Holy Saturday is an often overlooked part of Holy Week, but it has become one of my favorite Holy Days. The invitation of Holy Saturday to learn how to remain with pain & uncertainty for longer than what is comfortable; to learn how to grieve well. Some of us need this invitation.
Some of us need to be challenged out of spiritual bypassing. It’s unloving to rush someone out of the place of darkness, hopelessness, anger, and pain to get to a superficial joy.
But others of us need the hope that comes with knowing resurrection is around the corner; the assurance that the long night of weeping will be over soon and joy does come in the morning.
Some of us are deeply gripped by pain and desperately hope to come alive again. The reality is, unlike those who witnessed Jesus’ life, death, and subsequent resurrection, we do know the whole story. It’s foolish to pretend we don’t just to manufacture a somber place that we’re not really in or to keep someone in a place they’re ready to get out of.
We woship a God who makes room for the full range of human experience, emotion, and expression. There’s room for all it. We should be attuned to each other’s spiritual needs and make space for all of it.
Our commemoration of liturgical holidays doesn’t have to be one-dimensional; we would do well to sit with the range of emotions that these days invoke. Holy Saturday (or any other Holy Day for that matter) doesn’t have to be one thing for everyone all the time.