Mourning for the Lord; grief for men, who have not recognised their Redeemer and have crucified Him… Mourning of the Mother for the beloved Son; mourning and bewilderment among the disciples, who say to each other in confusion: “Our own hope had been that He would be the one to set Israel free…” (Lk 24:21)
But the Lord descended into hell, to those who were still waiting for the Redemption, and He filled them also with His love.
For us mortals, all this remains a mystery, but in faith we embrace it.
This is the day when the tabernacle is empty and the altar is uncovered; the only day when the Holy Sacrifice is not raised to the Throne of the Most High… It would seem that the whole cosmos is wrapped in mourning and weeps with the Mother of God.
However, life in the world goes on. People who do not live with the Lord are unaware of all these events, which are only revealed to believers through faith.
A day of mourning and waiting… Lent is coming to an end and we, the faithful, know that from tomorrow everything will be different; from tomorrow true life will begin to beat; from tomorrow….
But the Lord also makes use of this day. Perhaps He wants to descend into those fields of our souls that have not yet been redeemed, to proclaim there His Word of life. There where there is still darkness within us; there where the light has not yet penetrated sufficiently; there where death still lies within us.
Very soon we will hear the triumphant cry, “Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory?” (cf. 1 Cor 15:55)
Let us take advantage of this day of mourning, of waiting and preparation. Let us offer our shadows and all that is unconscious in us to the One who descends into the Kingdom of death. Let us invite Him to come to us, to permeate everything, to extirpate sin and its consequences, to the very depths, to redeem us…
We want to belong completely to the Lord! Nothing must separate us from Him, neither our conscious will, nor our thoughts and feelings, nor our unconscious! The Lord wants to redeem everything and enable us to live as true children of God!
In a few hours we will hear: Hallelu… No, we still have to wait! But very soon the “Exsultet”, the Easter Proclamation, will be resounding…