huge stone and is left alone in the complete and utter silence of the tomb.

See in this O Christian an example for yourself.  If this is how Christ's dead body was treated with how much greater care and solicitude must you receive his living body in the Holy Eucharist.  With what holy fear and trembling must you approach the Father, asking permission to participate in the sacred mysteries and receive his Son.  With what effort of repentance must you prepare the tomb of your body, ensuring that it is not "full of dead men's bones and all kinds of filth." (Matthew 23.27)  With what virtues must you cultivate the garden of your soul into which the living Son of God is about to enter.  With what great physical care must you wrap him up when you receive him in the sacred species.  And with what jealous intimacy must you lay him down in yourself, to be alone with him in rapt silence.  Roll the stone across the door of your senses.  Lovers want to be alone.