What do we do on Holy Saturday? If it isn’t the most-ignored moment in the liturgical year, then it certainly comes close. I certainly never celebrated Holy Saturday as a child…the church-wide Easter Egg Hunt was the most important thing.
What did the first disciples, the women and Joseph of Arimathea do? What about the centurion who had just stood beneath the cross? Pilate? Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin? The out-of-town faithful who came for Passover and got something dramatically different?
They rested, according to the commandment. They waited. They observed the sabbath.
What an odd thing to do for those early followers of Jesus! The one who had come to fulfill the law was dead…and yet, they still obeyed the law. The conversation must have been somber over dinner, furious, despairing. And yet, probably out of habit more than anything else, forgetting the words which the Word had spoken…they waited.
Waiting, listening, keeping silence is something which we have neglected in our churches as much as in our culture. When the absolute value of productivity and efficiency are taken for granted, when we rarely understand the meaning of quiet in our urban, fragmented life, when our babble dominates worship, it is hard to hear the authentic voice of the living God. When the rush to celebration and victory and joy obliterates sacrifice and struggle and sorrow, then we cannot be complete and whole and holy. Holy Saturday reminds us that there is no blessing without sacrifice.
So, for all of us whose worlds and even churches insist on neglecting if not ignoring the observance of Holy Saturday, may we be witnesses to everything that is missed in the silence, the waiting, the dark night in broad daylight.
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Merciful and everliving God, Creator of heaven and earth,
the crucified body of your Son was laid in the tomb
and rested on this holy day.
Grant that we may await with him the dawning of the third day
and rise in newness of life, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.
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