Waiting. I’m sure we’ve all experienced it. As a matter of fact, we experience it so much every day that we don’t even think about it: waiting at a traffic light; waiting at the grocery checkout; waiting for medical test results; waiting for a son to come home from deployment in Afghanistan; waiting for the results of a quiz; waiting for the game to start; waiting for the water to boil; waiting for the hubby to come home from work; waiting for the birth of a child—the list goes on and on. Such a thing, so integral a part of our lives and so seemingly mundane at times, is often reflected upon so little. Yet it is so significant.
On Holy Saturday, we commemorate the span between Jesus’ passion and death and His resurrection and glorification. During this time, while His disciples were waiting, Jesus was busy about a hidden work. Unseen by all, Jesus was releasing the souls from Hades and setting free all those who had died before He died. We refer to this every time we recite the Creed: “and He descended into hell.”
Jesus explained this transforming work of His in the analogy of the grain of wheat (cf. John 12:24). The grain falls to the ground and the seed “dies.” It is changed from a seed to a new, sprouting wheat plant. Yet, the transformation process takes place underground. It is hidden.
How often do we really think about the farmer who plants his crops in the spring so that we have food to purchase at our local grocery store? It takes an act of faith every time we drive to Publix and buy a bag of lettuce. Why? Because we know we can’t make lettuce grow. We can water and fertilize it. We can make sure it receives enough sunlight, but we humans (cont’d)cannot make anything grow. Only God can do that. We trust that God will make those seeds grow into plants that become the food we eat. And all this growth is hidden, until we see the results “above the ground,” so to speak.
This also applies to all those times of waiting in our lives, whether they are as mundane as sitting at a traffic light, or as painful as the death of a loved one, or as anxiety-provoking as anticipating the test results that indicate cancer. These are opportunities to deepen our faith in Jesus’ transforming power and strengthen our hope in his promises. So, as we approach this liturgical season of the Holy Triduum, let us be mindful of and receptive to those moments of waiting, when hidden graces are poured out upon us for our own growth and holiness and for our ultimate destiny in heaven with Jesus and all the saints.
Read our special Triduum edition of our Under His Mercy newsletter here.
-Sr. Mary Ann Kessler, T.O.R.
