Let God Find You In the Stillness – Holy Saturday Reflection

Today is the only day in the liturgical calendar that we have no celebration of the Eucharist.  So, how shall we worship God today?  It will take great courage to remain in the restlessness of today.  It will be tempting to jump ahead to tomorrow.  Don’t, for this is a Holy Saturday.  Wrestle with the loneliness of today.  What is today?  It is the day after a death.  

In the last two days leading up to today, did you let him wash your feet, were you awake with him in the garden? Did you hear the cock crow three times?  Did you hear him cry, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit?”  If you were, then today is the day after the death of your brother.  Today you must sit with your mother, Mary, after a sleepless night and not know what to say to her.   It is tempting to move to tomorrow but stay at the tomb.

The day after my father died. I felt nothing. I was numb.  I lost a loved one.  What was Jesus’ family and friends feeling?  Were they numb?  Scripture tells us the women were preparing the burial cloth and oils for anointing his body. Could they find any consolation from the psalmist?  “Be still and know that I am God.”   

Let God find you in the stillness. The tomb you must let God enter is the tomb of your heart.  We need and desire the God who wants to bind our wounds and anoint our bodies.  God is the one who comes to you today.   His is a love so real, so intense, that it stirs our numbness.  Oh, to be still enough to be so loved and what joy will soon come in the morning.  Can you wait?

Karen Ceckowski is the Associate Director of the Conception Abbey Guest Center.