We wait in holy darkness

 

On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on His suffering and death.  The Altar is left bare and the Sacrifice of the Mass, is not celebrated.  Only after the solemn Vigil during the night, held in anticipation of the Resurrection, does the Easter celebration begin, with a spirit of joy which overflows into the following period of fifty days until Pentecost.

Holy Saturday is sacred as the day of the Lord’s rest; it’s been called the “Second Sabbath” after creation.   The day is and should be the most calm and quiet day of the entire Church year, a day broken by no liturgical function.  Christ lies in the grave while the Church sits near and mourns.   After the great battle He’s resting in peace but upon Him, we see the scars of intense suffering; the mortal wounds on His Body remain visible.  Jesus’ enemies are still furious, attempting to obliterate the very memory of the Lord by lies and slander.

Mary and the disciples are grief-stricken, while the Church must mournfully admit, that too many of her children return home from Calvary cold and hard of heart.  When Mother Church reflects upon all of this, it seems as if the wounds of her dearly Beloved were again beginning to bleed.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, as she waits near the Lord’s tomb, as she is represented in Christian tradition, is an icon of the Virgin Church keeping vigil at the Tomb of her Spouse while awaiting the celebration of His Resurrection.

We wait in holy darkness.

We wait and we reflect on all that has happened during this week:

How we waved palm branches to greet our Messiah as He entered Jerusalem (Mark 14:1—15:47); all our hopes wrapped up in Him.

By Good Friday we discovered that even hope has a dark side sometimes.  When our hopes are crushed, we blame our spouse, blame our family, our boss or our nation’s president.  When our hopes are shattered, we may even blame our God.  “Where were You when I needed You?”  “What kind of God permits this suffering?”  Then we toss aside our palm branches.  We may even join the crowd shouting, "Crucify him."

Yet, if we have courage to climb Calvary to die with the Lord, we can discover real hope; hope in God’s promise that in dying to our old self, we too will rise again to new life.

But, for now we sit by the tomb.  We wait in holy darkness.