V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world!
The tomb is the ultimate loneliness. Those who killed Jesus believed that once his body was buried his memory would be totally erased. But Jesus will be the seed that, buried, breaks through the ground and blooms forth. Jesus' life is in God's hands, just as the lives of all God's children.
(Brief Pause)
Father, you made Jesus' tomb a place of transition to fullness of life. Make this earth welcome the dead in peace and be fruitful in hope and life for your people.