The Easter Gospel (John 20:1–18) opens by telling us that “early in the morning, while it was still dark,” Mary Magdalene came to Jesus’ tomb. There she saw that the stone had been moved from the entrance of the tomb, and encountered two angels in white robes who asked her why she was weeping. Her answer was as simple as it was sad: “My Lord has been taken away, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Although the woman is at the center of the Easter Gospel, she has not yet crossed the threshold to Easter itself. She is still living in Holy Saturday, as it were, and looking for Jesus among the dead.

As the day Jesus rested in the grave, Holy Saturday is the day of God’s concealment and silence in history.