Holy Saturday: A Poem

April 4, 2026: Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the Christian tradition.

In-Between

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his (Jesus’) body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath . . . (Luke 23:55-56).

The women who followed Jesus—
at a distance—
understood it, the weight of their
jars filled with ointment, olive oil,
myrrh and tears
heavy in their roughened hands
as they waited through
the long Sabbath day.
They understood that they,
alone, held the holy
questions with no answers,
the fears without assurances,
the griefs with no outlet
in these sacred containers
that they waited, they longed,
to empty. And so we wait
with them through our own
long and tedious in-betweens,
our questions and fears,
our griefs and our doubts,
held not in jars of ointment
but weighted well-within
the aching walls of our own
hearts. We wait
with the women—
the women at a distance—
for tomorrow when jars
and hearts can be broken
apart
spilled out
with abandon,
released from darkness
into the light.

(c) Rosemary McMahan

Photo credit: Pixabay, by Couleur