Amos 8:9-10 "'And on that day,' says the Lord God, 'I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations; I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.'" (What an appropriate reading as we enter the Triduum!)
 

Amos was prophesying about the coming chastisement in his time, but this is also clearly an early allusion to Jesus' death. Days and times like this are repetitive: as we fall into sin and forget God, we unwittingly create the necessity for them. This is the cyclical nature of salvation history.

Since the time of this prophesy, God's only Son has come and has redeemed us all at tremendous cost, yet we are turning further and further from Him. It seems to me, then, that another "day" like this is on the horizon (and may have actually already begun). I wonder how that day will affect those who see it coming, those who are already wearing sackcloth, as it were? I don't really know, but I am grateful that God is preparing us. I do know that we will all suffer on that coming day, but I think those who are already forgoing or seeing beyond the feasts and the singing, who are already lamenting, will experience the turmoil of that time as a needed cleansing. Don't get me wrong, we will all be cleansed, and it will not be pleasant, but those already in sackcloth will be ready for it and approach it with hopeful expectation of what lies on the other side. (All of this is easy for me to say now, I hope I remember and trust it when the day comes!)

"For the sake of the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross." - Hebrews 12:2