Holy Saturday

It is difficult to communicate a theology or spirituality of Holy
Saturday in the parish. I prayed the office of readings and morning
prayer as the bustle of the day began, a succesion of flower ladies
coming to beautify the church, and I soon join them with the
preparations for the Vigil which take up a good part of the day. The
irony of our busyness does not elude me. Jesus' body is in the tomb,
and his soul has descended to the dead. In an ideal world today would
be a day of quiet meditation and prayer for the departed. However it
is possible to connect the activity of the day with the tradition of
Christ as on some sense preaching to the departed who in this life had
not had a chance to hear the gospel. In this way of looking at Holy
Saturday it begins to anticipate Easter. Von Balthasar's vision of
Christ as being in some sense passively active, not preaching so much
as experiencing the uttermost separation sees the day more as a
continuation of Good Friday and is one he presents in my opinion a
strong argument for. However one meditates on this day it is a shame
for it to be simply lost.