187 In the Course o a Year the Church Reveals the Lord's Power and Merits

YOUCAT Lesson 187

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

187  How important is Sunday?

Sunday is the center of Christian time, for on Sunday we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, and every Sunday is a miniature Easter.  [1163-1167, 1193]

Woodcut: …..Invitation to the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24; Matthew 22:1-14)…..by Jan Luyken. …..187

If Sunday is disregarded or abolished, only work days are left in the week.  Man, who was created for joy, degenerates into a workhorse and a mindless consumer.  We must learn on earth how to celebrate properly, or else we will not know what to do in heaven.  Heaven is an endless Sunday.  104-107.

…….WHEN IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED?

…….Liturgical seasons

…….1163 "Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ. . . . Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace."(Sacrosanctum Concilium 102)³³ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1164   From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church, between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ. –CCC

…….1165 When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit.(compare Matthew 6:11; Hebrews 3:7-4:11; Psalm 95:7)³⁴    This "today" of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history:

Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover.(St. Hippolytus, De pasch. 1-2 Sources Chrẻtiennes 27,117)³⁵ –CCC

…….The Lord's day

…….1166   "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." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 106)³⁶    The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening."(Byzantine liturgy)³⁷    The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet:(compare John 21:12; Luke 24:30)³⁸ –CCC

The Lord's day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord's day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If pagans call it the "day of the sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his rays.(St. Jerome, Pasch.: Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 78,550)³⁹ –CCC

…….1167 Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather "to 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, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead' unto a living hope": (Sacrosanctum Concilium 106.)^{40 --CCC}

…….IN BRIEF

…….1193   Sunday, the "Lord's Day," is the principal day for the celebration of the Eucharist because it is the day of the Resurrection. It is the pre-eminent day of the liturgical assembly, the day of the Christian family, and the day of joy and rest from work. Sunday is "the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 106). --CCC