The mystery of this day is the mystery of silence. The work that Christ had come to do on earth is accomplished; yesterday, in John’s gospel, we heard Jesus say from the Cross: It is finished. Jesus has handed over the Spirit and descended to the depths of the underworld, and now all creation waits in silence.
The silence of Holy Saturday is perhaps instructive for our own participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Rather than an immediate vindication, there is a pause, a hiatus, between the Passion and the Resurrection. The two form one single mystery, to be sure: the Passion without the Resurrection would be nihilism, and the Resurrection without the Passion is mere fancy. Yet in our experience of the whole paschal reality, there is a separation between the two. When we experience a death, a real stripping away of the self, the new life we hope for does not always come immediately. There is a delay, a break, a pause. And we must wait in that pause with the Lord, much as the disciples did long ago.
Today, let us wait beside the tomb of the Lord in prayer, pondering this pause with interior silence and stillness, so that when the glorious light of Christ appears, we may receive it with joy.