How might human society function amidst the uncertainties, divisions and disagreements that beset us? How can we avoid falling into a trap of either fundamentalism or ‘anything goes’? Resilient societies will be those that find the capacity to give freedom and space to others as well as a capability of including others in decision-making and life practices. There are no short cuts via authoritarian top down control or a rampant individualism where everybody does whatever they want. And appeals to social cohesion have a hollow ring when what is needed is social flourishing. Minimally we need to foster an ethic of patience and long suffering.
And this brings me to Holy Saturday. The Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner called Holy Saturday, ‘the quietest day’ in the Christian calendar. The Jewish philosopher George Steiner refers to Holy Saturday as ‘the long days journey of the Saturday’ (Steiner, “Real Presences”). Steiner’s invocation of the Holy Saturday tradition at the end of his remarkable tour de force of the cultural and philosophical condition of the twentieth century provided a powerful reminder that we find ourselves in times of immense transition and uncertainty. In such a context of rapid change, radical innovations and so many undecidables, a cultivated waiting that brims full of vigour, life and resilience becomes paramount. Steiner counsels neither the despair of Good Friday nor the triumphant rush towards Easter Sunday, but rather a hopeful patient waiting. It is not passive but rather encourages a faithful waiting and holy patience. It is a theme picked up by Rowan Williams’s meditations in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001. Williams, in his book, “Writing in the Dust” reflects on Jesus’ doodling in the dust recorded in chapter eight of John’s Gospel. In this strange and enigmatic gesture Williams senses hope:
He [Jesus] hesitates. He does not draw a line, offer an interpretation, tell the woman who she is and what her fate should be. He allows a moment, a longish moment, in which people are given time to see themselves differently precisely because he refuses to make the sense they want. When he lifts his head, there is both judgement and release. So this is writing in the dust because it tries to hold that moment for a little longer, long enough for some of our demons to walk away.
There is a clue here for genuine Christian community. The Church of Jesus Christ has deep within its spiritual DNA resources for the long day’s journey of the Saturday; resources to allow for ‘a longish moment’; an extended moment of witness in a minor key; a moment without fanfare. The Holy Saturday tradition points us to the ancient spiritual discipline of patience. It was Tertullian in the third century (160-240 CE) who considered disharmony and conflict in the Church—what he called ‘the family of siblings’—as a sign of impatience. He saw the archetype of this present in the Cain and Abel story wherein Tertullian argued that ‘Therefore, since he [Cain] could not commit murder unless he were angry, and could not be angry unless he were impatient, it is to be proved that what he did in anger is to be referred to that which prompted the anger’(Hellerman, “The Ancient Church as Family”). Tertullian’s appeal to the sibling metaphor for the church family and his emphasis upon harmony and discord revolving around the theme of patience may yet prove instructive in our current times. It may be precisely through this ancient discipline that religious communities that share the heritage of Cain and Able are enabled to live with uncertainties and at the same time find a richer and resilient life together for the common good.
Patient and hopeful waiting in troubled, disturbed and violent times cannot be artificially manufactured nor simply managed. Perhaps here is a clue for the character of the spiritual life needed at this time in the Anglican Church of Australia. Anglicans are called to be a people who foster a particular fruit of the Holy Spirit; the spiritual discipline of patience (Galatians 5:22). We are called to live as Easter Sunday people witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus. But this witness does not allow a detour around or leap frog over Holy Saturday. There is a kind of patience appropriate for people of the resurrection that breeds resilience and joy even as we wait for the coming kingdom. This is my prayer for Easter 2025.
