IT WAS ON SATURDAY
Scripture: Luke 23: 50-56
It was on Saturday that he was not there.
Those who don’t like corpses can’t stay away from graveyards,
unless there’s some prohibition to stop them
revisiting the dead end of their hopes and their dreams.
It’s as if they think that should the voice speak again,
it will speak there or a sunbeam will dance or a flower will shoot
and give a sign of misinterpreted life.
But close the cemetery, or confine, through custom or constraint,
the wailing ones to the house and it looms larger…
the loss, the lostness, the losers.
Men shiver in an upstairs room, warm though the day is.
Women weep in an uncharmed circle.
Memory is forced on memory.
The mind’s eye tries to trace the profile and the face, the smile,
the gentle twitching of the nose… and fails.
And a panic sets in because it seems he can’t be remembered. Was he ever known?
It was on Saturday that he was not there.
These readings for each day of Holy Week are intended to be read by people on their own, as personal reflections during Holy Week. They are inspired by stories from scripture and excerpted from the book Stages on the Way. Excerpt from Stages on the Way Worship Resources for Holy Week, Iona Community, Wild Goose Worship Group, GIA Publications, Inc. Chicago - copyright@1997 Wild Goose Resource Group, Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc., exclusive North American Distributor
