The first impression I have of the day, the Holy Saturday is the alarm the clouds brought, when I looked at the sky! Not a good day! That is when I remembered that following the burial of Jesus of Nazareth, the next day being the Sabbath, '....they rested according to the commandment' (Luke23:56). That Sabbath Saturday was also a stormy day! The women who followed Jesus and visited the place where Jesus was buried, 'prepared spices and perfumes' and then rested for the Sabbath. The spices and perfumes are for honouring the dead person in the tomb. The Holy Saturday was spent in the shadow of death.
The second photo above, taken from the other side of the garden, where I was stranding, is an altogether different view. Against the blue sky, a tree is seen standing, spreading its branches widely and waving with its leaves! Its life is vibrant and promising of the future. It is the tree where the birds would come to rest in the night and find fruits during the day. It gives shadow below for those who walk underneath it. It gives its oxygen to the air and becomes the source of life! This imagery of the Holy Saturday lifted my spirit high. The cloudy sky is not the ultimate. The living tree transcends fear and anxiety that the clouds carry.
When I turned to the corner of the garden, I was pointed out to the web that a spider, hiding in the rolled over dry leaf, was weaving. Th leaf itself is carried by the web. The hidden spider!
The Holy Saturday is the day when Jesus was hidden from mankind! The tomb covered Jesus of Nazareth. And yet, His teachings, presence in human history, and the hope of resurrection He talked about were still holding people from succumbing to fear, doubt and dismay! The web of the history of His three and half years of public presence, being and doing were authentically present to sustain those awaiting for the resurrection experience. The darkness of the Holy Saturday was interspersed with the web of the mission and ministry of Jesus.
The clouds generate fear within!
The tree brings hope to live with!
The Hidden spider is still at work to make its web !
So the Holy Saturday is all about the hidden Christ, present in our midst and holding us in the web of His presence and teachings!
For many of us the Holy Saturday is not just one day, but a season of waiting and enduring!
A mother described her Holy Saturday experience recently! At thirteen years of age, she was still struggling to find a way to engage her daughter with a cognitive impairment, in a meaningful occupation. For three years the mother had introduced different activities to get her trained. But her daughter did not get drawn by them. A visitor who came home was knitting during the conversation. Her daughter got enthused by this and is now getting professional training to knit and make different garments! What a story of the outcome of a Holy Saturday experience!
I remember one Holy Saturday experiences in my own life. I joined for the pre-medical course and could not complete my examination as a severe Hepatitis infection incapacitated me. When the examination result of the next year was due, my result was withheld as I did not participate in the NCC training, from which I was exempted due to my prolonged Hepatitis infection. The medical certificate which was produced in the college, granting exemption was not forwarded to the University. That was the time when the Indo-China war compelled the government to train all college students through NCC to be recruitment ready when needed. It took another year of academic work before I could get into medical training. The year 1967 to me was the resurrection year, after three years of the Holy Saturday experience!
The Holy Saturday experiences are formative for receiving the resurrection experience!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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