Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday – I find myself with Mary, trying to identify how she felt gazing upon the Cross to the tomb. The Eucharist never died for Our Lady. Jesus raised the sorrow in hope even amidst the Crucifixion.

“With our Lord in the tomb, keep the Blessed Virgin company. Alone and grieving, she had only a few poor Christians and St. John, who could hardly replace our Lord. She had been firm, the strong woman, till the very moment of our Lord’s death. According to the Gospel, she was standing (cf. John 19:25) and not as represented in some paintings. She stood, facing the Cross. When our Lord died, the redemption was complete.” Saint Peter Julian (Holy Week, Paris, April 3, 1860)

Living in the tomb with Jesus Christ in the depths of our being is a privilege. It is a grace to know we have a place to offer our sins to receive the fullness of life. To live in the freedom of God, Saint Paul teaches us to die to self. Saint Peter Julian devoured these words of death to life in the Epistles. In death to self, we find beauty within that was hidden in the tomb of the darkness of our lives.

We are blessed to rise to the Easter Vigil of life everlasting. In the Eucharist, we can find the grace to leave ourselves behind daily. To share the blessings we have received is to be bread broken and distributed for the many hungers of the world around us.

Let us pray:

Mother of God, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray with us in the cenacle. Help us to live in the blessings of the Eucharist where heaven and earth meet, and the gift to live in the divine life is now possible in the glory of Easter all the days of our lives. Easter blessings!