Easter Saturday, Holy Saturday, call it what you will, it is the day of the Easter weekend that Christians don't know what to do with. (I know that's abysmal sentence structure but you know what I mean). My own best/worst Holy Saturday was in 2001 when I worked with an RC church and actually experienced something of its real desolation. Yet, lest we be too hard on ourselves, part of the problem is that we know the happy ending and can't pretend otherwise - Holy Saturday can only be truly experienced in our own places of not knowing.
This year, Holy Saturday is significant in my little church in at least two ways.
I have one family in the waiting phase - a loved one has died but the funeral cannot take place until 'after the feast.' This may have been an elderly relative whose life was drawing imperceptibly closer to its end, but the helplessness and enforced waiting are no less than had a young person been snatched in the prime of life.
I also have a scattering of ashes service to take around midday. We will gather underneath a leaden sky in a graveyard first used almost three centuries ago to plant a tree and liberate the ashes of someone who died last year. There has been a long wait for this, a searching for a 'right time' when those who wish to share can be present, a searching for how to release the last tangible link with a wife and mother who was indeed snatched away at a fairly young age.
Today will be a holy Saturday, a God-space for these two families. For one there is the knowledge that, symbolically anyway, the Marys wait with them; for the other there is the moment of 'it is finished' as they release the past, trust in the future promises of God and live the present.
For neither family will Holy Saturday be the same as before - nor will it for me. As I add more layers of experience and, hopefully, understanding, this day becomes more not less significant and its confusing silence more profound.
Comments
Thank you for this timely reflection. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
I've just learned that the couple I saw yesterday to plan their wedding have been called back to the south coast urgently, as the young man's mother is expected to die within the next few days. Another church member is urgently preparing to fly to New Zealand on Monday, knowing that his mother there isn't expected to live until tomorrow.
Naturally, this profoundly affects the way in which I will be leading Easter Sunday worship tomorrow.
We have just heard that the husband of one of our deacons has just died following a fall at home. Like Andy, I am conscious that this will affect the way Bob and I lead Easter worship tomorrow.
My thoughts and prayers are with you both, your churches and especially these families.
We often speak of resurrection as if everyone got it straight away which is why I like Mark's account where they don't. Thomas has also proved a good 'friend' over the years in this respect.