HOLY SATURDAY THROUGH OUR LIFE

Boris Ansfeld- Russia

In this YEAR of MERCY I want to take another look at Lent, especially in Holy Week. It seems to me that during Lent, we have always been focused on walking with Jesus in His Passion.  We almost race thru HOLY SATURDAY in our hurry to get to Easter, thus by-passing a very important mystery, and one I want to emphasize this Lent -  that of the Descent from the Cross and the Lamentation of the Women. This Lent, we need to find the ways we can be present to Christ, in others, as we help them in their suffering into a new life.

After the mystery of Holy Thursday and the sorrow of Good Friday comes the silence of Holy Saturday. On this day the Church watches. She waits. The stone has been rolled over the entrance of the tomb and the guards stand watch lest the body of Jesus be stolen.

Holy Saturday is the space of unknowing, of holding death and life in tension. By being present to Jesus on this day we may more readily be able  to help others who are perhaps more disoriented in this fast-paced modern world in loss and darkness than ourselves.  Holy Saturday is the quiet, silence and darkness before we can really experience the light of our risen Christ.

Lamentation- Judyta Bil- Canada

Holy Saturday is perhaps the day we live most through the year. It is the day of hope- not the miracle of the Holy Thursday, not the tragedy of Good Friday and not the joy that is so overwhelming in the Resurrection. Rather it is day which is transition between sorrow and joy, pain and death. Since much of our lives rest in that space between loss and hope, our lives are full of Holy Saturday experiences.

Lamentation- Fernando Alves- Brazil

What I love about so many of  the modern scenes depicting Holy Saturday, is the lack of people-  the masters tended to add what looks like a whole town, when this should be a quiet, pensive time. Holy Saturday is all about the fallen Christ and his Mother and the few that hung around- not the masses who condemned Him.

While some of these artists may not be as "great" as the Masters, I feel through colors and lines, they portray as much emotion if not more than past artists and in many cases through their own "passion".

The Entombment of Christ- F. Alves