Holy Saturday is a day of silence and waiting a sacred pause between the anguish of the Cross and the joy of the Resurrection. In today’s Gospel (John 19:40-42), we witness Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, once hidden disciples, stepping into the light to care tenderly for the broken body of Christ. Their actions are quiet, reverent, and courageous. They do not speak; they serve.
This moment of burial is not defeat,it is love carried out through fidelity, even when hope seems buried. It reminds us that even in darkness, love does not abandon. It prepares, it waits, and it trusts in what is to come.
In the spirit of Father Jean Gailhac, we are invited to see this moment as an expression of total self-giving and trust in God’s redeeming love. Gailhac often spoke of the necessity of uniting ourselves with the life of Christ not only in His mission and resurrection, but also in His suffering and apparent silence. He believed in active faith a love that continues even when not seen or felt, echoing his words “It is not enough to admire Jesus, we must imitate Him”.
The burial of Jesus is a time of hidden grace, much like Holy Saturday itself a time that calls us, as Gailhac taught, to deepen our interior life, to stay close to Christ even in the tomb. The silence is not empty; it is pregnant with hope, just as the tomb is not the end, but the doorway to life.
we are called like Joseph and Nicodemus to be bearers of compassion in times of loss, to stand with others in their Good Fridays, and to live with faith through their Holy Saturdays. Our mission, as Gailhac envisioned, is to make God known and loved even when all seems hidden.
Today, we wait with Mary at the tomb. We wait not in despair, but with a heart full of faithful expectation believing like Gailhac that love never ends and life will rise again.
By Sister Perpetual Muzivani
Photo Unsplash
