A Holy Saturday Reflection

I have to confess that I’ve never really thought much about Holy Saturday nor paid it any special attention.  Having been brought up as a Methodist Christian it was something that was scarcely, if ever, mentioned.

I am aware that Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Anglicans have traditions associated with Holy Saturday and might explore some of those for next year.

The Eastern traditions of Christianity hold a funeral for Christ on this day.

In the West an Easter vigil is sometimes held between nightfall and dawn.

Church tradition has it that on Holy Saturday, whilst his body lay cold and still in the tomb, the soul of Jesus descended to hell to release the souls of all the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world.

I haven’t been able to come across any tradition concerning the eleven disciples and the women who followed Jesus.  What were they doing on Holy Saturday.

We know that they were probably in hiding for fear that they would be arrested and crucified as accomplices of Jesus.  We can assume that they were in mourning for their Master and friend, the one in whom they had placed all their hope, the one they had believed was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  We can imagine the frustration of the women who wanted to tend to Jesus’ body but who were prevented by Jewish law from doing so because it was the Sabbath.

We can picture a group of weeping, despairing men and women whose whole world had caved in on them.

Jesus had told them he would rise on the third day, but they had either forgotten or never really believed or understood what he told them about his death and resurrection.  God’s promises can always be relied on.

Sometimes we can doubt God’s promises in the midst of despair, when life’s circumstances seem to be crushing us, when all seems black and dismal, when there seems to be no hope.  But there is always hope because God’s promises are true.

On Holy Saturday Jesus’ friends were fearful, weeping and the world seemed a dark and hopeless place.  Only a day later they were filled with joy as Jesus’ promise to them was fulfilled.