Our journey through Holy Week has brought us to the place where Jesus’ bodily presence is no longer among us. The eucharist has been consumed and the church is no longer the house “of the Lord”, but a structure like any other. In a similar way, we feel this at times in our own lives - empty, without direction, bereft. We go running to the tomb, hoping to see some stirring of life, but find only silence.
Silence. We’re not very familiar with it these days. We have earbuds and podcasts and news cycles and talk radio and social media that robs us of any chance of a silent moment. We’re uncomfortable with silence and do everything to avoid even a tiny dose. We call it an “awkward pause”. Yes, silence is awkward for us, cumbersome and unwieldy.
But it is silence that always reveals the depths of any situation. Only silence allows us enough “space” to let things settle and just be. Only silence allows the truth to bubble up and presumptions to settle down. How quickly we scramble to fill up any silent spaces in our lives.
As the story goes, a couple of women went to the tomb the morning after Jesus’ crucifixion. They went early, in the quietest time of the day. There’s not much talking that takes place in a cemetery, but there’s something else. There’s a language spoken there that goes beyond audible hearing. It’s a place where hearts talk to one another. There’s a knowing in that silent space, deeper than the mind can conceive.
And so we are here today in this silent space with Jesus. Like those women, don’t look to see him with your eyes. Don’t expect your ears to hear his voice. But if you can give yourself a time of silence, you’ll see and hear from a place in your heart that will calm your tattered nerves, ease your doubts, and restore you from the inside out. In silence you will experience God’s love for you, not as the result of someone telling you that God loves you, not because of any creed, but because you have chosen to follow your heart to the silence of the tomb.
Holy Saturday holds the key to the resurrection. Without a visit to the tomb, we will never discover that it is empty! May you be blessed as you wait in silence on this holy day.
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