Holy Rest

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

It’s been a pretty hectic few days. On Holy Thursday morning, I prepared haroseth, mixing apples, raisins, walnuts, almonds, cinnamon, honey and red wine 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. Luigi made focaccia bread. Usually we buy flat pita bread, in place of matzah or the bread of affliction, (Lechem Oni in Hebrew), which symbolizes the hardship of slavery and the Jewish people's hasty transition to freedom. 

At 2 pm, we prepared the Seder meal plate, using a bone from a goat we’ve kept through years of celebrating Seder, bitter herbs, the haroseth, eggs, salt water and the bread. At about3 pm, our little family of 3 joined the online Seder meal with our brothers and sisters in community using Zoom. Usually we are a huge group with my extended family and as many as 15 guests. This time all our companions were virtual! After we attended the online Holy Thursday liturgy of Father Dave in Sta. Maria Goretti Parish, patiently waiting when the broadcast was interrupted several times. 

Yesterday, I listened to Raoul Roncal’s recollection, “Love is courageous and never loses hope”, and Peter Tan Chi’s Seven Last Words. After lunch, we finished the new series about Jesus and His disciples, “The Chosen”. For the Good Friday service, we chose Bishop Ambo’s online Biyernes Santo Pagpapasakit ng Panginoon (The Passion of our Lord). The good Bishop started his homily with a story about his niece crying when she saw Jesus on the cross. “Mommy, can’t we bring Jesus to the hospital?” she pleaded in distress. We are so used to seeing Jesus on this instrument of torture that we do not mind it anymore. We are so used to acts of violence against our fellowmen, injustice, extrajudicial killings, cursing, that we turn a blind eye and do not even speak up. Bishop Ambo said in a loud voice, “Open your eyes, my people! Yes, we need to open our eyes, yes we need to act, to help, to do something. But now, it is Holy Saturday, and the world is at rest as it has never rested before.

One of the greatest gifts 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 two 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.