Light On Dark Water

Holy Saturday

I sort of wanted to post something about Holy Saturday, but haven't had time, so I'll link to this, from Sally Thomas, instead.

The thought I had, that I wanted to elaborate on, but which, now that I think about it, perhaps needs no elaboration, is this: in a sense most of our lives, at least the rest of our lives after we really learn the meaning of pain, is spent in Holy Saturday: the suspended time between death and the possibility of some kind of resurrection. I don't think that hope is entirely absent even in those who don't believe. It has a way of not being dead even when you think it is.

Maclin Horton

14 responses to “Holy Saturday”

  1. Janet

    Yes, it has a way of not being dead even when you would like it be.
    AMDG

    Reply
  2. Janet

    That wasn’t meant to sound so dire.
    AMDG

    Reply
  3. Paul

    I don’t think it did sound dire. It strikes me as true, though. And epigrammatic (if that’s the word I want).

    Reply
  4. Mac

    No, I didn’t think so, either. Though it’s paradoxical: you don’t completely want it to be–if you did, it would be.

    Reply
  5. Sally Thomas

    Thanks for the link, Maclin.
    Tangentially, my husband has pointed out that Christ’s being in the tomb on Holy Saturday (though He’s also off harrowing hell?) is a fulfillment of the Law: no rising from the dead on the Sabbath.
    After reading his comment, I was also trying to put together a thought about a new creation — God doing the work of restoring man to (at least the hope of) Eden, then resting on the Sabbath. Of course, if He’s harrowing Hell, then He’s not completely resting . . . not being the family theologian, I’m not sure about all this.

    Reply
  6. Mac

    You’re welcome. Also not being a theologian, I will also let the Sabbath question go.

    Reply
  7. Francesca

    I am reading parts of the Wakefield Mystery with my class tomorrow, including the ‘Harrowing’ and it says he stays in hell in fulfillment of the law.

    Reply
  8. Mac

    Something tells me there is no de fide statement on this. Although that idea seems a bit more plausible as an explanation for the three days than the keeping of the Sabbath.

    Reply
  9. Sally Thomas

    Well, the “no rising from the dead” was my gloss on his comment: “Christ in the tomb on the Sabbath: His last act of keeping the law in its fullness.”

    Reply
  10. Francesca

    I was aiming to note the agreement of the Wakefield Mystery with Sally’s husband.

    Reply
  11. Mac

    Oh, I thought you were saying they were in contradiction.

    Reply
  12. Paul

    You are allowed to pull people out of pits on the sabbath. I’m sure it says that somewhere.

    Reply
  13. Janet

    Well, oxen anyway, and I would suspect that implies people.
    AMDG

    Reply
  14. Sally Thomas

    Ah, I see, Francesca. I read that as a contradiction at first, too — not that that would have been a bad thing! It’s interesting that on every level the Law is perfectly kept and completed.

    Reply

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