The Profound Silence Of The Tomb

Mark Rothko. 1969 Untitled.

Holy Saturday—the quietest of all days. The tomb that held Your broken body was dark and silent. Heaven held its breath. A shimmering stilling making ready for glorious resurrection.

Precious Jesus, I have moved with You through the thirst of the wilderness, the horror of the cross, and now into the darkness of the tomb. I have come to the deepest of my sufferings. I find You there in the silent stillness. There are no more words. I will rest now and let darkness do its work in me. All things grow in darkness and silence. A grain of wheat will never be more than a single grain of wheat unless it is buried. Then it sprouts and produces a great harvest.1I await the dawning of the Light that will surely come. May I ever more fervently prepare to celebrate the mystery of Easter as the glorious feast of my redemption approaches.

From The Hidden Life Awakened pp210-211:

“The way of trust lies through Gethsemane and Holy Saturday. We move from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, omitting Holy Saturday—the tomb. Every phase of our Lord’s life and every aspect of His death speaks to us if we will open to it. Divine obedience was lived out at the Last Supper, accepted at Gethsemane, accomplished on the cross, and perfected alone in the darkness of the tomb. Our assent to time in the darkness of the tomb is so often the missing link in our lives. The wilderness of our suffering is not just a place of darkness and temptation. It is the place of our transformation through which the false self must move. It is the place of conversion where the emotional pain of a lifetime, stored in the unconscious, is revealed and then gradually let go of. This is not a time of separateness, although it may feel that way; it is a time that links us to the Eternal. It is in walking through the darkness that we learn to discern the voice of the Beloved and receive the grace of interior resurrection and the capacity for divine union. All things grow in darkness and silence. There are hidden depths that only the Spirit can reach. It is a hidden life.”