HOLY SATURDAY

Sit in the church. In front of you, the Tabernacle is empty. Everything is empty, still. God has left the Earth.

Is God gone? Has He ever been? Is He that which is in my mind? What is my mind? Is it that which God is in?

“In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth. And the Earth was a formless void.” (Genesis 1:1)

EASTER SUNDAY

We attend the service, we listen, but in our heart of hearts, do we see and believe?

“He saw and believed.” (John 20:1-9)

After the great services, the three-hour vigil, the great hymns. “Thine be the glory”, the ringing Exultet, I sat alone in the empty abbey. Now all was deathly still. I looked in my mind’s eye at the empty tomb. I had listened and I believed. He had gone. He is risen.

“Salva festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet.”

Hail, festival day, revered for all time, on which God conquered Hell and holds all the stars in his sway.

EASTER MONDAY

Do you, like me, doubt?

“God raised this man to life and all of us are witnesses to that.” (Acts 2:14)

I sat in the Cathedral during Mass and looked at the beautiful display of flowers. This statement from today’s first reading struck me more than the momentous events described in the Gospel.

Are we witnesses too, but only in our heart? Peter was transformed from a cowardly wreck in a matter of weeks into the confident who could stand up in front of hundreds and say this, but he had seen.

Cannot the will be as strong as the eye?