Mark 15: 33-47
This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalms 118:24
These words of scripture from the Psalms were words my mom said to herself every morning as she attempted to live into them each day. She would often say these words as she looked out at the view of Mt Shasta—framed in her dining room window—as she enjoyed her morning cup of tea.
Mom passed away, at the age of 90, early in Lent this year. The blessing for me is that I was asked to come earlier than planned to do her care giving for a few days. I arrived the evening of Shrove Tuesday, and we began Lent, fighting her latest health challenge together. As she became aware she was not going to overcome that challenge and started to pass, I had the privilege to share with her the things that were special to her. I recalled how she had some months earlier made sure I remembered what she would like included in her memorial service.
Today is Holy Saturday, a day of realization of death and grief for Jesus’s followers. Imagine the family and friends gathered to comfort one another, trying to grab hold of the memories to fill the emptiness that must have consumed them in that time before they would go to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. I’m sure they shared stories of what to that point in time had been an exceptional journey for a savior among all peoples in the lands through which he had traveled.
Holy Saturday is the day in the Christian Year that for us most epitomizes grief – the full day in the three where Jesus was among the dead. It is an especially important day for me this year – as my Lenten journey has been one of death and life, grief and hope. I have not lost sight of the fact that it began, with my mom, on Shrove Tuesday. I have lived each day on my journey through Lent, appreciating the stories of family, friends and faith that shaped my mother’s life. As she joined the company of saints who surround us, I was all the more keenly aware of the Easter which is coming for every one of us.
These last years and this Lenten season have been a journey for me in love and grace, formed and shaped by the holy waters which flow in, and around and through me.
In this Holy Saturday as we live in that space between life and death and life, from Good Friday to Easter, I pray each of you remember the stories of family, friends, faith and a savior that have shaped your life and will continue to nurture you in the days to come.
In Life, In Death, In Life Beyond Death – God is With Us – We Are Not Alone – Thanks be to God.
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