Diocesan Resources
Celebrating the Lord's Day (2010)
On Sunday, we gather as the Body of Christ to celebrate the Lord’s Day, the day of Christ’s Resurrection. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus rose on the fi rst day of the week—the day following the Jewish Sabbath. Shortly after daybreak, the women found the tomb empty and Jesus risen from the dead. Jesus’ death and Resurrection opened for us the doors of salvation. Sharing in Jesus’ death in Baptism, we hope to share in his Resurrection. We become a new creation in Christ. It is that new creation which we celebrate on Sunday. Each Sunday is a “little Easter”—a celebration of the central mysteries of our faith.
Celebrating the Sunday Eucharist—though central and essential—does not complete our observance of Sunday. In addition to attending Mass each Sunday, we should also refrain “from those activities which impede the worship of God and disturb the joy proper to the day of the Lord or the necessary relaxation of mind and body” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 453).
Sunday has traditionally been a day of rest. However, the concept of a day of rest may seem odd in a world that runs 24/7, where we are tethered to our jobs by a variety of electronic gadgets, where businesses run as normal no matter what the day of the week, and where silence seems to be an endangered species. By taking a day each week to rest in the Lord, we provide a living example to the culture that all time belongs to God and that people are more important than things.