HOLY SATURDAY 2025...... We must keep before us this challenging thought. We bless ourselves, make the sign of the cross, for the beginning of the Holy Thursday celebration. We do not make the sign of the cross until the end of the celebration of The Easter Vigil. From Holy Thursday on, what takes place is one gigantic celebration of a Mystery we have been celebrating each and every year. Each year The Liturgy schools us in an understanding we did not have, it is a mysterious gift which comes to us through prayer and reflection. I am now 85,( that is old, old ) and each year I am drawn into an understanding that has been missing from my life. That is wrong, it has not been missing, it has been waiting in my depths waiting to reach consciousness. The more work one puts in the more mysterious the unfolding.
We are familiar from the piece of art, describing the emergence of light from darkness, and darkness from light. It is a gentle unfolding, what we would not be aware of until it is pointed out. From the closing of The Good Friday celebration a Catholic Church is a very cold place to enter into. The tabernacle has its door open, revealing an emptiness. There is no Real Presence, the sanctuary light does not glow red in the darkness. All the art pieces, are clothed in purple. No music, except "silent music". We will be drawn to this "silent music". What happens next depends on us, and our response to the invitation to solitude. In solitude we are faced with our issues of, "addiction, negativity, fear, and control." We have been drawn in an ever new evolving awareness each Lenten journey.
From the emptiness, of the now, "tomb time", emerges some new understanding which has not been ours until now. It slowly weaves its way into consciousness. Then a new light appears. A new hope awakens within. Our steps have a new rhythm. We want to dance. We want to dance to the rhythm of our own soul's, new music. Where there was the darkness of death, the grieving for the loss of life, now there in new meaning to the words of Exsultet. This is a hymn praising to glory of the new light, that has entered the darkness. The words that can be found on the internet are a wonderful resource for meditation. Give yourself an Easter gift that will enhance and vivify your life.
From the tomb of darkness, powered by the" powerlessness of power", the bright light of hope is gifted to illumine the darkness, and we can join St.Paul in saying, "death, where is your sting". Yes, "death is not an end, death is a beginning",a new beginning, a birthing. A birthing process that must be reverenced, and above all celebrated. That which is birthed must be nourished, and fed. In that the new creation will be fed and nourished. Then we will not only give birth, we will give life. The Resurrected Christ, no longer the historical Jesus, reveals the transforming power The Resurrection. Yes !!! St Paul is right. So we can rightly pray, if not a little reluctantly, " I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death." Phil 3:10.
The Risen Christ will transform your life, slowly and gentle. This is the relentless, ongoing work of the power of His Spirit within your depths. May you come to see that in all of life's losses and deaths, the birthing of something, a reality, that is new. lIke all new life it must be taken care of with a gentle, and caring love. Your coming to the fullness of life, is the fulfillment of the wish of The Revelator.
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