23Jesus answered, "Time's up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. 25In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." (St. John 12, The Message)
So, what is holy about Holy Saturday? What could be holy about a corpse, a tomb, confused disciples hiding for their lives, and family and friends grieving Jesus' death on a cross? What could be holy about the waiting, the emptiness, the lostness associated with that Saturday and such times in all our lives? Is it possible that such a day could be as holy as the days prior and the glorious Easter to come? Or, is such a day, such times in life, an interruption to traverse as quickly as possible?
Henri J. M. Nouwen writes, in Weavings (January 1987), of the role of waiting in our relationships. “Waiting together, nurturing what has already begun, expecting its fulfillment—that is the meaning of marriage, friendship, community, and the Christian life.” Indeed, life is process, and all our relationships participate on the stage of the Drama of the Divine, and this Drama is unfolding moment-by-moment in time.
As a child, I recall the centrality of waiting for Santa every year. From Christmas to Christmas seemed so long a process, for children have a different sense of time. Over the years, like you did, I learned that waiting is as much about the process of life as fulfillment. I learned that often the best things in life are those that demand the most patience. I, likewise, learned that often waiting is a most challenging test of our patience, especially since our society is largely intolerant of waiting. I learned the truth that we are all waiting in a sense for death and the life beyond. I learned that delaying gratification, a waiting to have what I want, is a mark of a mature person.
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Holy Saturday is sandwiched between Good Friday and Easter Season. We could call it a Waiting Day. There are no colors to adorn the church sanctuary with this day. On Holy Thursday, the sanctuary is, according to Christian tradition, stripped of objects and all vestments. So, Holy Saturday could be seen as a kind of vacuity, an emptiness, between the cross and the Resurrection. It would be easy to see Holy Saturday as a break between Golgotha and the Risen Christ in the Garden, a respite in an otherwise more important process. But, even as in the illustration of the grain of wheat buried in the ground, in Jesus’ reference to his coming death and Resurrection, we are to appreciate the place the tomb plays in-between the cross and the Resurrection.
Holy Saturday is as important a day in Holy Week as any other. The sanctuary stripped and naked, barren of color, says something vital about the Christian life. Holy Saturday challenges our cultural addiction to speed and getting things do. It challenges us to silence and solitude. It calls us to experience the barrenness essential to appreciating adequately the many blessings. There seems always somewhere to get, something to do, a goal for our achievement, something to say, and someone to meet.
Holy Saturday reminds us that entering the sanctuary of our own heart, entering the nakedness of nothing being between God and us, is as important as our loving service to others. Holy Saturday says that without patience, without faithful and hopeful waiting, without silence and solitude, we cannot fully participate in and enjoy sharing in the Life of Christ, which is encompassed in the entire process of the Church Year.
There is a lot of living to do in the Holy Saturday days and nights, and moments, of our lives. Some times we might feel we are suffering, and we might lament like the Psalmists. Other days we might feel the celebration of newness. But, faithfulness is, possibly, most exercised in those tomb times when nothing seems to be happening, the in-between times. Holy Saturday summons us to the truth that fallow times are essential to move toward new and more in depth, even more joyful and meaningful, expressions and experiences of faith, hope, and love in all our relationships, including our relationship with God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
Holy Saturday is,indeed, a holy day. Likewise, the waiting times times, the in-between times, of our lives can be moments of cherished remembering and joyful anticipation.
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