Holy Saturday Transition

by Hugh Jenkins

While on retreat earlier this year, the person accompanying me shared information about a church that hosts a sizable secular music concert on Holy Saturday. With planned Good Friday and Easter Sunday services, Saturday is kept free for a big fund-raising event. My conversation partner expressed disagreement with this arrangement, preferring openness to the liminal opportunity between Christ’s death and resurrection.

This got me thinking anew about Holy Saturday and the whole of Holy Week. As a preacher who prepares in advance, I already know what will be in my Easter morning sermon on Good Friday. Indeed, for all of us reading this (unless the Gospel story is brand new to some inquirer), we know the narrative of Holy Week. How will we live on Easter Saturday when we know what comes next? How do we authentically experience the significant transition between dwelling on death and becoming attentive to life and the glorious vibrancy of the resurrection? 

Also, how will we engage in Holy Week 2025 with the possibility of being surprised, immersed in the events of Jesus, and experiencing the week drawing us into something different or uniquely transformative? Even as I pose such a possibility, experiencing this age-old story with nothing new could have great value. After all, it is a remarkable narrative. This story is transformative, though, and it is wise to be open to shifts, insights, inspiration and the Holy Spirit. In short, let’s be alert for a new mind in some way: to repent! 

So, what will we do on Holy Saturday in a society where the long weekend is a time for sports festivals, extended music concerts, travelling to be with family members, pleasurable pursuits, or even to worship Jesus Christ with the time and space given? 

Some of us may be heading to a rugby match, a trip to the shopping mall, a walk in a park, or swaying in time with a pop song. We might be going to an event that isn’t church-related. 

Holy Saturday is as much about not doing as it is about doing. Still, we must be aware.  What are we looking for if we decide to refrain from activity or carve out some time to step back?  If we are going to be part of a church service, what will our attitude be? 

By being extra alert for Holy Saturday 2025, I am seeking to be available to transition from death to life and to dwell in the hard-to-describe in-between space without an agenda. I am seeking something different from what I overheard someone in ecumenical planning for Holy Week say: everything is about the resurrection and folk who proclaim that the cross is all we require. I need the cross and resurrection. 

However, these are so starkly different that the message of cross-resurrection whispers to me to dwell in the transitional time in a variety of ways, even though some of the looking must be into the darkness. Also, I need to listen to various voices while knowing that the best listening may come from hearing the silence.

I hope that being alert to the liminal space of Holy Saturday will help us align with the Spirit’s invitations for Easter Saturday and the whole of Holy Week.