During his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV reflects on Holy Saturday, and calls on the faithful to always trust in God’s power to operate in their lives, even when the wait may feel long and hope may seem lost.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Every suspended time can become a time of grace, if we offer it to God,” said Pope Leo XIV during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday morning in the Vatican, after having returned from Castel Gandolfo for an overnight stay on Tuesday evening.
The Holy Father continued his series of catecheses on the Jubilee theme of “Jesus Christ our Hope,” focusing this week on the mystery of Holy Saturday, the day of great silence and joyful expectation.
‘We struggle to stop and rest’
The Pope recalled that Holy Saturday is also “a day of rest”; yet, he observed, “We struggle to stop and rest.”
Just as God rested after creating the universe, the Holy Father reflected, so the Son rest after completing the work of redemption, having loved us to the end.
In this context, Pope Leo acknowledged that while we too are invited to find quiet and restful moments amidst the frenzy of our daily activity, we often dismiss this.
New life begins in silence
“We live as if life were never enough. We rush to produce, to prove ourselves, to keep up. But,” he reassured the faithful, “the Gospel teaches us that knowing how to stop is an act of trust that we must learn to perform.”
Holy Saturday, the Pope said, invites us to discover that life does not always depend on what we do, but also on knowing how to take leave of what we have been able to do. “In the tomb, Jesus, the living Word of the Father,” the Pope observed, “is silent. But it is precisely in that silence that the new life begins to ferment,” comparing this process to that of a seed in the ground or darkness before dawn.
Even ‘useless’ time can become precious
“God,” the Holy Father therefore reassured the faithful, “is not afraid of the passing time, because He is also the God of waiting. “
“Thus, even our ‘useless’ time, that of pauses, emptiness, barren moments,” Pope Leo XIV marveled, “can become the womb of resurrection…”
Trusting even when all seems over
“Every suspended time can become a time of grace, if we offer it to God,” he said, for “Jesus, buried in the ground, is the meek face of a God who does not occupy all space” and “the God who lets things be done, who waits, who withdraws to leave us freedom.”
“He is the God,” Pope Leo underscored, “who trusts, even when everything seems to be over.”
God works in that slow time of trust
Therefore, the Holy Father invited the faithful to learn from this episode, namely “that we do not have to be in a hurry to rise again,” that “first we must stay and welcome the silence” and “let ourselves be embraced by limitation.”
Finally, Pope Leo XIV underscored that while we may seek quick answers and immediate solutions, “God works in depth, in the slow time of trust.”
