These are the notes I took of the Holy Saturday reflection
presented by Fr. Scott Lewis SJ at Manresa Retreat Centre; April 15, 2017:
Holy Saturday is a period of 'in-betweeness',
characterized by feelings of
emptiness...
hopelessness...
dread....
heartbreak....
disappointment...
It is a metaphor for life itself: life is a state of
'inbetween-ness' - in between birth and death.
On that first Holy Saturday the disciples did not
have the insight and consolation of Easter Sunday. What they did have was the betrayal of
trust, dereliction of duty, scandal created by those in positions of trust,
family and friends who failed to see Jesus for who he was, indifference to the
message. The mission of Jesus seen as a failure.
Like the story of Job - things collapse, our world
crumbles.
Things once important lose meaning.
Anger could take over as we treat badly with grief
and loss; we are ill-equipped to deal with disappointment.
The times in which we live seems like an extended
Holy Saturday. How do we treat with this
in-between time?
That is when we find what really matters. Patience is the companion of wisdom; knowing
how to wait for God - the art of patience.
Abraham, that man of faith, is a model of this: he trusted that God's
promise would come to pass - at the appointed time.
But amongst us
feelings of being left behind
rising
levels of polarization
indifference
to those who struggle
authoritarianism
leads to extremism ... radical conservatism ...
The in-between times are so protracted we can even
forget about The Promise.
We need to cultivate the spirituality of Holy
Saturday - the Art of Waiting: staying anchored in the moment with serenity, a
sense of assurance that things will happen in due time - even when you cannot
see the path ahead: "Lead Kindly Light amidst the encircling gloom, lead
thou me on .... I do not ask to see ... one step enough for me". (Newman,1833)
The spirituality of Holy Saturday calls for:
- Faith
Not dogma or doctrine, but trust rooted in one's relationship
with God and not what is happening around you.
Faith. Reflected in how one
responds to life ... it is, according to Wilfred Cantwell (1979), "an
orientation of the personality, to oneself, to one’s neighbor, to the universe;
a total response … to see, to feel, to act in terms of, a transcendent dimension".
We take here, as our model, Abraham our father in
faith.
- Hope
Not wishful thinking, but being able to gaze into
the heart of God and to be inspired, knowing that God is continually at
work. A sense that God has barely gotten
started.
Hope is the mark of closeness to God.
- Love
Not romance, but a concern for the happiness of
others - even those who are different to us; even those persons we do not
like. God makes no distinction; God has
no favorites, God allows the rain to fall and sun to shine on the honest and
the dishonest alike. Love is always
expressed in very practical terms ... it is a verb ... a reaching out to the
other in kindness.
The stories of the many persons throughout the world
who are standing up for the weak, the suffering, the oppressed - they show us
how to carry on in the in-between times; how to stay patiently with the
emptiness whilst taking small steps in gratitude - no sense of entitlement, but
gratitude. Where there is resentment
there can be no gratitude - "Resentment is the cancer of the soul". Life is good if we receive it as a gift; not with
a sense of entitlement.
So, we ought not to linger at Good Friday nor gallop
to Easter Sunday. We are called, rather,
to be subversive in the world: people of faith, hope and love in the world;
refusing to get sucked into the depths of despair.
Act justly
NOW...
Love tenderly NOW ...
Walk humbly NOW ...
We are not expected to complete the work but neither
are we free to abandon it.
