HOLY SATURDAY - the great Sabbath rest

A day of rest - as it was for the followers of Jesus - after the great pain and sense of loss on Good Friday.

On Good Friday I again led the Stations of the Cross on the Iowa State University campus as a way to help people connect the sufferings of Christ with life at ISU. The stations follow Christ on the way to the cross and we recalled how Christ suffers even today in all the poor and suffering of this world.

The day was cold - with a bitter wind, but a brave group of about 15 of us walked through campus - stopping at the plaque that recalls the processing of uranium for atom bombs at ISU in the mid-1940s; remembering immigrants as we recalled Simon of Cyrene, an outsider,at the statue of the man carrying the woman across the Rio Grande on central campus; remembering all the women mourning the loss of their loved ones in war as we prayed the station of the women of Jerusalem weeping over Jesus outside the armory.

We ended at Lake Laverne, praying the 15th station of the resurrection. I nearly broke up as I recalled that on Monday the body of an ISU student, Abel Bolaños, was pulled from that lake. But we prayed these words:
"As people of faith we know that death is not the final word.
"Jesus has risen! He has given new life and new meaning to our lives."