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MARCH 18
GOD’S SILENT SATURDAY
“Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a
member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came
from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the
kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rockhewn
tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation,
and the sabbath was dawning. The women who had come with him from
Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then
they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they
rested according to the commandment.” (Lk 23: 50-56)
On this Saturday let me reflect a bit on that Holy and Great Saturday, when
our Lord lay buried. His Body rests, while His soul is anything but inactive.
Already here the Lord of the Sabbath is triumphant, descending into our
hell as victor, as conquerer of death and its now-crumbling empire. While
His Body lies buried in the earth, the Lord is busy, working on His new
creation. Just as He created Adam “from the dust of the ground” (Gen 2:
7), so He is to raise the New Adam, Himself, from His burial-place in the
ground, breathing new life into us in His resurrected Body.
In the meantime “they rested” up above in the visible world, “according
to the commandment.” They rested in the silence of that Holy and Great
Saturday, quite unaware of God’s silent-yet-robust activity. Today let me
contemplate God’s silence, which often has far more to offer than I may
suspect.
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