“Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening but sweet and precious.”

“Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear; for He that created you has sanctified you, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be Thou, O God, for having created me.” – St. Clare, on her deathbed speaking to herself

No Mass may be celebrated today until darkness has fallen. Then the Vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection may begin. Throughout most of this day, the Church meditates on the death that God suffered for us. The Church celebrates the Sacred Liturgy during the early part of the day through the Liturgy of the Hours. Consider the New Testament passage that the Church proclaims today in the Office of Readings, from the Letter to the Hebrews.

On Holy Saturday we enter into the mystery.  Today we contemplate Jesus, there in the tomb, dead.  In that tomb, he is dead, exactly the way each of us will be dead.  We don't easily contemplate dying, but we rarely contemplate being dead.  I have had the blessed experience of being with a number of people who have died. These were powerful experiences because they all brought me face-to-face with the mystery of death itself.  With death, life ends.  Breathing stops, and in an instant, the life of this person has ended.  And, in a matter of hours, the body becomes quite cold and life-less -- dramatic evidence, to our senses, that this person no longer exists.  All that is left is this decaying shell that once held his or her life. 

Death is our ultimate fear.  Everything else we fear, every struggle we have, is some taste of, some chilling approach to, the experience of losing our life.  This fear is responsible for so much of our lust and greed, so much of our denial and arrogance, so much of our silly clinging to power, so much of our hectic and anxiety-driven activity.  It is the one, inevitable reality we all will face.  There is not enough time, money, joy, fulfillment, success.  Our physical beauty and strength, our mental competency and agility, all that we have and use to define ourselves, slip away from us with time.  Our lives are limited.  Our existence, in every way we can comprehend it, comes to an end.  We will all die.  In a matter of time, all that will be left of any of us is a decomposing body.

Today is a day to soberly put aside the blinders we have about the mystery of death and our fear of it.  Death is very real and its approach holds great power in our lives.  The "good news" we are about to celebrate has no real power in our lives unless we have faced the reality of death.  To contemplate Jesus' body, there in that tomb, is to look our death in the face, and it is preparation for hearing the Gospel with incredible joy.  That we are saved from the ultimate power of sin and of death itself comes to us as a great relief, as a tremendous liberation.  If Jesus lives, you and I will live! 

The mystery of death, which we contemplate today, will be overcome - we will live forever!