Holy Saturday 

   Can you hear it in your heart?  Is it there deep within you?  A quietness, a silence, as if all the heavenly host is silent, in mourning for the death of our Lord.  Anxiously awaiting the resurrection to be celebrated tomorrow morning.  The miracle that reopened the doors of heaven to those who would believe.

   Yet, even while in the tomb, lying wrapped in the funeral shroud, our Lord was not idle.  He descended to Sheol to share the good news with all who were in stasis since the fall of mankind.  To offer them the same redemption as He offers us.  Imagine the joy of those whose future was unknown when the Son of God offered them the blessing of forgiveness and entry into the heavenly kingdom.

   Did Adam and Eve repent of their prideful act which had cost them the paradise God had planned?  I pray that they did.  What of the millions upon millions of others who had died, both the righteous and the sinners?  Did they too turn to Christ, or did some stubbornly continue to refuse His offer?

   And what of us?  Have we learned any lessons during this Lent?  Did we grow closer to our Lord, seeking to know and serve Him better?  He died for us, are we, like the martyrs, willing to die for Him?  We are the only ones who can answer those questions; it is between us and God.

   Let the sacrifice of Lent, the pondering of the passion and death of our Lord strengthen us and lead us always closer to Him.  On the morn we will rejoice in His resurrection.  May we live so as to also rejoice in our own.