Saturday is usually a hang-out day for me, a chance to do things around the house, to run errands, to catch my breath. But think about what Saturday was in Holy Week for the disciples.
Saturday was the day without hope, the day of mourning the death of Jesus, the day of thinking that everything was lost. How could they know something good would happen next?
Holy Saturday is a place where we can get stuck. A disaster has happened, a promise has been made but it seems highly unlikely and in the midst of our sorrow and struggles, it’s impossible to look to the future.
Pam Ellinger-Dixon, a psychologist and therapist based in Columbus, Ohio, sees a lot of patients dealing with trauma. Their suffering makes it very hard for them to feel hopeful, to know there’s something beyond their misery. “My job,” she told me, “is to be with people in their Saturdays.”
She is dedicated, as she puts it, to helping those in the Holy Saturdays of their lives.
Pam has a strong background in dealing with people in trauma. Back in 2001, after the tragedy of 9-11, she organized and led a group of counseling professionals to New York City, helping clergy and mental health professionals cope with secondary trauma.
She’s even written a book about Saturdays, and what it takes to overcome fearful Good Friday thinking so that it’s possible to rediscover Easter.
When you’re in that kind of despair, though, it’s hard to see Easter. It’s hard to recognize the empty tomb or remember the promise of the Resurrection.
There is only one mention of Holy Saturday in the Bible, in the gospel of Matthew. The chief priests and Pharisees warned Pilate that the disciples might come and steal Jesus’s dead body to pretend that he had been raised from the dead.
“Pilate replied, ‘You have soldiers for guard duty. Go and make it as secure as you know how.’ Then they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.” (Matthew 27:65-66)
He couldn’t know that the stone and guards would make no difference whatsoever.
Churches don’t usually hold elaborate services celebrating Holy Saturday. In my church there is a quiet service of prayer, a time of sitting with the disciples in their mourning. And then everybody starts getting the place ready for Sunday, decorating it with flowers.
Stuck in a Saturday? My prayers are with you. May you find the hope that is just around the corner, waiting for your new life to begin. It’s only a day away.
