Holy Saturday, the Day of ‘the great Vigil of Resurrection conquest’

“Do not rush to the conquest,” the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus urged in his Death on a Friday Afternoon. “Stay a while with this day. Let your heart be broken by the unspeakably bad of this Friday we call good. Some scholars speculate that “Good Friday” comes from “God’s Friday,” as “good-bye” was originally “God be by you.” But it is just as odd that it should be called God’s Friday, when it is the day we say good-bye to the glory of God. Wherever its name comes from, let your present moment stay with this day. Stay a while in the eclipse of the light, stay a while with the conquered One. There is time enough for Easter.”