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There can be a great temptation, now that Good Friday is over, for priests, sacristans and all other others who have to get the church ready for the Easter Vigil, to do so quite early on Holy Saturday. There are good practical reasons why they should; but it would be better if they could postpone doing so for as long as possible in order to be able to savour something of the atmosphere of the period of emptiness when God’s Son was dead and had not yet come back to life. An ancient homily for Holy Saturday, part of which is quoted in the Office of Readings for this day, conjures up a most moving image of the interval between Our Lord’s death and his resurrection. “What is happening?” the preacher asks. “Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps…” He goes on to describe Christ going to the underworld (“he descended into hell”, we say in the Apostles Creed) to seek out our first parents, Adam and Eve. Armed with his victorious weapon, his cross, he goes to them in order to bring them back to life and light.
Christians are encouraged to make a conscious effort, insofar as their circumstances permit, to use Holy Saturday as a time for silent reflection and patient expectation. For most people this will not be possible, but any attempt to do so will be very worthwhile. We need to recapture the atmosphere of prayerful waiting because we on the verge of celebrating the greatest event of history, the greatest feast of the Christian year.
(There is no Mass on Holy Saturday, and the sacraments are not celebrated except in emergency.)
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