Catholic Charities USA

There is something about this day! It has no assigned scriptural readings. Mass is not celebrated. There are, at least in the Western Church, no designated rituals or devotions. It is above all a day of quiet, stillness, pondering, and reflecting. The liturgical dramas of Holy Week - Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, & Good Friday - have all been completed. There is but a calm expectation for the Easter Vigil when night falls. But until then, it is a time of waiting; a kind of mini-Advent of sorts.

The Eastern Catholic Churches and Orthodox have in their churches a designed burial cloth of Christ laid out for folks to quietly reverence and pray with. But that is all. No solemnity or other actions. I wish we had something like this available to mark this day.

Yet for all its stillness, there is in this day a profound message for all of us: for our faith lives, and for our work in the social mission of the Church. It is a reminder that in the end, we can do nothing to save ourselves or our world. All of our efforts and best of parish and agency programs, important as they are, cannot transform the world or bring the fullness of God’s Kingdom to it. It is only the power and grace of God that will ultimately accomplish this; just as it is that very same power and grace which raised Jesus Christ from the grave.

I believe the very inactivity of Holy Saturday reminds us of this fact. We can do nothing but wait for God to act, and only then, pull out all the stops, as they say, to celebrate the Easter mysteries with full voices and joyful hearts proclaiming: Christ is Risen indeed! This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Holy Saturday then is a reminder and a hope which keeps us from getting discouraged in the hard work we are engaged in, especially when problems seem insurmountable and successes often not apparent. Yes, we give this work our best; but trust that, just as God raised Jesus from what seemed to be the finality of death to both His bodily life and His mission, so too will God raise up our world from all its brokenness and suffering in the fullness of time. Our efforts will not have been in vain! But we must remember that our part is to be faithful in the Holy Saturdays of the work we do, and God’s part is to bring fullness of redemption and resurrection. Easter, always on the horizon of Holy Saturday, proves that God will not disappoint.

In this hope, let us today quietly wait and keep watch as did the women at the tomb on that first Holy Saturday.

Deacon Lucio Caruso worked as Director of Mission at Catholic Charities in Louisville for 12 years and was a member of the Parish Social Ministry team. He presently serves as Pastoral Ministry Director at St. Ignatius Martyr parish, a multi-cultural parish in Louisville.