The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

A good and just person did not support the decision to kill Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea had abstained from approving the capital sentence issued by the Sanhedrin. Another Joseph enters at the end of Jesus' life. The first saved him from Herod, the second lowers him from the cross, wraps him in a sheet and places him in a new tomb. The women who followed Jesus also join him. In front of the tomb, in the face of the pain of this world, in the face of death, in the face of the sleep of the disciples, in the face of suffering, only faith remains in the words of Jesus who entrusted himself to Father. Faced with the expanse of pain, those who do not adhere to the decision to kill and oppress man are not only called to cry but to believe, to pray, to hope for a different time, to give what they have, maybe even just the sheet of mercy or the tomb for burial. The tradition of the Church - founded on the passages of Scripture that speak of Jesus' descent into hell - wants that on this day Jesus descended into the "underworld", the place where the dead live, to take them, starting from Adam and Eve, and take them with you to paradise. It is the icon of Easter venerated in the Orthodox tradition. It is from here that the resurrection begins, from Jesus' descent into hell, into the hells of this world. We can say that Jesus, even today, continues to descend into the "hell" of this world to snatch from the hands of death all those who have been violated by evil and dejected. The risen one wants to take them with him to heaven. To them and to many others, Jesus continues to say: "Today, with me you will be in paradise".