Today is Holy Saturday. Jesus spent the day in Hell, freeing the souls who could, because of His Sacrifice, finally enter Heaven.
Dante reports in The Inferno that Hell is a mess. Jesus tore up the place, rooting out every soul that should be in Heaven. It is like a great city after an awful series of earthquakes that have turned the buildings into piles of rubble.
While Jesus is spending Holy Saturday destroying the fortresses below, The Only Church He Founded has provided many readings for us to consider. This one is particularly important to us.
We Americans are largely descended from the Ten Northern Tribes. They formed many of the European countries before their descendants moved to the Americas.
So, this reading from Ezekiel is particularly relevant:
Ez. 36:16-17a, 18-28
The word of the LORD came to me, saying: Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their conduct and deeds. Therefore I poured out my fury upon them because of the blood that they poured out on the ground,and because they defiled it with idols.
I scattered them among the nations,dispersing them over foreign lands; according to their conduct and deeds I judged them.
But when they came among the nations wherever they came, they served to profane my holy name, because it was said of them: “These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave their land.”
So I have relented because of my holy name which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they came.
Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: Not for your sakes do I act, house of Israel,but for the sake of my holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you came.
I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations,in whose midst you have profaned it.
Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.
For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands,and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities,and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
We can only be His people by being in The Only Church He Founded. So, get moving. Holy Saturday: The Readings say “Be Catholic!”
