Waiting Like Mary... in Haste!

As a kid had the impression that there was no Eucharist on the planet the day after Good Friday. Those Saturdays - even with the crying kids, dying of eggs, and cleaning of the house - were very quiet. I always had this sense that the birds were quieter, the streets quieter, and so much seemed to go in slow motion. I was confused, knowing that he had to be present - but I didn't know where. I joyfully waited for Easter to relieve me of this. As I got older, I reasoned that Jesus was in Australia, and imagined Easter beginning on the other side of the world. It became more a day of anticipation, of standing outside the tomb waiting my turn to see the risen Lord. Older still, I realized that Jesus was in many tabernacles throughout North America - and reposed in side chapels awaiting the big day - and I finally understood why the world didn't fall apart on Holy Saturday. Jesus never left. 

He still hasn't.

In our Institute, we celebrate the "hour of the Madonna" today. The Lord has died, his body lays in a tomb,
and his mother is waiting. She didn't wait like the little me - confused by the uncertainty of the day - nor did she wait like the adolescent me  - with a mind totally preoccupied by realities far away. She waited as only she could... with joyful hope.

Though the details of Mary's words and actions are not revealed, everything that the Lord wished to reveal is certainly written. The apparent scarcity of detail magnifies the word of God, and the person of Mary, for us to readily understand if we have the courage. Over and over again we find Mary hopeful, obedient, prayerful, and faithful. On the first Holy Saturday - silent and sorrowful - it was no different as the Scriptures have revealed.

From the very beginning of the Gospels she was hailed as blessed for believing in the promise of the Lord. She knew that her Son was dead, but she also knew that he promised to rise again. Undoubtedly, so filled with grace, she was able to pierce through the obscurity of the day that so tortured the apostles - and wait in peace. All that she had pondered in her heart, losing him for three days, the prophecy of the sword, was coming into sharp focus.

We can be sure that she was united to her Son through obedience, and that this obedience moved her to charity as it had her entire life. Instead of running to her cousin Elizabeth, she was with John as Jesus had willed. After they departed from the tomb, where they had followed Jewish custom for burial, we don't know exactly what she did. One may conclude that she went with John to the other Apostles - since they were together on Easter Sunday. The same Woman that lost Jesus in the temple, that hurried the hour at the wedding feast, and that prayed at the foot of the Cross, continued to carry out the will of God with haste and to care for the children she had embraced at the cross as she had cared for Christ these 33 years. WHAT LOVE!!!

Words fail me, and so we ponder these things in our heart and pray on this Holy Saturday to be like Mary, to be Mary's, in accordance with the Will of God.