1 Peter 4:1-8 (Saturday)

Year A - Holy Saturday or Absent Saturday

April 19, 2014

1 Peter 4:1-8

Oh sure, deny the denials of life. You can no more give up your human desires than you can escape a gravity field of G*D. To deny your supposed negative passions will also deny your hoped for positive passions. You don’t need to express them, but they cannot be denied. To deny them is to not give an accurate account of your life.

This day is an opportunity to discipline ourselves regarding hope. Without hope that it will make a whit of difference, we commit to love one another, nonetheless.

That which we had counted on, steadfastly, proved to be quite frail. Death came all too easily (which is not to say it was faked), no legs were broken to hasten suffocation. What we wanted to be a loud cry wrecking the world and setting it right turned out to be a last gasp for a last breath and then no more. Not a hoped for bang, but a whimper.

And now a stone-rolled dark tomb. We are reduced from grunt to silence. Only motions are left. We will be gentle and kind with one another. It is the most we can to. Perhaps, in time, more will come; our desires, in both kinds, will return. There is no explaining our reliance upon our memory of a last command. Was it real or not? Whatever. That word, for whatever reason, continues to echo within. And so we do our best to love one another even when love is lost. And Simeon’s blessing comes around; with a sword in our soul we pull out our beads and recite:

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

We will love one another until our death.

Tomorrow.