Holy Saturday: April 19, 2014: “They laid him in a tomb”.

Holy Saturday: 

April 19, 2014:

 “They laid him

               in a tomb”.

                                     

  Holy Saturday Lauds

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6qqJAUCs00

I remember returning home after the funeral of my dad, laying his body in the tomb after a very emotional celebration. There was such a heaviness and emptiness that I felt walking into his bedroom. I missed him terribly and then it hit me he is never going to return. It was sad. 

It was a moment of deep grief and loss that shook me. I was grieving the loss of my loved one in his body, in the forms I knew him, in the multiple looks he was capable of and I could discern. I mourned the loss of flesh. 

Is it not what we do on Holy Saturday when we mourn the death of Jesus. We weep. We shed tears for the Lord who walked, talked, healed, raised up, picked up, stood up, and knocked down. This is the in between time. This is the ‘nothing happening’ moment when earth has swallowed up the Son of God or he has ‘descended into hell’. 

As we wait we reflect on Mary's Agony with Her Son Jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfw0-geIVb8

This is the waiting time. Great things will happen after the Sabbath day of rest. 

We stand in between despair and hope. We stand at the threshold of hope and despair. But our Christian hope is founded upon the certainty that things finally have a victorious meaning no matter how they turn out. 

That is what we are waiting in hope tonight. But first we must wait, we must desire, we must hope, we must accept the finality of death that the tomb is a womb. 

This can’t be the end for the One who came to redeem the world, to establish the Kingdom of God and who preached liberty to captives. St. Paul reminds us “ if there is no resurrection our preaching is in vain, our faith is empty”. 

So we wait for the new life, new dawn of salvation, for resurrection. Ron Rolheiser OMI says, “Resurrection of Jesus reveals that there is a deep moral structure to the universe, that the contours of the universe are love and goodness and truth. This structure, anchored at its center by ultimate love and power, is non-negotiable; You live life its way or it simply won’t come out right. More importantly, the reverse is also true: If you respect the structure and live life its way, what’s good and true and loving will eventually triumph… we don’t have to escape pain and death to achieve victory, we have only to remain faithful, good and true inside of them. 

God’s day will come”. So today we wait in hope for God to do whatever He plans to do. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8tFO7Plm8

It is the time to grieve, to mourn, to align our tears with that of many suffering souls, to share the tears of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHe_qmo3gX4

God Bless you always!

Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!

Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.

Shrine Director

Jesus, You raised me up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzK1kmXvXYw

Reflecting on Our Lamb of God...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFn_f_mSaj0

How Great Thou Art!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGU4WWHqZ1o

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