Saint Matthew - Chapter 27
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| And the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent. J-J tissot |
And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent.
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
Extraordinary phenomena accompanied the death of Jesus Christ. In the Temple the Babylonian veil, to which we have again and again alluded, was "rent in twain from the top to the bottom", symbolising in a truly dramatic manner the way in which Heaven was thrown open and access to it rendered possible to man by the fact of the death of Christ. Then "the earth did quake and the rocks rent" on Calvary and in the City of Jerusalem. The detonation must have been truly terrific; for we know how great a noise, resembling the loud cracking the whip, results from the splitting open of a rock under the influence of intense cold, and in the present case the effect must have been much the same as that produced by the explosion of a mine. This manifestation of superhuman power of course overwhelmed with terror the few witnesses who still remain on Calvary. Their hearts are full of anxious fears, awaiting the occurrence of still more awful phenomena. Following the example of the Mother of the divine Sufferer, they prostrate themselves upon the rock, all wet with the blood of the Redeemer. The Roman centurion and the soldiers, greatly agitated, also kneel. The alarm spreads; in fact, similar shocks have been felt and similar reports heard in the town; walls are cracking, monuments are being overturned, the ground is heaving convulsively and here and there is rent open. The earth beneath, like the Heaven above, each in its own way, is manifesting its sorrow, and the death of the God for those He Himself created is not to take place unperceived or unmarked.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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