Holy Saturday
A Word about the Readings
by Father Gethin
(The readings may be found here)
Some things are too solemn and profound and beautiful to capture with words; the birth of a child; rain in time of drought; a widow’s tears. As we behold them we perceive in a new, and simpler, and better way, the worth and gravity of our human life. “And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.” The body. By His love, such has He become. Christ lies in the dust, out of which, in the beginning, the Father formed us, and to which, because of sin, we were promised we would return. All things here, in this silent hour, are reduced to their simplest, and their most profound, for all things are here described only by hope and faith and charity: hope in a new beginning; faith in the Father’s power to accomplish all things; and love that waits purely and eternally on the appearing of its beloved. In His holy absence from us, we begin to become His people.