Waiting with the Hopeless: Holy Saturday
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Anti-Racism Team (ART) and Indigenous Solidarity Collective. This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to guide our discernment of racial justice and lead us into solidarity with Indigenous communities. For each Sunday and holy day during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member. Following the reflection, we’ll feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as well as discussion questions for your own meditation.
Holy Saturday: April 8, 2023
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says YHWH. So high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”
Holy Saturday is not a day of remembrance or celebration. All the dreams, anticipation, and hopes of Jesus’ followers have been dashed. He’s been tortured, humiliated, and killed right before their eyes. His inspiring words have been silenced. Almost every one of Jesus’ followers has gone into hiding. They fear that Jesus’ fate will be their own.
Where is the Messiah? Where is God? Even hope has been crushed.
According to theologian Miguel De La Torre, the Spanish word for hope, esperanza, comes from the same root as the word for “to wait,” esperar. “We’re not always sure what we’re waiting for, and we’re not always sure if the wait is for something good or something bad,” De La Torre says.
How do we have hope, wait to have hope, in the wake of great atrocities?
“No matter how I look back, the Holocaust will not make sense. Slavery will never make sense. Gunboat diplomacy will never make sense,” De La Torre says. “I have chosen to stand with the oppressed of the world who live in Holy Saturday. That’s who my audience is: those who understand the hopelessness.”
On this Holy Saturday, we, too, must stand with those who understand hopelessness; those who face hopelessness on a daily basis.
—This Holy Saturday reflection was written by Anti-Racism Team and Indigenous Solidarity Collective member Rosa Manriquez.
A Prayer
So, I wait for you, YHWH—my soul waits, and, in your word, I place my trust. — Psalm 130:5
Listening God, each day brings fresh news of terror. We lament each new way we find to be inhumane to one another. We lament the numbness many feel as we become increasingly desensitized to horror. We mourn for those harmed by the sin of exclusion and hatred and those complicit in its execution. We lament the structural sin that can sometimes leave us feeling helpless.
But Beloved, we aren’t helpless. We tear our clothing; we cry aloud. Our tears flow and our hearts break. Hear the deep confusion in our hearts. Help us to hear the deep pain in others. But we forever trust in you, God, our helper, and our defender. We will raise our voices, shout out, and not hold back. You call us to justice. Give us the courage to pursue it until the day when all the tears will be wiped from everyone’s eyes. Until then we patiently wait for your peace and justice. In the name of the One who has heard our cries and delivers us even from ourselves. Amen.
This prayer is from Resist Harm, a United Methodist movement.
Discussion Questions
What have we done to prepare for Easter Sunday?
Have we committed to waiting with the hopeless? Will we commit to waiting with respectful silence acknowledging and sharing their hopelessness and resisting the urge to “fix” their sorrow with ignorant “words of hope”?
Whom will we accompany in hopelessness? Do we commit to accompanying the following: those affected by legislated horror because of their gender identity or sexual orientation; those who lament the inability to serve a church as a pastor because of whom they love; people of color who face micro-and-macro aggressions day in and day out; those who lament their decision to cross into this country because of our unjust migrant-detention policies; those who face threats and acts of violence because of gender, class, and race; and the parents and children of those killed because of senseless violence.
Suggestions for Almsgiving
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the following organizations:
Native American Land Conservancy
Shinnecock Kelp Farmers
About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the testimonies of more than 6,000 First Nations people across Canada either directly or indirectly affected by the residential school system. In June 2015, the commission released a final report with 94 calls to action directed at the Canadian government. The final 52 calls to action focus on reconciliatory policy implementation for the dismantling of systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Call to Action 92
Business and Reconciliation
92. We call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. This would include, but not be limited to, the following:
i. Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.
ii. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.
iii. Provide education for management and staff on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.
