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Rediscovering
Sunday as the Lord's Day
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Whatever else 2005 may be, for Catholics, it is a year to focus on the
Eucharist.
The word Eucharist is taken from the Greek and means “thanksgiving.” It
is the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present under the
forms of bread and wine offering himself in the sacrifice of the Mass
and giving himself as spiritual food to the faithful in holy Communion.
The Eucharist, we know, was instituted at the Last Supper by Christ
himself. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum
Concilium) of the Second Vatican Council declares: “This he did in
order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until
he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the
Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a
sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is
consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is
given to us” (No. 47).
That same document of the Second Vatican Council teaches: (No. 106) “By
a tradition handed down from the apostles, which took its origin from
the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the paschal
mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s
Day or Sunday. For on this day Christ’s faithful are bound to
come together into one place. They should listen to the word of God and
take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the passion,
resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving thanks to God who
‘has begotten them again, through the resurrection of Christ from the
dead, unto a living hope’” (1 Peter: 1-3).
With gratitude to the Holy Father for designating 2005 as a Year of the
Eucharist, one of the things I pledged to do back in September was to
devote this column from time to time to various points of Church
teaching on the Eucharist. The first was published in the issue of Dec.
12. This week’s column is the first in a three-part mini-series on
Rediscovering Sunday.
There is a need for many to fine-tune personal fidelity to Mass. There
is also a need to catechize the young about the importance of the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. And, we all need to strengthen our common
understanding of the centrality of the Eucharist in our lives as
Catholics. If at the end of the Eucharistic Year, Christ has been moved
to the center of our hearts, it will be a successful venture. Fidelity
to Mass on Sundays, convenient or inconvenient, will be an indicator of
how well the goal for this year has been achieved.
Conventional wisdom proclaims that motivation is not found in appeals to
law or threats. One must see personal advantage if motivation is to make
a genuine difference. Unflattering as this admitted stubbornness may be
to people who have been called to holiness by baptism, “what’s in it for
me” often dominates what we decide to do. Yet, the Church does not
hesitate to state we must gather together each weekend and holy
day of obligation. Not to do so, she adds, is a serious violation of the
commitment made at baptism. Without a proportionately excusing cause it
is, in terms of moral theology, a sin which requires sacramental
absolution before one is considered eligible to receive holy Communion.
One can ask, however, where this “must” stems from.
Let me suggest it stems from the very essence of who we are as Catholic
Christians. It originates from the relationship with Christ Jesus
established in baptism and from our very identity as Catholics.
“Sunday,” to quote the Holy Father, “is a day which is at the very heart
of the Christian life.” He urges every Catholic to rediscover Sunday:
“Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ! The rediscovery of this
day is a grace which we must implore, not only so that we may live the
demands of faith to the full, but also so that we may respond concretely
to the deepest human longings. Time given to Christ is never time lost,
but rather time gained, so that our relationship and indeed our whole
life may become more profoundly human” (Dies Domini).
There is a need to rediscover Sunday. This is the case not simply
because of Church law, but because to do so responds to our deepest
human yearnings. We become more profoundly human when we are immersed in
the life of our Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The celebration of liturgy, pre-eminently the celebration of Sunday
Eucharist, is faith community’s praise and worship of God, praising the
Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. At the same
time, the liturgy is both an expression of the presence of God’s grace
in our life and a deepening of that grace. Ultimately, it must be
remembered that it is not God who needs our worship; we are the ones who
need to worship God. We need to recognize him for who he is: God.
This is the way we become who we are called to be: sons and daughters of
God created in his image and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
One of the factors feeding our need to gather faithfully Sunday after
Sunday for Eucharist is the fact that in the course of the businesses of
our lives we forget who we are. It is no secret that in our fast-paced,
technological and depersonalized world we easily become isolated,
disconnected and fatigued. Unless uniquely disciplined, there is always
something more to do and somewhere else to go. It is not at all unusual
to become burdened with a feeling of never being able to keep up. This
leads to a frustration and futility that rightly causes us to ask, where
is it all going?
Augustine of Hippo, a fourth-century saint, penned a phrase that cuts to
the heart of the issue. He wrote: “You (God) have made us for yourself,
and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
It is not possible to attend to the deep longing for God that is within
us if we do not set aside time to let God nourish our souls.
Rediscovering Sunday by keeping it holy must be seen as the one
non-negotiable and essential element that gives meaning and purpose to
all the things we do the other six days of the week.
Sunday needs to be set aside as a special day with a celebration of the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a central part of that day. We need to do
that because that is how we remember who we are. We need to gather, to
listen to God’s Word, to give praise and thanks in the Eucharist, and to
share Christ’s sacrifice in the Eucharistic celebration because that’s
how we find the strength to be who we are supposed to be. Sunday defines
who we are as Catholics. John Paul II has put it this way: “The
Eucharist is the full realization of the worship which humanity owes to
God that cannot be compared to any other religious experience … the
grace flowing from this wellspring renews mankind, life, and history” (Dies
Domini 81).
When at the Last Supper Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me,” he
meant it. He foresaw fidelity to the Lord’s Day would be necessary if we
are to become who we are called to be: sons and daughters of God created
in his image and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
More on Rediscovering Sunday next week. |
