Blessed Rest!

“Let us strive to enter into that rest.” Hebrew 4:11

It’s been a pretty hectic few days. Last Wednesday, Luigi, my husband, left with a list of what to buy for our Seder meal and Josh, my son, prepared butter chicken. On the morning of Maundy Thursday, I prepared haroseth, mixing apples, raisins, walnuts, almonds, casuy, cinnamon, and grape juice in a bowl. At a Seder meal, haroseth symbolizes the mortar which the Israelites used to bind the stones and bricks in their back breaking work for their Egyptian masters. Haroseth has been a symbolic part of the Jewish Passover for at least 2,000 years! 

At 3:30 pm, we prepared the Seder meal plates, using bones from goats we’ve accumulated through years of celebrating Seder, bitter herbs, the haroseth, eggs, salt water and unleavened bread. At about 4 pm, our family started the Seder, with the youngest boy, the 2 1/2 years old son of my niece, asking the questions in a hilarious way. He even stopped to ask what the word festivities meant! Then we had a special meal. Then on Good Friday we attended a whole afternoon’s recollection.

Saint Augustine once said in his homily: “Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did He of Himself have the power to die. In other words, He performed the most wonderful exchange with us. Through us, He died; through Him, we shall live.” Live! 

One of the gifts of real living that God wants to give us is the promise of rest. In Hebrews 4:1, the writer says, “God’s promise of entering His place of rest still stands.” Today, Holy Saturday is a day of rest after three days of blessed busyness. There is no mass today until the Easter vigil tonight. So we wait with the disciples, with Jesus’ mother, with all the faithful. Jesus’ body lies in the tomb, but we know in faith, that we do not wait in vain. Today, like all the times we wait for God’s answer to our prayers, we wait in hope and faith. God is working. Even if all others see is the tomb, we know the tomb is empty and our Savior lives. We can rest gratefully in that truth.