Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday, 3rd April, 2021

Thank God, I said to myself, that His suffering is over when I woke this morning. I have felt that off and on with friends and colleagues and acquaintances who have died in the midst of agonies. It is over. To me there is the gateway to heaven through death. I wrestle with the sufferings of so many on earth but my faith holds weakly fast. Last night I accompanied the Pope on Stations of the Cross. Only later I found it was for last year but it was the most moving Stations I can ever recall. The Pope had asked some prison in northern Italy to provide the meditations for each Station. Within the 14 stations were meditations from 4 prisoners convicted for life, from a prison warden, a Mother of a prisoner, a daughter of a prisoner, a volunteer worker, the Chaplain, a Judge of the District, a religious who had worked there for 60 years and others including a priest accused of sexual crimes who had been cleared finally after 8 years of trials and tribulations. It is impossible to capture the heart rending words, the deep insights, the revelations, the confessions, the beauty, the humanity, the daily grinds and pains and sufferings associated with that prison, those meditations and the Via Crucis of Jesus Himself. I found myself in tears, in turmoil and in hope. As one prisoner noted there was great evil and great good all wrapped up in the lives of the people of that prison.

Today I collected the newspaper and read it with interest. An excellent article on David Suchet and his conversion to Christianity. An excellent editorial on the painting of Leonardo's Last Supper and the meaning of the subject matter. Then the usual articles one of which disturbed me as I felt it was in agreement with my experiences. It was about the deliberate use of fear by the Government and apposite Covid spokespersons. That fear has had dire consequences and is immoral and reckless. There was more and I sat and sipped coffee thinking ' what a mess we are in'. Yet immediately I remembered and recalled the good things people do. That was reinforced on my walk when somehow I got in to conversation with a woman about much and nothing. Her Father had been in the army in Palestine and how the subject came up I do not know. But I have a deep love of those people and of the Bedouins, so we chatted and her Father also had huge respect for them and many became his friends.

It was a glorious walk because it is a perfect day. No wind and a warm sun and cloudless sky has made it simply breathtakingly beautiful. The swan sat on her nest and her mate stood guard....that picture symbolises the walk. Of course quite a few people were out and about and I thought of the article in the paper where the writer had said how she is dreading the return of socialising. She bemoaned the possibility of trivial conversations and the horror of having to stay up and be polite at a dinner party when she wanted to go to bed after walking the dog.

Then I read the BBC article on the litter of Cardiff Bay. It seems there was a huge, illegal gathering and tons of litter was left behind, as had been the case in Nottingham and elsewhere. Well in the article was a picture of a volunteer litter picker upperer and she had the exact same grabber as I have. Litter grabbers unite.

Finally as it was so lovely I watered some pot plants and then decided to mow the lawn! It took quite a time to get the mowing machine working, the lawn seemed mostly moss and the after effect on the highest notch of the blades seemed futile but it is the herald of summer. So we herald summer and warmth and we herald the Resurrection and the Light and we herald the conversion and utter worthiness of all peoples whether prisoners or not. Sins are crucified and life eternal beckons. Now to live up to the faith and hope I hold and which sees in the Holy Week Triduum the Reality of Life.