Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to embrace trust in God’s timing and grace, even in moments of silence and seeming despair.
Newsroom (17/09/2025, Gaudium Press ) In his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV delivered a profound reflection on the significance of Holy Saturday, urging the faithful to embrace trust in God’s timing and grace, even in moments of silence and seeming despair. Speaking as part of the ongoing Cycle of Catechesis for Jubilee 2025, themed “Jesus Christ our Hope,” the pontiff focused on the mystery of Christ’s burial, describing it as a time of expectant silence that holds the promise of resurrection.
Drawing from the Gospel of John, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the burial of Jesus in “a new tomb where no one had ever been laid” (Jn 19:41), located in a garden that evokes the lost Eden. “This garden recalls the place where God and man were united,” he said. “The tomb, never used, is not an end but a threshold—a new creation begins in a garden with a closed tomb that will soon be opened.”
The pontiff described Holy Saturday as a “day of great silence,” where the absence of Jesus is not emptiness but a “restrained fullness” pregnant with meaning. “It is like the womb of a mother carrying her unborn but already living child,” he explained, emphasizing that this silence is where the deepest mystery of Christian faith unfolds. The rest of Jesus in the tomb, he noted, mirrors the rest of God after creation, a sign that the work of salvation is complete, sealed by divine love.
Pope Leo XIV addressed the modern struggle to pause and rest, encouraging the faithful to see waiting as an act of trust. “We rush to produce, to prove ourselves, to keep up,” he said. “But Holy Saturday invites us to discover that life does not always depend on what we do, but on how we know how to take leave of what we have done.” He portrayed Jesus’ silence in the tomb as a seed in the ground, waiting to sprout, and urged believers to view moments of emptiness or pause as opportunities for grace. “Every silence that is welcomed can be the premise of a new Word,” he said.
The Pope emphasized God’s patience, describing Him as a God who “waits, who withdraws to leave us freedom.” He encouraged the faithful to resist the urge for quick answers and instead embrace the “slow time of trust,” where God works deeply to bring forth new life. “The Sabbath of the burial becomes the womb from which the strength of an invincible light, that of Easter, can spring forth,” he said.
Citing the Virgin Mary as the embodiment of hope and trust, Pope Leo XIV called on the faithful to remember Holy Saturday when life feels stagnant or hopeless. “Even in the tomb, God was preparing the greatest surprise of all,” he said. “True joy is born of patient faith, of the hope that what has been lived in love will surely rise to eternal life.”
The Pope’s message resonated with the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square, offering a timely reminder of the power of faith and patience in an era often marked by haste and uncertainty. As the Church prepares for the Jubilee Year, Pope Leo XIV’s words underscore the enduring hope at the heart of the Christian message, rooted in the silent expectation of resurrection.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from vatican.va
Related Images:
