"For as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth."
Mt 12:40
Problem: Jesus said that he would be in the grave for
three
days and three nights. Why do we Catholics celebrate the Triduum
with
only two nights instead of three?
First, we must consider how the Jews themselves often reckoned
days.
The day, or more accurately, the "night-day", started at sunset
and continued until the following sunset. For counting purposes,
any part of one day was considered
as a whole day, that is, "a part of the day is as the whole." So
Friday
afternoon until sunset would be one night-day, the sabbath day from
Friday sunset until the next sunset would be one
night-day, and the sunset through the morning of the next
day, "the first day" would be
considered one night-day, for a total of three night-days.
This is
not how we reckon days now, but we can see at least three examples of
this elsewhere in the scriptures: I Samuel 30:12-13, Esther
4:16, 5:1,
and again in Mt 27:63-64. Remember too that Jesus
taught that he would rise "on the third day" (Matthew 16:21),
not
"on the fourth day."
Secondly, Jesus is alluding to Jonah 2 (Septuagint) in this
verse, and
we must not take this verse out
of context. The whole section from which it is taken, Mt.
12:38-41
alludes to the story of Jonah's deliverance from the belly of a
"whale". Jesus is deliberately reminding his apostles of Jonah's
deliverance which is meant to prefigure His own resurrection.
Moreover, Jonah's
prayer in Jonah 2 might in many ways be Jesus' prayer too.
References