For every day during Lent, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All is silent today. Our Lord’s body rests in the tomb. But it waits to rise again. While the disciples of Jesus are weeping and many have scattered in dismay, the Father is preparing a great surprise for the world. Jesus will rise again. But in the Apostles’ Creed we say that after his death, “He descended into hell.”
One ancient homily explained it this way, that on Holy Saturday, “(Jesus) has gone in search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve.”
In the same homily, Jesus said to Adam and Eve on Holy Saturday: “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants, I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake.”
May our silence today not be without hope. We too will rise again from the dead. Jesus the first and we to follow.
May our future be better than our past. May the coming Easter celebration be a reminder of the joy that waits for us. Our hope is in the Lord who made Heaven and Earth.
Pray for those who will be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil tonight and those who will receive the sacraments of initiation into full communion with the Catholic Church in the days to come. Let us be grateful that God has called us forth from the tomb of sin and death to the new life he has prepared for all who believe in Jesus Christ.