Waiting in the void - Reflection on Holy Saturday

Imagine what it was like today for disciples.  We are lucky, we know what tomorrow brings.  We know that He is here with us in the tabernacle, but they didn't know that.  To us Easter is great.  We have a beautiful Mass, dinner with our families, and chocolate Easter bunnies.  But imagine what Easter was for the Apostles.  The two days before had been a nightmare culminating with the horrific death their Messiah and friend.  We know how much Jesus loved them and when a loved one like that dies and leaves us it creates such a hole in our souls.  Imagine then what it's like if you have been walking, talking, and learning the God who is love itself, the hole would be a chasm.  Imagine the fear and doubt, what will happen next?  And then you remember Lazarus and some of the other things Christ said.  Didn't he say something about dying,  and whatHe said about the Temple.  Peter remembers what Christ told him during the Last Supper and gathers them all to wait.  

How sad and frightened they must be.  They have Mary with them and that is a comfort to them.  They wait on her and hold her hand, but is calm.  She has an inner peace that comforts them as they comfort her.  Some can't stay, two have to set out for Emmaus.  What will tomorrow bring for them?  Imagine you simply had to sit there and wait.  You believe still in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, you have seen Him have power over death, but what happens tomorrow has never happened before.  How could you imagine what is about to happen?  The fathers of our faith had to wait in faith.  They had to believe that Christ wasn't simply a prophet, so they waited to see what would happen.

We know what happened and yet we doubt what God can and is doing in our lives.  We don't know what God will ask of us so we too have to sit and wait in faith.  But we must be convinced in our hearts that the God who died for us and rose again will lead us home, if we only follow Him.

Reflections on Passion Sunday

Today we start Holy Week with Passion Sunday.  We triumphantly and publicly herald the entrance of Our Savior into Jerusalem.  We herald His coming as the Great Warrior and leader who will saves from our enemies, then within minutes we are crying Crucify Him! Crucify Him!  How often do we do this in our lives?  We praise God on those days when we wake up and everything is going great.  But then when He asked me to do something, to change, to witness to my faith and risk myself.  How often do I turn away like Peter did, and have I asked His forgiveness for the times I cried Crucify Him?

Today I was lucky enough to be Alter Serving.  As we read the Passion I became aware of the fact that I was standing next to the tabernacle so the Beloved was there.  The one who had been beaten, betrayed, and Crucified was there.  Our Passion is so clean so unemotional, but I could remember the same scenes from the Passion of the Christ.  I especially remember the scene where Peter hears the cock crow and Jesus looks at Him.  The One who dies for us is there.  How can we not weep for what He went through and I am thinking, one more week and I can have back what I gave up for Lent. And He is there, waiting to die for us.  He freely chooses out of love for us to die that death for us.  What am I willing to do for Him? Am I willing to die for Him?  Am I willing to die to myself for Him?  Am I at least willing to give some of my time for Him?

The hardest day this week for me is Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.  To think of the time when Christ wasn't here.  Now He is here always in a tabernacle somewhere.  But there was a time 2000 years ago when we were without Him.  It makes me so sad.  I hate to see the empty open tabernacle, so like a tomb.  The alter is stripped, the world is broken.  But at the sametime I can still sit with Him.  Like a wake or a deathbed.  Just sit with Him and keep Him company.

The comes Easter......but I am getting a head of myself.  We have to wait, and wait makes it all that much sweeter.