Holy Saturday homily
The human authors of the New Testament were really at a loss when they tried to describe how our lives will be once we have fallen asleep on earth and awakened in the presence of God. They believed as we do that those who live and die in faith and love would experience theosis, becoming adopted children of God and being united to the Blessed Trinity, but to put that into human words was an insuperable challenge.
But here in the letter to the Hebrews, we have one of the best attempts. God is unchangeable. The author calls God’s unchanging, loving existence “God’s rest.” And he goes back to psalm 95 to recall that when God prevented the people of Israel from going into the Promised Land, because of their rebellion at Massah and Meriba in the desert, He said He was swearing by Himself that they would “not enter into my rest.” But this letter applies some logic to what did happen to Israel. Joshua, not Moses, eventually led the people into the eretz Israel, the land of promise. But that could not have been the place of rest because God “would not have spoken afterward of another day.” The author claims that must be because “a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. And he who enters into God’s rest, rests from his own work as God did from His.” He encourages the reader to enter into that rest. That is his vision of what heaven will be like, perfect rest in the presence of the God of love.
Sometime in the first or second century, an author penned a homily to be delivered on this day, this day in which Christ was dead in the tomb. He said, “there is a great silence on earth today. . .the earth keeps silence because the King [Jesus] is asleep.” But the Son of God is not inactive, and hell “trembles with fear.” Jesus is portrayed searching for Adam and Eve. He is both God and the son of Eve. His human body is lifeless, but His human soul and His divine nature are at one and are powerful. He finds the first parents. Adam gives a liturgical greeting to Christ and all the just who are in prison with our first parents, “the Lord be with you.” Christ answers, “and with your spirit.” Jesus orders Adam and the others to “awake, sleeper.” He invites all the just to look on His wounds and understand the redemption: “I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in Sheol.”
He raises them up and leads them out of death. “The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.”
So today is the day in which Christ conquers death, hell, and Satan. He invites those waiting for baptism to become one with Him and the Church this evening. The great triumph will be ours, both tonight and on that glorious day when Jesus summons us forth to His side for eternity. May His Name be praised forever.
