Important question about Holy Saturday

[fangornforest]

Hi,

Here’s the story. Please bear with me.

Yesterday I had a very quiet day with as much prayer as I could handle. At around 2ish, there was a phone call that my mom got and it was for me. (She shouldn’t be using the phone during that time but that’s a different story).

She handed the phone to me thinking that that I wouldn’t mind even though I told her I didn’t want to talk that day and it was a good friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in a while. He asked if he wanted to hang around and I said know because I was busy around the house (which I was because it was Good Friday) and I said that Saturday would be a little better.

Now I’m debating if I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t think that it would be inappropriate to get lunch with a friend today now because it’s Holy Saturday. Is this a sin if I do it? What should I do about it?

Just letting you know, but I’m very scrupulous a lot however I don’t know if that has anything to do with this right now. I’m really confused and afraid because now I feel stuck getting lunch with him.

 

[Holly3278]

I honestly don’t know if you should go or not but if you do go, you could take advantage of the situation and share your faith with your friend. Try to keep the the occasion as solemn as possible and if he asks what is wrong, just tell him that it is Holy Saturday and that it is to be a solemn occasion. I suffer from scrupulosity as well by the way so don’t feel too bad.

 

[fangornforest]

What Holly said crossed my mind earlier today just before a flood of ideas that I couldn’t really decipher overtook my thinking:

Is that the best thing I could do given the situation?

Is this situation sinful?

What about other things like TV use? (I was planning on watching Ben-Hur today after having lunch with my friend.)

What about computer use?

These thoughts never seem to end.

 

[StCsDavid]

What was this day like for the apostles? Do you think each one wanted to be left alone? No, they were together. I share with you an excerpt from Pope Benedict’s encyclical, Spe Salvi…

Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God’s time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.
-Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Go have lunch with your friend, today. Touch his heart.

 

[teachccd]

Go and have lunch with your friend. John took Mary into his home on Good Friday. Jesus wanted His mother entrusted to John. We are a community of believers and nothing that is done in the faith is ever done alone. Even private prayer is not private as it is joined with the prayers of the Church.

God knows your heart and there is no sin in sharing friendship on a day whereby Jesus shares His ultimate friendship with us on the cross…God Bless…teachccd

 

[rwoehmke]

Even before Vatican II, I cannot recall that people were so troubled about doing things on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. We kept the three hours from noon till three for prayer and meditation, refrained from dances and parties, but going to lunch with someone never really came up as in those days ordinary people seldom if ever “went out to lunch.” We might have coffee at one another’s home. In small towns pizza was an unknown food until the late 50’s early 60’s. But, two or three people going out for lunch on Holy Saturday or even a quiet meal on Good Friday evening hardly seems a gala occasion.

What I am trying to say is that it would appear that contemporary practicing Catholics are trying to be, for lack of a better term,"more Catholic’ than the Church ever was in the early and mid 19th Century when Catholics were in my estimation very conscientious.

 

[fangornforest]

After I posted here the second time, I fell into a spiral of fear and discouragement. I ended up praying a lot knowing that He would hear me and I sort of knew what His answer was a short time after.

God judges us more by our intentions. My intentions were to keep Good Friday very solemn and prayerful (which I did) so therefore it would not be sinful to have lunch with my friend.

We even did come across the topic of faith and I spoke very highly of the Catholic Church. And he said that he might think about it which was also good.

So I guess there’s no sin at all. Scrupulosity yet again. For all the scrupulous out there, mission.liguori.org/newsletters/scrupanon.htm is a very helpful link. It’s helped me a lot through this (including this previous onslaught).

Don’t give up hope.

Thanks everyone again. Usually I try to steer clear of forums because I tend to spike when I visit but you guys are still great.

 

[IrishAm]

I relate Holy Saturday to the day after my father died. The day was one of grief, of course, but it was also one of getting things accomplished and spending time with others. There were decisions to make about the wake and funeral, transportation and sleeping arrangements for people from out of town, meals to prepare, and times of joy and laughter shared with people we hadn’t seen in a long time who were coming in for the funeral, sometimes talking about my dad and the joy of his life, sometimes talking about our families and what they have been doing of late,

I imagine the “real” Holy Saturday was very much the same. Women cooking; followers arriving; people discussing “do you remember when?” And there was also horrible grief, fear, remorse and uncertainty.

That is our human condition. We grieve, now and then, as people grieve.