THE WORD
HOLY SATURDAY, Gen 1, 1-2, 2 / Rm 6, 3-11 / Lk 24, 1-12
But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.
IN OTHER WORDS
“Do you miss me?” “Yes, I miss you so much!” “Where have you been?” “What are you doing?” “When will I see you again?” “I really wish you are here with me!” This could be a conversation of lovers separated by time and space. But could this also capture the sentiment of Black Saturday, the day after the death and burial of the One whom the disciples loved so dearly?
Do you miss the Lord so badly, feel the pinch of loneliness in your heart and die to come to him
in the tomb or the tabernacle only to find it empty? Before we fast-forward to the alleluia and
Gloria, it might be worth our curiosity to ask: What happened on black Saturday?
When we say the Apostle’s Creed, we note that after Jesus died and was buried, “he descended into hell.” Holy Saturday commemorates this event. Where the bible is silent about, our catechism lls the gap. Here is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it. 633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.
Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: “It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.” Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, or to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him. 634 “The gospel was preached even to the dead.” The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment.
The last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission is the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
- Fr. Emil Lim, SVD | Saint Jude Catholic School Manila
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
