On Holy Saturday, everything outside was covered in ice. The branches had become flutes of glass. And the rays of light that glistened through the ice, quickly melted the crystal garden.

And yet, throughout Holy Week we have heard in our passiontide epistle not of rays of light, but of a ray of grief. That in a ‘grave of hope, a ray of grief penetrates our gaze’.

At Holy Saturday, the transition from the cross to the resurrection, we can ask what is it that leads us to new life? What is it that allows resurrection to find us?

Like the sun melting the ice outside with its rays, the human soul must allow the light of the cross to melt us- the light of the cross to inspire us to let go. For the ray of grief that is meant to enter our gaze is the knowledge that we must let go of that which is of the old self, that we must let go of that in us that no longer serves the higher. We must be willing to die if the new is to be born. And this is a grief because we have grown to love our worn out selves. This dying is also grief because its hard to let things go that we have carried so long.

Dear friends, it is only hope and the knowledge that we must die that will lead us to Easter. May our hearts truly hear Him who speaks to all human beings preparing for resurrection: O man, from a grave of hope, a ray of grief penetrates your gaze.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by our Passiontide Liturgy.