Weeping for the Lord. Mourning for the people who did not recognize their Saviour and crucified Him. Mourning for the Mother of God for her beloved Son.
Mourning and also perplexity among the disciples.
“Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free…” (Lk 24:21) But the Lord descended into the underworld, to those who were still waiting for redemption, and there too He gave His love.
All this remains closed to us normal mortals and we take it up in faith.
It is the day when the altar remains empty, no holy sacrifice ascends to the throne of the Most High, the life-giving word only resounds in the funeral masses; it is as if the whole cosmos is wrapped in mourning and weeping with Our Lady.
However, life outside is taking its course. The people who do not live with the Lord do not even know what is happening. These are only revealed to the believers on their earthly pilgrimage.
A day of mourning and waiting. Lent is coming to an end and we believers know from tomorrow everything will be different, from tomorrow real life will pulsate, from tomorrow…
But the Lord has also taken this day into service, perhaps He wants to descend into our still unredeemed realms and proclaim His Word of Life. There where it is still dark in us, where the divine light does not shine in enough; there where death still sits in us.
“Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory?” (cf. 1 Cor 15:55), we will hear very soon.
Let us also take advantage of this day of mourning, waiting and preparation, and let us offer our shadows and all that is unconscious, to him who descends into the kingdom of death, and let us invite him to come to us and penetrate everything, to erase sin and its effects to the last depths, and to redeem us.
After all, we want to belong to the Lord completely, and nothing should separate us from Him: neither our conscious will, nor our thoughts and feelings, nor our unconscious. The Lord wants to redeem everything and enable us to live as true children of God.
We are still waiting! Soon it will be time and the Exsultet will sound… In this year 2021 for many perhaps only through the media.