Give an Hour
For you and Jesus
in the Tomb this Holy Saturday

Lent is bookended. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Yet, too often, we push through. Lent was long, we want it to be over and the joy of Easter is so compelling, we might as well start the party early. Especially this year as we have suffered through the Coronavirus pandemic. As so many have said, we have given up a lot this Lent.
 
In mission, we leave our context and enter fully into another – another language, culture, economic class, even “sheltered in place” – to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
To rise with Christ – Christ in the lives of others and in our own – we must spend some time with him in the tomb. That is the gift, challenge, and promise of Holy Saturday. Here we confront our deepest fears with the whispers of faith that power our lives.
 
Be alone. Set your timer for an hour. Talk to the spent and silent body of Jesus, about death, your fears, your faith. Need some help? USCMA has a resource for you – No Greater Love – Meditations on the Way of the Cross. Not something to be read but prayed. Be with one or two moments along the way of the cross that speak most to you, today, in your life.
 
End the hour with a simple profession of faith. Your own words are best. Something like “Jesus, I trust in you” or the Suscipe of St. Ignatius of Loyola popularized by the St. Louis Jesuits in the song, Take Lord, Receive. You may want to spend a few extra minutes to journal your review of your prayer, your moment of communion with the lifeless body of Jesus, the Son of the Living God.