Black Saturday is a quiet time following Good Friday events which culminated in the burial of our Lord Jesus. There are no Masses today, and the Churches are all closed. Even the Most Sacred Body and Blood of our Lord are not found in the Tabernacles. They are empty and mostly left open. Everything signifies mourning. In one of the antiphons in the Liturgy of Hours today, it was written, “Though sinless, the Lord has been put to death. The world is in mourning as for an only son.” Truly, this Black Saturday is a day of mourning.
We know that Jesus will rise from the dead, and yet before that, we must first feel within ourselves His passion and the death He needed to undergo before the Resurrection. Oftentimes, we only want to look at the joyful side of things, or what is easy. We want to experience the Resurrection instantly many times but then, we forget the Cross. Black Saturday is the perfect time to wait in silence and reminisce about all the events that transpired in the life of Jesus.
Not too long ago, it was the Christmas season, and we celebrated the birth of our Messiah. Then it was Lenten season when we prepared for what we already knew: that the Messiah must suffer and die for our sake. For this reason, He had been born. It wasn’t just all joy, all laughs, all parties, or all gifts. If we stay only with the Lord at Christmas time, we miss the greater Christmas Jesus Himself offers us –Easter. What we know does not necessarily mean that it is in our hearts. We must reflect on the life of Christ continually so that they will be imprinted in the memory of our hearts. Before we go to the Resurrection, we must embrace the mourning, the loss, and the pain – signifying the embrace of our own Crosses in life in whatever state of life we live in.
We must reflect on this so that tomorrow when Easter comes, we know the true depths of the meaning and the heights of joy the Resurrection has, and the price Christ has paid for us to have eternal life.
During this Holy Saturday, it is believed that Christ descended into the place of the dead – where the just are placed after their death. Christ went there to open the gates of heaven for them signifying His triumph over death. We, too, could have our triumph and eternal life by carrying our Crosses in and with Christ. From now on, we must also be dead to ourselves – our sinfulness, hardheadedness, and coldness in charity. A true Christian lives by following the examples of Christ who lived a life serving others, and giving others what He can, and He gave His all – His everything to us even unto death.
May we go to Easter having this in heart and mind that we may love and serve others beginning from the poorest of the poor. Only by understanding this could we have the true joy of Easter. By sincerely following Christ not only in words but in deeds, we too could enter heaven with the elect. Death is not death anymore for us but a way to our own Resurrection in Christ.
Amen. +
Marga de Jesus | OLA Social Communications
