Holy Saturday

This morning, a few folks gathered in the darkened Chapel at Trinity Church to observe the "proper liturgy of the day". Holy Saturday often gets trampled in our rush toward Easter. We have plenty of logical reasons for ignoring this brief, solemn service -- flowers need to be arranged, silver and brass need polishing, last minute shopping needs to be accomplished, we've already spent enough time in church this week. I suspect though, the underlying reason for our avoidance of this liturgy is more emotional than logical. We cannot bear to sit with death for too long. Good Friday confronts us with death and we want to get to the happy ending of Easter.

I read an article recently in which the author lamented the absence of bodies (or even ashes) of the deceased at funerals. He wrote something to the effect that, "our culture has become so uncomfortable with death we don't even allow the dead to attend their own funerals." The liturgy of Holy Saturday confronts us with the unrelenting reality of Death -- even Jesus wasn't immune to its clutches.

We know our own death is inevitable. We try like hell to live as if we will never die. We spend most of our time afraid of contemplating death (as if by not thinking about it we will somehow delay its arrival and secure our deliverance from it). We miss our loved ones who have died -- our hearts ache with grief (and sadness is to be avoided at all costs in the culture of the perpetually "happy"). We want to believe that there is something "out there" beyond this life for them and for us. But we don't know for certain. The certainty and the ambiguity of Death are almost too much to bear if we think about it too much.

Waiting for resurrection involves some time in mourning and grief. The proper liturgy for today provides a space for us to do just that. The liturgy also reminds us that Jesus can be our companion in the journey toward our own death. After all, he's already been there ahead of us.