The stark quietness of Holy Saturday is like no other day in our Christian calendar. Following the remarkable events of Holy Thursday and the anguish of Jesus’ death on Good Friday, and preceding the unbridled joy of Christ’s Resurrection, Holy Saturday is suspended in time.

What had to be going on in the minds of his followers was that if what Jesus said was real and true, then this was not the end. But, if by some chance he was full of tall tales and delusions, then the tomb his body rested in represented the actual nail in the proverbial coffin, and they had wasted the last three years of their lives and had nothing to show for it but questions.

For his closest followers and loved ones, I’m sure there was some hope that all would be well in the end, but still there was the crushing grief over his suffering and their loss, and confusion over what would happen now.

Just as our feelings reel when a vital, younger person dies, they must have thought how could Jesus be dead? He was so strong and had all the answers and so much promise. Now there was only the void, the fear, the emptiness. Everything they knew and believed was suspended.

We can try to imagine what they were feeling, but our understanding of Holy Saturday cannot help but be shaped by the knowledge we possess of Easter Sunday that they didn’t. Still, we have our own Holy Saturdays whenever events in our lives take an unexpected turn for the worse.

We never really know what is going to happen tomorrow, or later today. We think we do. We have our plans, our schedules. But often something happens and sometimes it is catastrophic. We can be thrown into chaos, our lives upended. I’m writing this on the anniversary of my father’s death 16 years ago. Although he was ill and in the hospital, his death was sudden and raw. My mother’s death in a hospital 12 years prior was even more unexpected and shocking.

Feelings of chaos and loss ensued, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice, thanks be to God I also had assurance and peace that they were with God and I would see them again.

But sometimes we have to sit in the darkness of Holy Saturday for an indefinite amount of time and simply trust in an unknown outcome that is ultimately guided by God’s love. We recently had an electrical problem at our house and an electrician had to cut the power to the whole house to help solve the issue. Everything suddenly went quiet and dark. The symbolism struck me that when the power we thought we had is cut off, we can fret and moan, or we can choose to sit in the stillness and trust.

May the joy of Easter not totally remove the blessings that resting within our Holy Saturdays can bring.