We are reminded today of the first Holy Saturday, when the Kingdom of God on earth – God’s one true “ecclesia” – consisted of only one person, in whom alone the true Faith still abided: the Blessed Virgin Mary! The Jewish nation, having rejected the Messiah, had cut itself off from the communion of the faithful; likewise did Our Lord’s disciples and followers lose their faith in Him, although their natural love for Him remained intact. In Mary alone was found both faith and charity; in Mary alone did the Church on earth exist, on this most desolate of days.
There are long-standing traditions of “accompanying” Our Lady through Her terrible agony on Holy Saturday. Today is an ideal day to meditate upon our Blessed Mother keeping vigil, perhaps even at Her Son’s tomb. We can envision Her dressed all in black. How clearly we can see those seven swords which pierced Her Immaculate Heart. Appropriate prayers can be found in the Raccolta, in the section under “Mary Sorrowing” (Nos. 96-103).
Dom Gueranger explains:
“St. Paul tells us that our religion is vain, unless we have faith in the mystery of our Savior’s Resurrection. Where was this faith on the day after our Lord’s Death? In one Heart only, and that was Mary’s. As it had been when Her chaste and solitary womb contained exclusively within itself Him, Whom Heaven and earth cannot contain, so on this day, the first Holy Saturday, by Her firm and unwavering faith, She resumes within Her single self the whole Church. How sacred is this Saturday, which, notwithstanding all its sadness, is such a day of glory to the Mother of Jesus! It is on this account that the Church has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of every week.”