Meditations on Holy Week - Holy Saturday

From Brother Giles

On Holy Saturday, we mourn the loss of Our Lord, knowing that He will arise again.

But did you ever consider how shattering this week was for Our Lady in particular? (We could also call this shattering the sword that pierced her Heart.)

She knew that her Son would have to be crucified and be raised again, but her profound participation in His Passion had, I think, the effect of shattering her in her inmost being. And sure, she rejoiced when she saw Him raised from the dead, but I think that shattering didn't go away in a single moment.

I once heard a priest say that some people need to be broken, "and I don't mean broken like you break a horse. I mean like you throw a vase on the ground and shatter it."' He was referring to stubborn young people, but maybe the same principle applies even to holy people?

Consider what Our Lord did for us on the Cross, something that we often overlook in light of His Sacrifice—He gave us His mother: "Son, behold your Mother." and "Woman, behold your son."

We think of mothers as sweet and kind, kissing our grazed knees, wiping our tears. But they also hold their children in their hearts. Even the worst of them. It's got to be painful.

And Our Lady holds us ALL in her Immaculate Heart. How much agony must she hold there?! How much love? How much mercy?

If Our Lady was shattered the way I am suggesting might have happened, it was because her Son wanted her to have a motherly heart so big, it could hold in it all of Creation. Including us poor sinners. So, if she was truly shattered, it was a sharing in the shattering of her Son's Passion, so that Death itself could be shattered. And so that she could hold in her Immaculate Heart all of us sinners, including those who are still in the grip of Death.

Additional commentary from Veronica, Sister in Christ Jesus

In regards to shattering. Yes, I would agree that applies to saintly people, and maybe even to ordinary people. Because Jesus himself was shattered. Very literally, but the torture He endured. Yes, his bones were not shattered, but his flesh was. From head to toe. Not an inch of skin without a bruise or laceration.

I think, sometimes God allows people to be shattered. Frist, for us to have the opportunity and the privilege of uniting ourselves to Jesus, in His passion and crucifixion. And, second, for Jesus to make all things new in us. A broken vase stitched back together, looks the same, but with many imperfections (some would argue that the imperfections male it look worse, some would find beauty in the imperfections). But Jesus doesn't just stitch back something old. He makes our entire self new; at least He wants to make us new if we allow Him and cooperate with Him. He can make us, and our lives, something we have never been before the shattering. Not an old thing patched together and glued back, but something completely new.

Now, this might be hard to see. At least, it is for me. And maybe, some people will not even be able to see this until they are united with Jesus in Heaven (or maybe until they reach Purgatory). And I think here lies an opportunity to grow in the virtue of faith. Do we believe Jesus when he said "Behold, I make all things new?" even when we don't see it? Even when we don't feel it?

Yes, the agony of Our Lady must have been profound during Jesus' passion and crucifixion, and I imagine Our Lady still suffers when she sees her sons in such agony and danger of losing their souls. I image she also suffers for all the children she has lost to Satan.

Can you imagine that? When we lose a child, or a loved one, we have hope that we will be reunited with them in Heaven one day. But imagine, as a parent (this holds true for both Mary and God the Father, and for you - either physically and spiritually), knowing you will never see your child again. Never talk to them. Never hug them. Never kiss them. Never have the change to tell them you love them. There are so many children of Mary in Hell, and her heart must ache for them all.

When the heart gets shattered, I see we have one of two options. Either the heart remains shattered, so only a small part of it remains functional, never to be the same again, never to be open to love (and I would offer this is the case when people chose to leave God in the midst of the shattering). Or the heart, by God's renewal, expands to be able to receive love and give love to a much greater level.

And since Mary's heart was shattered more than anyone else's (for all the reasons Br. Giles stated above), and because she gave her Fiat—not only to conceive and give birth to Jesus, but also to accompany him to Calvary, and to receive mankind as her children—and because she was endowed with extraordinary divine graces, she is the only one who can hold all of us in her Immaculate Heart, as Mother. And what a great gift that is for us all.

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