the strange, long day
(No readings)
Today may be the strangest day of the year. Yesterday, throughout the day, we were not able to experience the full, substantial, entire, and whole presence of God in the eucharistic Jesus (see Catechism, 1374), for the Eucharist was not in our churches after we received Holy Communion yesterday. However, we were allowed to receive Holy Communion. Today we cannot even receive Communion. Something is missing. God's most intense presence on earth is missing.
If you are a daily communicant, you may know what I mean. There is an old saying: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." Today those in eucharistic love will come to appreciate more deeply the awesome Gift the Lord gives us in Himself, the Eucharist.
Holy Saturday may be not only the strangest but the longest day of the year. Time doesn't seem to pass quickly in a vacuum. But, unless Jesus comes back first, Easter Vigil will mercifully come. Come, eucharistic and risen Lord Jesus!
Prayer: Jesus, "I had rather one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere" (Ps 84:11).
Promise: (none)
Praise: (none)
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, December 9, 2000
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 12, 2000