How could they have known how the story would end? How could they have known that one day later, in a way they couldn’t possibly anticipate or understand, Christ would give the whole journey, with all its sufferings, meaning through the joy of the Resurrection? They watched him die, after all. All they could do was wait on that Holy Saturday, with patient trust that in some mysterious way God was still in control and that Good Friday would not be the last word.
As I sat in the church contemplating this mystery, I felt the temptation of Holy Saturday: to get stuck, to see everything through the lens of mourning, as all suffering and no triumph. I could fixate on all the things that went wrong and chalk it up as a disaster. Or I could reject the temptation of Holy Saturday and instead embrace its invitation: an invitation to wait patiently for Easter Sunday, with the faith that God is still at work, even when the waiting makes no sense.
We will all experience Holy Saturdays, whether big or small: those times when we have no choice but to wait, even beyond the point of reason or sense, with trust that God somehow in His own time is working out our salvation. If for a time our crosses make no sense or seem meaningless, then let’s embrace the invitation of Holy Saturday. Let’s pray for the grace of patient waiting, so that one day we may see all our sufferings and trials as worth it in the light of Christ’s Resurrection.
--Jason Britsch, SJ
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