April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
REFLECTION
Thank God it's Sunday
God's Third Commandment, given to Moses on Mount Sinai, was: "Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the Lord, your God, has commanded you.... Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God" (Deut 5:12, 20:8).
Sabbath, for the Jewish people, is observed on the seventh day of the week, from sunset on Friday through sunset on Saturday. Christians changed their sabbath to the first day of the week: from Saturday to Sunday, in honor of the Lord's resurrection. Indeed, every Sunday is a mini-Easter.
Jews consider their sabbath to be the "queen" of the week. No work is done. There are home rituals and prayers; participation in services at the synagogue is encouraged.
For Catholics, the first precept of the Church is: "You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation." In fact, the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" states that "participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to His Church."
During Mass, we are fed and challenged with the Word of the Lord in the Bible readings and homily. We are fed and nourished for the coming week with the Body and Blood of Christ in communion.
At the Last Supper, on that first Holy Thursday, the night before He died, Jesus said, "This is my Body; this is my Blood....Do this in memory of me." We do so every time we gather together at Mass.
Mass allows us to be "present" for the saving events in the upper room that first Holy Thursday...at the foot of the cross that first Good Friday...and at the empty tomb that first Easter. At communion time, we are united to Christ and to His people.
Four kinds of prayer are prayed:
• adoration, which we owe to God, at least for an hour a week;
• reparation, seeking reconciliation, pardon and peace for the sins we have committed;
• thanksgiving, giving "thanks to the Lord our God" (the word Eucharist means "thanksgiving"); and
• petition, in which we acknowledge our dependence on God.
We believe that at every Mass, Jesus Christ is present - in the Word of God; in the person of the priest-presider; in the people of God, the body of Christ; in the bread and wine of life, the Body and Blood of Christ.
The celebration of Mass is the center of the whole Christian life. We gather not only as the parish community, but in union with all of the people of God of the Diocese of Albany, with our bishop and with all Catholics throughout the world, in union with our pope.
Mass is one of the few times in our society when we gather together young and old, rich and poor, educated and not, of every race,language and way of life.
The word "Mass" comes from the Latin phrase that ends the Mass: "Ite missa est." You are sent out into your world at home, school and work to live what was celebrated. Mass nourishes us for the work for the Kingdom of God we are about for the rest of the week.
Beyond our mood or busyness, we need to be there for one another as well as ourselves. It takes a parish to raise a Christian. Participation is about more than ourselves! Pope John Paul II said, "From the Sunday Mass there flows a tide of charity destined to spread into the whole life of the faithful."
The other dimension of Sunday is supposed to be rest. As the Catechism says, "Sunday rest puts our whole life into perspective."
Bishop William Love of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany wrote about this in the "Albany Episcopalian" in May. "Failing to honor the Sabbath may not seem like such a big deal," he remarked, "but I would argue just the opposite.
"As I look around at the brokenness of the world in which we live....I am convinced that our failure to keep and obey the Third Commandment is a major contributing factor. If God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, rested from all His work, blessing the Sabbath day, who are we to think we don't need to rest on the Sabbath and spend time with our Lord, being spiritually fed and nourished and strengthened?
"I believe that society's drift away from God's command to 'remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy,' while perhaps seen as economically liberating and even progressive, has fallen victim to the 'law of unintended consequences,' causing far greater harm than good. The biggest victim is often the family - the building block of society.
"May the Lord give us the grace to recognize and faithfully embrace the Sabbath as the gift God intended it to be be, in order that we might be blessed by it individually, as a family and as a society." I would propose we develop an attitude of "T.G.I.S." ("Thank God it's Sunday"). Built into our faith lives is the call to make Sunday a day of prayer and rest for the worship of God, the good of our health and the well-being of our family lives.
Jews greet one another on their sabbath, "Shabbat Shalom" ("Sabbath Peace"). May we Christians, faithful to the Lord's command to "keep holy the Sabbath," embrace Sunday as the Lord's Day and so know God's peace in our hearts and homes.
(Father Kane is pastor of St. Patrick's parish in Ravena and director of the diocesan Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.)[[In-content Ad]]
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