“Their sturdy backs bent down, by labor and fatigue, their eyes intent upon the earth, sift through stubble discarded by the reapers.”

—Sister Michaela O’Connor

Reflection for Easter Triduum, Part 2

Holy Saturday is a strange kind of day. It’s not yet a day of rejoicing, because Jesus is still in the tomb — or perhaps is off rescuing the pre-Christian saints from the netherworld — but he has not yet risen to us. Yet it is not fully a day of mourning, because we do in fact know the rest of the story. So it is a time in between — a time when we might reflect on the people, so many of them, who are living in an earthly hell right now. One hell, of course, is a maximum security prison for terrorists in El Salvador. But others include poverty, domestic violence, hunger, loneliness, temptations toward suicide, missing children or adults, chronic illness, maybe the special hell of living in poverty in a nation where money seems to be the most important value. How can we work with our about-to-be-risen Lord to rescue people from those hells? Maybe we could spend some of our quiet time today reflecting on that, then celebrate the resurrection tomorrow, and then back to work on our rescue plans!