296th Meditation
“I will say, ‘Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me,’ even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day” (Ps 138:8).
There is nothing that cannot be illuminated by the light of God.
The silent Saturday preceding Easter is marked by the descent of the Crucified One into the kingdom of death, to bring Redemption to those who do not yet live fully in the light of God; those who have yet to wait for the Redeemer to come to them.
No one is excluded from the grace of Redemption which our Heavenly Father offers to all human beings in His Son. Neither those who lived before Jesus came into the world, nor those who were born afterwards. It is only those who reject with full conviction the Redemption which Christ obtained for us who exclude themselves. But even then the light of God does not cease to shine, which in this case will bear witness to His justice. And this too is a shining light!
We can interpret the mystery of the “silent Saturday” by extending it also to the personal sphere: the Lord descends into the “kingdom of death” within a person, where there is emptiness and the danger of meaninglessness and abandonment wants to spread….
If our Lord exclaimed from the Cross the words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, we can include in His suffering that inner dimension of the “kingdom of death”, asking Him also to descend into our innermost depths to illuminate them with His light.
This day too – like all other days – is enveloped in the merciful light of our Father, even if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not offered on it. If we quietly welcome the light of Holy Saturday within us, allowing it to touch our depths, our souls will be prepared for the joy of Our Lord’s Resurrection, that joy which will never cease.