today

It’s called Holy Saturday. I guess they couldn’t come up with a better name for it than that, I mean the entire week is called holy week for crying out loud. The Filipinos refer to it as Black Saturday, and I think I’m going to adopt that name.

I think we’ve lost sight of this day, like so much of our heritage, and it’s a travesty. Tomorrow, we get up and those of us who go to church will most likely sing songs of the victory of Christ and other great themes. I think a large number of Christians will take time to think about Sunday and all that it means, and I wholly support that.

But, what about today? What about Black Saturday? Can we really grasp the significance of this day? This three-year whirlwind ended with a bang, but not the kind that was expected. Instead it ended with the bang you see when that character whom you rooted for during the entire movie just dies. It’s that emptiness that you feel when you see the long drawn out death scene, the slow motion camera, and the deafening off all sound but the violin in the background.

Take that feeling and let it abound, and maybe, just maybe we can grasp the beginnings of the sorrow that Black Saturday must have been.

But instead of thinking about today, reflecting on the coming daybreak, we move straight from Friday to Sunday. Some churches (mine included) have even begun to celebrate Easter Sunday on Saturday!

I work Saturdays, so I can’t do it this year, but I propose next year, a day of silence is taken. A day to reflect on the sorrow felt within the followers of Christ on this day, a day to cleanse ourselves and prepare us for the glory that is Easter Sunday.

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    I guess I grew up far away from any sort of contemplative view of things, so I would probably be a fan of that now.
  • I know that for the liturgical churches, the whole week has a set pattern. There was a church in the town where I grew up which would have a three-hour service in the middle of Good Friday; and then a funeral service for Christ; something in the day during Saturday, and then a vigil through the night in advance of a sunrise service on the Sunday. It always sounded rather heavy to me: but I can see strength in that contemplative tradition, too.
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