On Good Friday, the people in my parish do the way of the cross up and down the dirt road of our village. Apart from all the shouts of muzungu! from small children, it is quite meaningful. On Saturday, we lit a bonfire and had a vigil until Easter Morning. Anyone who thinks that Catholicism is about mass twice a year for 30 minutes is sorely mistaken!
I forgot to bring my candle, so I had to run back to the convent by starlight and grab it.
What is this vigil and this way of the cross? I thought about those disciples praying and afraid that the Romans would kill them on the first Saturday vigil. They did not think of a resurrection or a worldwide Church. They were simply praying. Who were they praying to? the Jewish God that they had known their whole lives, because they certainly did not think that Jesus was beyond mortal.
I think that is what faith is. It is not seeing the Sunday morning or even believing that you will stay alive to see it. It is simply believing that God is and is good and remaining faithful to your commitment, although you are terrified. That is what Job did, after all. He did not have faith in a change of situation -- but he did not his change his commitment to the Situator.
I have experienced several deaths in my time here, and before I came. Faith doesn't necessarily mean believing in a resurrection, because we are often unable to even go that far. It is believing that my Father is here, even now, and in that way, seeing through the death.
Eventually, after I came back into the church, panting from my run, I had my candle lit. That is what a candle is, after all. It doesn't allow you to see the sun, but it guides you through the night.
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