For the first time in existence, God the Holy Trinity was divided in some way.
Easter Saturday is a strange sort of day.
It is the only day in the year when Holy Mass is NOT celebrated. In fact, priests, who celebrate Mass daily, do not celebrate Holy Mass on Easter Saturday. Instead on this day – the day when God the Son descended into Hell to retrieve the souls of those who were unable to enter into Heaven because they had not yet been redeemed – we stay silent.
And I have to wonder about a day like this and how it must be in Heaven.
You see, Heaven is NOT a continuation of this lifetime. It is a NEW life.
When people speak of their deceased loved ones they often say things like, “Oh, I think he would be drinking a beer right now in Heaven.” Or, “He must be playing with a dog right now looking down on us.” Or, “Now they will be playing around of golf in Heaven.”
And though we say these things, what we are really doing is trying to frame a completely different and NEW reality within the terms that we can understand. In other words, we are trying to frame this eternal reality in temporal and incomplete terms and so we express our “happy place” in terms of physical things of this earth. But that is NOT Heaven. Heaven is a new reality. Heaven is the eternal resting place. In Heaven we will contemplate God in all His perfect glory eternally. We will be consumed with Love of Him and in His love of us. We will be in our natural state – the state for which we were made, rather than the state to which we have fallen through Sin.
And today – in Heaven, in that NEW reality that is outside of time and space – I wonder what they are doing and thinking. I wonder what God reflects om on this day when He stood separated Father and Holy Spirit from God the Son. Very importantly, God the Son suffered and died on the Cross alone. Very importantly, God the Son descended into Hell alone to collect the souls of those whom He had redeemed. Very importantly, for the first time in existence, God the Holy Trinity was divided in some way.
And when I think about the suffering of God the Son on the Cross. When I think about the spits and the blows and the suffering and the anguish. When I think about the weight of sin which He bore on His body and the His soul. When I think about His suffering on that Cross. I cannot help but wonder at the greatest suffering of all. I cannot help but wonder at the loneliness of my Beloved as He hung on that Cross – alone for the first time in existence in reparation to the Father and the Holy Spirit for my sins. And it seems to me today that each time I complain of feeling lonely, I should look to the Suffering Christ – for nobody could ever have been as lonely as He upon that Cross, when for the first time in the history of the world, He hung alone – utterly alone, with His mother and a disciple as a witness…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Easter Saturday is a strange sort of day.
It is the only day in the year when Holy Mass is NOT celebrated. In fact, priests, who celebrate Mass daily, do not celebrate Holy Mass on Easter Saturday. Instead on this day – the day when God the Son descended into Hell to retrieve the souls of those who were unable to enter into Heaven because they had not yet been redeemed – we stay silent.
And I have to wonder about a day like this and how it must be in Heaven.
You see, Heaven is NOT a continuation of this lifetime. It is a NEW life.
When people speak of their deceased loved ones they often say things like, “Oh, I think he would be drinking a beer right now in Heaven.” Or, “He must be playing with a dog right now looking down on us.” Or, “Now they will be playing around of golf in Heaven.”
And though we say these things, what we are really doing is trying to frame a completely different and NEW reality within the terms that we can understand. In other words, we are trying to frame this eternal reality in temporal and incomplete terms and so we express our “happy place” in terms of physical things of this earth. But that is NOT Heaven. Heaven is a new reality. Heaven is the eternal resting place. In Heaven we will contemplate God in all His perfect glory eternally. We will be consumed with Love of Him and in His love of us. We will be in our natural state – the state for which we were made, rather than the state to which we have fallen through Sin.
And today – in Heaven, in that NEW reality that is outside of time and space – I wonder what they are doing and thinking. I wonder what God reflects om on this day when He stood separated Father and Holy Spirit from God the Son. Very importantly, God the Son suffered and died on the Cross alone. Very importantly, God the Son descended into Hell alone to collect the souls of those whom He had redeemed. Very importantly, for the first time in existence, God the Holy Trinity was divided in some way.
And when I think about the suffering of God the Son on the Cross. When I think about the spits and the blows and the suffering and the anguish. When I think about the weight of sin which He bore on His body and the His soul. When I think about His suffering on that Cross. I cannot help but wonder at the greatest suffering of all. I cannot help but wonder at the loneliness of my Beloved as He hung on that Cross – alone for the first time in existence in reparation to the Father and the Holy Spirit for my sins. And it seems to me today that each time I complain of feeling lonely, I should look to the Suffering Christ – for nobody could ever have been as lonely as He upon that Cross, when for the first time in the history of the world, He hung alone – utterly alone, with His mother and a disciple as a witness…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.