It’s Holy Saturday but before dawn, so it feels like a continuation of Good Friday, when I bet the followers of Jesus on that second day, struggled to rest. The world must have felt empty, and the future, only uncertain. I imagine their thoughts and conversations must have churned over the whole of those three years and that Good Friday in a ruthless fashion. “They’d crucified Jesus! How could He die? Jesus raised people from the dead! He healed the blind. He cured the mute and the deaf and the lame and the sick! He cast out demons! He walked on water! He fed the 5,000. He fed us. How? How? How could He die?” and “Why?”
I imagine they must have hunted through their memories for every word of His they could remember, most especially, that he’d warned them, He would suffer and die. Palm Sunday must have felt like another lifetime ago, rather like the luxury of attending mass seems now. We are in the midst of a storm knowing something of that emptiness, as our lives are stripped back, as the stores are stripped bare, and as the future for well, everything, is revealed to be what it always was, uncertain. It makes all we do, an act of faith or a revelation of our fear of trusting in the Lord. It’s easy to see how the apostles would have locked themselves in an upper room.
We are awaiting Easter with the knowledge it happened and is happening now. That’s the gift of Holy Saturday for us. One day, we will receive again the gift of being able to go to mass, to participate fully and receive. We know it will be true infinitely should we respond to God’s invitation to love Him with a yes, forever. We will be before the Lord of Hosts. We will be able to see and touch Jesus more than we have up to now whenever we’ve been given the blessing to receive. Today, most especially this day, we’re between Good Friday and Easter in the world, with the knowledge this disease is about us and dangerous, and the hope of one day, being able to move about without fear.
Holy Saturday is a gift to the Church, as Jesus descended into Hell and preached the Good News of His endless love to the dead. (We profess this in the creed at every mass). Holy Saturday must be a day of special joy to the souls in Purgatory it seems to me, because all time is now to God, and so the souls in Purgatory now, must be offered the gift of hearing God’s love, every Holy Saturday and all time in Purgatory must also be like that first Holy Saturday, the time in between death and life everlasting, where the souls hear and rejoice at the word.
If we want a slice of Heaven now, when we can only watch the mass but not partake fully, we should rejoice at the word, and live in hope of the eventual time when if we are so graced, we get to participate in the fullness of Holy Saturday, as a prelude to experiencing the fullness of Eternal Easter.
I imagine they must have hunted through their memories for every word of His they could remember, most especially, that he’d warned them, He would suffer and die. Palm Sunday must have felt like another lifetime ago, rather like the luxury of attending mass seems now. We are in the midst of a storm knowing something of that emptiness, as our lives are stripped back, as the stores are stripped bare, and as the future for well, everything, is revealed to be what it always was, uncertain. It makes all we do, an act of faith or a revelation of our fear of trusting in the Lord. It’s easy to see how the apostles would have locked themselves in an upper room.
We are awaiting Easter with the knowledge it happened and is happening now. That’s the gift of Holy Saturday for us. One day, we will receive again the gift of being able to go to mass, to participate fully and receive. We know it will be true infinitely should we respond to God’s invitation to love Him with a yes, forever. We will be before the Lord of Hosts. We will be able to see and touch Jesus more than we have up to now whenever we’ve been given the blessing to receive. Today, most especially this day, we’re between Good Friday and Easter in the world, with the knowledge this disease is about us and dangerous, and the hope of one day, being able to move about without fear.
Holy Saturday is a gift to the Church, as Jesus descended into Hell and preached the Good News of His endless love to the dead. (We profess this in the creed at every mass). Holy Saturday must be a day of special joy to the souls in Purgatory it seems to me, because all time is now to God, and so the souls in Purgatory now, must be offered the gift of hearing God’s love, every Holy Saturday and all time in Purgatory must also be like that first Holy Saturday, the time in between death and life everlasting, where the souls hear and rejoice at the word.
If we want a slice of Heaven now, when we can only watch the mass but not partake fully, we should rejoice at the word, and live in hope of the eventual time when if we are so graced, we get to participate in the fullness of Holy Saturday, as a prelude to experiencing the fullness of Eternal Easter.
1 comment:
I am so excited to rediscover your beautiful blog. I have maintained my blog, more as a family album so I am behind. I love reading what others write. Easter was hard this year being so far apart from my older kiddos but one is in a pastoral year at a seminary. He is helping the priest "televise" (really just facebook publish) things so the pastor can stay connected to the people. I have benefited from this. My son is in a different diocese in a different state, but now I see him everyday at Mass. That has helped me stay connected to both Our Lord and my son!
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