Collect for Holy Saturday

 

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I do not believe there is any service more neglected than Holy Saturday. It is a very brief service, concluding the three day liturgy we call the Triduum (literally, three days). Neither Maundy Thursday nor Good Friday include a dismissal. The same is true of Holy Saturday, which brings the Triduum to a close.

The service (found on page 283 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1979) opens with this collect, four lessons, a brief homily or meditation, an anthem, the Lord’s Prayer, and concludes with “the Grace.” There is no celebration of the Eucharist shared or offered on this day.

It is sad the service is seldom offered (in my experience). Altar Guilds are normally very busy preparing the sanctuary for the Great Vigil of Easter or Easter Sunday morning services. While the body of Jesus lies in repose in the cave or niche carved out for burials, we are invited to pause, to rest with him. 

I say “invited” because I’m not fond of “shoulds.” The busyness of the church is actually a sample of what we experience in real life. Saturday is the Sabbath. It is the day of rest, and while the command for it to be a day of rest for all of creation stands, the women folk cannot help but be busy with preparations for Easter, can they? We know the end of the story, so we gather our lilies and bulletins and song-sheets, prepared to restore the “A-word” to the liturgy and make our churches as joyous as humanly possible.

Tomorrow (or tonight) we will hear of the women gathering their spices and ointments and heading out to the tomb “early in the morning” to give Jesus a proper burial, one they couldn’t provide in the rush Friday as the sun was preparing to set. But today, I invite you to set apart some time to ponder Jesus’ very real death. Pause. Rest. Put on the robes of any of the disciples (including Judas Iscariot, if you wish or dare) or of the women and consider what would be going through your heart and mind that very first Holy Saturday – the day before you would have any notion of what Jesus meant when he spoke of resurrection and the life to come.

Amen