Lent, Day Forty-Six, Holy Saturday

Lent, Day Forty-Six, Holy Saturday
Most of the day I spent preparing... for the Easter Vigil celebration... After the Gospel reading I reflected on the significance of our faith in the resurrection of the body. As a community of people conscious of our disabilities [at L'Arche Daybreak], we are held together not so much by the Word as by the body... It is the weak bodies of our core members that create community. We wash, shave comb, dress, clean feed, and hold the bodies of those who are entrusted to us and thus build a communal body. As we claim our faith in the resurrection of the body, we come to see that the resurrection is not simply an event after death, but a reality of everyday life. Our care for the body calls us to unity... to intimacy... and to integrity.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Sabbatical Journal: The Diary of His Final Year, pg 92

Scripture:
¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[a] was put off when you were circumcised by^[b] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.Colossians 2:11-14

PRAYER
God of eternal wisdom, hear my call for help as I keep watch with Christ's disciples at his tomb. Inspire me, as you did Joseph of Arimathea, to find a place of burial for my Lord. I wait in anticipation for the Easter light to deliver me from the darkness of my sins. Amen.

LENTEN ACTION
Mary, the steadfast one, stayed with her Son even through the sorrowful events of the crucifixion. Meditate on the melancholy occurrences of our Mother Mary's life on this day of silent waiting.