Holy Saturday — Waiting in Darkness

By Sr. Barbara Battista, SP

We call this day “Holy Saturday.” We spend this day, between death and resurrection, in quiet remembrance, as a somber vigil at Jesus’ tomb. This is not simply a re-enactment. Holy Saturday invites us to ponder the “tomb time” between Jesus’ death and resurrection.

For Jesus’ early followers, this was not necessarily a waiting time. They had no idea what came next. This “tomb time” is a waiting time for us — a part of the whole Death/Resurrection story. We wait in silence, in grief, in searching for meaning. Why did Jesus need to be crucified? For what purpose? What did it accomplish? How has it changed how we see ourselves and how we choose to live? And for what do we wait?

Waiting is a fact of life. We wait for Spring flowers, for Summer tomatoes, for all sorts of breakthroughs, we wait. We wait through the last days leading to the death of a loved one, or the birth of a child. Now we wait for migrants to be welcomed and treated with respect or for our Constitution to be honored, and given its rightful place in policy deliberations. We wait for justice to prevail.

What if this day of waiting is an invitation to consider how we ‘crucify’ others individually and communally through systems and structures we support or at the very least tolerate?

A man named Will LeCroy was killed by the federal government in the darkness of a brightly lit room, while strapped onto a cruciform table, with numerous observers behind glass walls. I stood inside that chamber, praying aloud the Divine Mercy Chaplet at Will’s request. Will was killed in our name, ostensibly to say that killing is wrong.

We wait for the killing to stop.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, waited. In consenting to be the God-bearer, she allowed the Light of Christ to flourish. She waited at the foot of the cross AND at the tomb. Mary’s fidelity helps us to practice that active waiting.

Mary’s active waiting invites us to claim the possibilities in our waiting, in our fidelity. How do we stand witness to our belief, no matter the cost? Are we open to allowing pain and sorrow fully into our lives in a way that breaks us open to being vulnerable and courageous in our response? To being with others in their life circumstances?

This holy and ‘in between’ day comes at a time of deepening darkness in our nation. We are called to be formed into Christ in our actions and our words, to bring Christ’s Light into systems that oppress others.
Whatever the call, let us resolve to extend the Light of Christ however, whenever, and wherever we can.

Today, I invite you to consider:

1. Has this time of waiting called you to be a Light-bearer? Perhaps to stand witness when others are being silenced?
2. Are you being invited to deepen your efforts to end the death penalty? Or to stand in solidarity with those persons pushed to the margins?