April 19/Holy Saturday
I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence.
You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. ~ Ps 16. 8, 9, 11
Certain memories linger in our hearts with special clarity, perhaps because they encase formative moments in our lives. The day we met the person we would marry, a life-altering encounter with a demanding teacher, the first moment with a newborn child — each of us has a store of such memories. For me, a long-ago Holy Saturday – now thirty years! – that marked the day before my reception into the Catholic Church is one of those. And what I remember most — beyond the sunshine of an unexpectedly tranquil afternoon, as my two babies napped and my husband went out on a field trip to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani with the Jesuit priest who would confirm me the next day — was a sense of peaceful, quiet anticipation. I felt myself on the cusp of a major commitment that would change my life in countless ways, as indeed it has. Today, as we await the transformation of Good Friday’s dark despair into the bright joy of Easter morning, we celebrate in an especially profound way the continuing presence of God in our lives. It is a day of expectation, a liminal day in which we look back over the Lenten weeks past, full of sorrowing and sighing, of remorse and regret, and look forward to tomorrow’s jubilant singing and nourishing feasts. Yes, our lives have moments of distress and suffering, sometimes lots of them. Occasionally, those moments may even seem disproportionate to our merit and our faithfulness. But the message of the Resurrection is that ultimately God will turn our weeping into rejoicing, our mourning into dancing, and our sorrows into delights at his right hand. As Easter morning dawns tomorrow, let us give thanks above all for the God of love, who emptied himself so that we might experience “fullness of joys” in his presence.
O LORD of all life, Instill in me an Easter joy that will spill forth in all I say and do, both tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041925.cfm
To hear the Ensemble De La Rue sing “Conserva me, Domine,” by Jacobus Clemens non Papa, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L3UZ7gxEQs
