Holy Saturday 4 April 2026 Keeping vigil
When we keep vigil it means we are waiting for something to happen which has not happened yet, but we greatly hope it will happen.
It can be associated with anxiety, like attending to a sickness; or with joy, as in welcoming a returning traveller.
We have both anxiety and joy in our dealings with God.
We are anxious if certain problems we face seem larger than we are and might be too much. But we continue to wait and pray for a happy resolution of the problem. In our anxiety we reaffirm our trust in God.
We are joyful in our vigil as we sense the power of God coming through, like the first light of dawn breaking up the darkness.
Our Easter vigil is of the joyful kind, as vigils go. We know that whatever anguish we feel at Christ’s death, the certainty of His resurrection will be stronger.
This is why we have a Saturday Mass for the Resurrection, and not just go straight to the Sunday. The Saturday Mass forces us to express trust in God to bring events to their best conclusion. Expectant waiting is something we get used to in our faith life.
On Sunday morning we allow ourselves to feel the full force of Jesus’s resurrection. That is more straightforward. He is risen and will never go back to the tomb.
Fortunately the joyful side will eventually be the whole reality and not have to share the stage with anxiety and other negative factors.
Jesus spent only three days in the tomb and every other day outside of it, and He certainly will not be going back there.
This is ‘keeping vigil’ - the more we expect things to go the right way the more joyful we are in anticipation.
And the better we will behave, because we learn a divine patience, God is always acting for good. We know that even if we cannot detect the precise way He is doing that.
We have just heard many readings, shedding light on various aspects of our faith. Whenever we mention the past, it is to remind us how much trouble we have seen, but gradually we will emerge from the rubble and have only joy!
We reclaim the past not ignoring it, but drawing wisdom from it.
Then finally tonight we go into the Mass as the crowning event , still anticipating, because other things need to happen – but we are more secure because we have come so far. Those readings are our own story, which is still being written.
After it all, we express gratitude for what has been and what will be.
We do not become jaded or cynical, thinking that talk of a better future is just wishing on a star.
We will not become cynical if we pray consistently. We do not accept that the world can never change.
Worlds can change if people change. And that much any person can achieve.
