If possible, I like to stop by the Church early on this day, before the decorations and flowers go up for tonight's Easter vigil. I look at the tabernacle, open and empty and no sanctuary lamp burning. It feels, if for a moment, what other worship spaces must feel like; lonely, stark; just a building.
It helps me to appreciate how alive and real His presence truly is. At all other times of the year, morning, noon and night, Jesus is there. Not just there in all the ways He is present everywhere and at all times, but really truly present, dwelling right there in the Church; body, blood, soul and divinity.
Maybe the lesson of Holy Saturday will encourage all people of faith, particularly Catholics, to not take for granted the real presence of Jesus in their worship space. We must embrace this reality everytime we come to the Church for Mass, or prayer, or to simply stop by because we feel called to be with Him.
Soon, the starkness of this morning will give way to the joy, glory and alleluias of the great Easter Vigil. And soon, He returns to the tabernacle and the sanctuary lamp is lit.
The mystery and the depth of the faith should cause all to rejoice in the Lord and the Church that He founded and left for all of us.
As the prophet Hosea puts it so well: He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.
For us, to live in his Real Presence!
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