Saturday, April 7, 2012

Holy Saturday, what's it all about anyway?

Here we are right in the middle of Easter weekend, Holy Saturday. Good Friday is past and Easter Sunday is yet to come. Pretty much nothing happens on Holy Saturday does it? It took me a long time to realize the reason for that:

Once upon a time, during my child rearing years a friend gave me a surprise entre' for my family's dinner sometime. "Great on the grill" he said. He had a small farm just south and east of Grand Rapids. He raised specialty food for a specific clientele. Many of his customers were first generation immigrants and simply wanted fresh comfort food from their homeland. He would grow the items to their exact specifications, for a very good price. It made him a good living as well as very interesting. I frankly couldn't afford any of his food on our family budget. As long ago as it was, he was getting $10 for a five pound bag of specialty potatoes, $8 to $10 a pound for the meat. Eggs were $2 a dozen when they were selling at the supermarket for 39 cents. That's why it took me by surprise that he gave me a package of fresh meat, probably about 4 or 5 pounds. Be that as it may after thanking him I took it home to my family. My wife said, "No way was I cooking that around our children, especially on Easter weekend!" That was that. I put it in the freezer and cooked it later that summer on a canoe trip with other adults, no kids. I can tell you, that grilled rabbit was absolutely superb.

Oh yeah, the reason nothing happens on Holy Saturday is that it is a day of waiting. For some reason I missed that in my religious education. Thursday was the remembrance of the Last Supper and the washing of feet, Good Friday is the Passion and death of Christ. (It was always said by the older folks that at noon on Good Friday the clouds would come in and cover the sun. I didn't find that to always happen though.) And the Easter Sunday was all happy and filled with celebration because it recognized that Christ rose from the dead. But Holy Saturday was quiet. No church services until late in the evening. Everything was shut down. It is supposed to be that way but I missed the concept. Now that I more fully understand I can participate the way it is meant to be. Holy Saturday is teaching me patience and appreciation for what was done for me. A day to prepare for a better life. And perhaps a day to become aware that grilling rabbit on Easter weekend isn't such a smart thing to do. Sometimes you just have to think things like that out.

Now it's time to try and publish this posting. Wish me luck. Happy Easter!

1 comment:

Joe Cramer said...

That was the smoothest posting I've done in months. I clicked and Wallah! It was done. Here's to modern technology. Or, more accurately, my learning how to use it........Joe

 
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