Holy Saturday 2021

Ponder on your bed and be still (Psalm 4:4)

 

I made a retreat last fall and I admit, unlike most retreats I have made in the past, I had great trouble settling in the prayerful rhythm of the retreat. My mind was busy with so much going on in the parish. After two days of such distraction, the retreat director told me to sit with Ps 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”

 

I further confess to the fact that those simple words, “be still” landed on my heart like something else I had to do. I just couldn’t get into this retreat at all! My mind was distracted and abuzz. So, I thought I would engage my busy mind by reading a commentary on the psalm. 

 

“Be still” is a translation of the Hebrew word rapa (raw-faw’) which is a primitive root that means something like, “to sink down, to relax, to withdraw, refrain, let alone, to show oneself slack, to be disheartened.” The commentary I read put it this way, “This verb etymologically, means to relax one’s grip on something – is somewhat surprising here. It might be an injunction to cease and desist from armed struggle, to unclench the warriors fist.” Saint Jermone’s vulgate translate it, “Vacare deo” which is something like, vacate and let God occupy the space.

 

This understanding of the phrase “be still” created in me an image of an armed soldier opening his hand and releasing his sword. The act of opening his hand, of releasing the grip allowed me to fall into, to sink into, to withdraw from the busy parish work and to simply let go. The remaining days of my retreat opened up into a time a resting in prayer and allowing God to minister to me in beautiful, gentle ways of intimate nurture. 

 

In the Office of Readings this morning the words, “Ponder on your bed and be still” (Psalm 4:4) resonated with me. On this Holy Saturday, a day when we remember Christ’s body, laying still in the tomb, I had plans to visit a few parishioners. I admit that a rather bad headache caused me not do nearly as much today as I had planned. So, I returned home, took a couple ibuprofen and rested on the couch. As I placed my head on the pillow, I remembered the psalm from this morning to ponder on your bed and be still as I remembered Jesus’ still body in the tomb. My activity for today is stillness; it reveals the open tomb of hope.

 

What a blessed grace for Holy Saturday.