We need a great grace against such vivid terror as that of death. We do not feel it as long as we have health and hope, but when there is nothing left, either of health or of hope, the blow is terrible. The blow is weakened, however, if we firmly believe that Jesus conquered death.

He conquered death in a twelve-year-old girl who had just died and was still in her bed (Mk. 5:35-42), and also in a young man who was being buried (Lk. 7:12-15). Finally, He conquered it in the tomb and in the heart of putrefaction, in the person of Lazarus (Jn. 11:41-44). It remained for Him to prevent corruption.

Jesus had conquered death in persons who had died a natural death. He still had to conquer it when death would come through violence.

Those whom He had brought back to life remained mortal. It remained that with death, He might even conquer mortality. It was in His person that He would show so complete a victory. After He had been put to death, Jesus arose from the dead to die no more, without even having ever experienced corruption. As the Psalmist chanted: thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption (Ps. 15:10; Acts 2:27).

This which was done by the Chief or Head will be accomplished in His members. Immortality is assured us in Jesus Christ by greater right than when it had first been given to us in Adam. Our first immortality was not to die; our last immortality will be to die no more.

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Lent with Bossuet Meditations on the Gospel (1) - FSSPX.News