From: Rhonda Steiner
To: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Subject: Popes Letter - Why keep Sunday? (Part 1 of 6)
Shalom,
Thought you might find this Letter from Pope John Paul II on why
catholics should keep Sunday holy, intresting. (I'll warn you though,
its rather lengthy
http://www.cin.org/jp2/diesdomi.html
Rhonda
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(PART
1 of 6)
>From Eddie:
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Is the Pope's teaching on Sunday being the Sabbath scriptural?
Here is the answer: In II Timothy 2:15 it is written:
"STUDY to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing (interpreting) the word of truth"
In Acts 17:11 it is written:
"These (the Bereans) were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in
that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily, whether these things were so".
May God bless you in your studies with the help of the Ruach
HaKodesh / Holy Spirit leading and guiding you into all truth (John
16:13)
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APOSTOLIC
LETTER
DIES
DOMINI
OF
THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II
TO
THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH
ON
KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY HOLY
My esteemed Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood, Dear
Brothers and Sisters!
1. The Lord's Day - as Sunday was called from Apostolic times(1) - has
always been accorded special attention in the history of the Church
because of its close connection with the very core of the Christian
mystery. In fact, in the weekly reckoning of time Sunday recalls the
day of Christ's Resurrection. It is Easter which returns week by week,
celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfilment in him
of the first creation and the dawn of "the new creation" (cf. 2 Cor
5:17). It is the day which recalls in grateful adoration the world's
first day and looks forward in active hope to "the last day", when
Christ will come in glory (cf. Acts 1:11; 1 Th 4:13-17) and all things
will be made new (cf. Rev 21:5).
Rightly, then, the Psalmist's cry is applied to Sunday: "This is the
day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps
118:24). This invitation to joy, which the Easter liturgy makes its
own, reflects the astonishment which came over the women who, having
seen the crucifixion of Christ, found the tomb empty when they went
there "very early on the first day after the Sabbath" (Mk 16:2). It is
an invitation to relive in some way the experience of the two
disciples of Emmaus, who felt their hearts "burn within them" as the
Risen One walked with them on the road, explaining the Scriptures and
revealing himself in "the breaking of the bread" (cf. Lk 24:32,35).
And it echoes the joy - at first uncertain and then overwhelming -
which the Apostles experienced on the evening of that same day, when
they were visited by the Risen Jesus and received the gift of his
peace and of his Spirit (cf. Jn 20:19-23).
2. The Resurrection of Jesus is the fundamental event upon which
Christian faith rests (cf. 1 Cor 15:14). It is an astonishing reality,
fully grasped in the light of faith, yet historically attested to by
those who were privileged to see the Risen Lord. It is a wondrous
event which is not only absolutely unique in human history, but which
lies at the very heart of the mystery of time. In fact, "all time
belongs to [Christ] and all the ages", as the evocative liturgy of the
Easter Vigil recalls in preparing the Paschal Candle. Therefore, in
commemorating the day of Christ's Resurrection not just once a year
but every Sunday, the Church seeks to indicate to every generation the
true fulcrum of history, to which the mystery of the world's origin
and its final destiny leads.
It is right, therefore, to claim, in the words of a fourth century
homily, that "the Lord's Day" is "the lord of days".(2) Those who have
received the grace of faith in the Risen Lord cannot fail to grasp the
significance of this day of the week with the same deep emotion which
led Saint Jerome to say: "Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, it is
the day of Christians, it is our day".(3) For Christians, Sunday is
"the fundamental feastday",(4) established not only to mark the
succession of time but to reveal time's deeper meaning.
3. The fundamental importance of Sunday has been recognized through
two thousand years of history and was emphatically restated by the
Second Vatican Council: "Every seven days, the Church celebrates the
Easter mystery. This is a tradition going back to the Apostles, taking
its origin from the actual day of Christ's Resurrection - a day thus
appropriately designated 'the Lord's Day'."(5) Paul VI emphasized this
importance once more when he approved the new General Roman Calendar
and the Universal Norms which regulate the ordering of the Liturgical
Year.(6) The coming of the Third Millennium, which calls believers to
reflect upon the course of history in the light of Christ, also
invites them to rediscover with new intensity the meaning of Sunday:
its "mystery", its celebration, its significance for Christian and
human life.
I note with pleasure that in the years since the Council this
important theme has prompted not only many interventions by you, dear
Brother Bishops, as teachers of the faith, but also different pastoral
strategies which - with the support of your clergy - you have
developed either individually or jointly. On the threshold of the
Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, it has been my wish to offer you this
Apostolic Letter in order to support your pastoral efforts in this
vital area. But at the same time I wish to turn to all of you,
Christ's faithful, as though I were spiritually present in all the
communities in which you gather with your Pastors each Sunday to
celebrate the Eucharist and "the Lord's Day". Many of the insights and
intuitions which prompt this Apostolic Letter have grown from my
episcopal service in Krakow and, since the time when I assumed the
ministry of Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter, in the visits to
the Roman parishes which I have made regularly on the Sundays of the
different seasons of the Liturgical Year. I see this Letter as
continuing the lively exchange which I am always happy to have with
the faithful, as I reflect with you on the meaning of Sunday and
underline the reasons for living Sunday as truly "the Lord's Day",
also in the changing circumstances of our own times.
4. Until quite recently, it was easier in traditionally Christian
countries to keep Sunday holy because it was an almost universal
practice and because, even in the organization of civil society,
Sunday rest was considered a fixed part of the work schedule. Today,
however, even in those countries which give legal sanction to the
festive character of Sunday, changes in socioeconomic conditions have
often led to profound modifications of social behaviour and hence of
the character of Sunday. The custom of the "weekend" has become more
widespread, a weekly period of respite, spent perhaps far from home
and often involving participation in cultural, political or sporting
activities which are usually held on free days. This social and
cultural phenomenon is by no means without its positive aspects if,
while respecting true values, it can contribute to people's
development and to the advancement of the life of society as a whole.
All of this responds not only to the need for rest, but also to the
need for celebration which is inherent in our humanity. Unfortunately,
when Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes merely part of a
"weekend", it can happen that people stay locked within a horizon so
limited that they can no longer see "the heavens".(7) Hence, though
ready to celebrate, they are really incapable of doing so.
The disciples of Christ, however, are asked to avoid any confusion
between the celebration of Sunday, which should truly be a way of
keeping the Lord's Day holy, and the "weekend", understood as a time
of simple rest and relaxation. This will require a genuine spiritual
maturity, which will enable Christians to "be what they are", in full
accordance with the gift of faith, always ready to give an account of
the hope which is in them (cf. 1 Pt 3:15). In this way, they will be
led to a deeper understanding of Sunday, with the result that, even in
difficult situations, they will be able to live it in complete
docility to the Holy Spirit.
5. From this perspective, the situation appears somewhat mixed. On the
one hand, there is the example of some young Churches, which show how
fervently Sunday can be celebrated, whether in urban areas or in
widely scattered villages. By contrast, in other parts of the world,
because of the sociological pressures already noted, and perhaps
because the motivation of faith is weak, the percentage of those
attending the Sunday liturgy is strikingly low. In the minds of many
of the faithful, not only the sense of the centrality of the Eucharist
but even the sense of the duty to give thanks to the Lord and to pray
to him with others in the community of the Church, seems to be
diminishing.
It is also true that both in mission countries and in countries
evangelized long ago the lack of priests is such that the celebration
of the Sunday Eucharist cannot always be guaranteed in every
community.
6. Given this array of new situations and the questions which they
prompt, it seems more necessary than ever to recover the deep
doctrinal foundations underlying the Church's precept, so that the
abiding value of Sunday in the Christian life will be clear to all the
faithful. In doing this, we follow in the footsteps of the age-old
tradition of the Church, powerfully restated by the Second Vatican
Council in its teaching that on Sunday "Christian believers should
come together, in order to commemorate the suffering, Resurrection and
glory of the Lord Jesus, by hearing God's Word and sharing the
Eucharist, and to give thanks to God who has given them new birth to a
living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
(cf. 1 Pt 1:3)".(8)
7. The duty to keep Sunday holy, especially by sharing in the
Eucharist and by relaxing in a spirit of Christian joy and fraternity,
is easily understood if we consider the many different aspects of this
day upon which the present Letter will focus our attention.
Sunday is a day which is at the very heart of the Christian life. From
the beginning of my Pontificate, I have not ceased to repeat: "Do not
be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!".(9) In the same way,
today I would strongly urge everyone to rediscover Sunday: Do not be
afraid to give your time to Christ! Yes, let us open our time to
Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. He is
the One who knows the secret of time and the secret of eternity, and
he gives us "his day" as an ever new gift of his love. 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 yearnings. Time given to Christ is
never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships
and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human.
CHAPTER I
DIES DOMINI
The Celebration of the Creator's Work
"Through him all things were made" (Jn 1:3)
8. For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration,
wholly illumined by the glory of the Risen Christ. It is the festival
of the "new creation". Yet, when understood in depth, this aspect is
inseparable from what the first pages of Scripture tell us of the plan
of God in the creation of the world. It is true that the Word was made
flesh in "the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4); but it is also true that,
in virtue of the mystery of his identity as the eternal Son of the
Father, he is the origin and end of the universe. As John writes in
the Prologue of his Gospel: "Through him all things were made, and
without him was made nothing that was made" (1:3). Paul too stresses
this in writing to the Colossians: "In him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible .... All things were
created through him and for him" (1:16). This active presence of the
Son in the creative work of God is revealed fully in the Paschal
Mystery, in which Christ, rising as "the first fruits of those who had
fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20), established the new creation and began
the process which he himself will bring to completion when he returns
in glory to "deliver the kingdom to God the Father ..., so that God
may be everything to everyone" (1 Cor 15:24,28).
Already at the dawn of creation, therefore, the plan of God implied
Christ's "cosmic mission". This Christocentric perspective, embracing
the whole arc of time, filled God's well-pleased gaze when, ceasing
from all his work, he "blessed the seventh day and made it holy" (Gn
2:3). According to the Priestly writer of the first biblical creation
story, then was born the "Sabbath", so characteristic of the first
Covenant, and which in some ways foretells the sacred day of the new
and final Covenant. The theme of "God's rest" (cf. Gn 2:2) and the
rest which he offered to the people of the Exodus when they entered
the Promised Land (cf. Ex 33:14; Dt 3:20; 12:9; Jos 21:44; Ps 95:11)
is re-read in the New Testament in the light of the definitive
"Sabbath rest" (Heb 4:9) into which Christ himself has entered by his
Resurrection. The People of God are called to enter into this same
rest by persevering in Christ's example of filial obedience (cf. Heb
4:3-16). In order to grasp fully the meaning of Sunday, therefore, we
must re-read the great story of creation and deepen our understanding
of the theology of the "Sabbath".
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gn 1:1)
9. The poetic style of the Genesis story conveys well the awe which
people feel before the immensity of creation and the resulting sense
of adoration of the One who brought all things into being from
nothing. It is a story of intense religious significance, a hymn to
the Creator of the universe, pointing to him as the only Lord in the
face of recurring temptations to divinize the world itself. At the
same time, it is a hymn to the goodness of creation, all fashioned by
the mighty and merciful hand of God.
"God saw that it was good" (Gn 1:10,12, etc.). Punctuating the story
as it does, this refrain sheds a positive light upon every element of
the universe and reveals the secret for a proper understanding of it
and for its eventual regeneration: the world is good insofar as it
remains tied to its origin and, after being disfigured by sin, it is
again made good when, with the help of grace, it returns to the One
who made it. It is clear that this process directly concerns not
inanimate objects and animals but human beings, who have been endowed
with the incomparable gift and risk of freedom. Immediately after the
creation stories, the Bible highlights the dramatic contrast between
the grandeur of man, created in the image and likeness of God, and the
fall of man, which unleashes on the world the darkness of sin and
death (cf. Gn 3).
10. Coming as it does from the hand of God, the cosmos bears the
imprint of his goodness. It is a beautiful world, rightly moving us to
admiration and delight, but also calling for cultivation and
development. At the "completion" of God's work, the world is ready for
human activity. "On the seventh day God finished his work which he had
done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had
done" (Gn 2:2). With this anthropomorphic image of God's "work", the
Bible not only gives us a glimpse of the mysterious relationship
between the Creator and the created world, but also casts light upon
the task of human beings in relation to the cosmos. The "work" of God
is in some ways an exemple for man, called not only to inhabit the
cosmos, but also to "build" it and thus become God's "co-worker". As I
wrote in my Encyclical Laborem Exercens, the first chapters of Genesis
constitute in a sense the first "gospel of work".(10) This is a truth
which the Second Vatican Council also stressed: "Created in God's
image, man was commissioned to subdue the earth and all it contains,
to rule the world in justice and holiness, and, recognizing God as the
creator of all things, to refer himself and the totality of things to
God so that with everything subject to God, the divine name would be
glorified in all the earth".(11)
The exhilarating advance of science, technology and culture in their
various forms - an ever more rapid and today even overwhelming
development - is the historical consequence of the mission by which
God entrusts to man and woman the task and responsibility of filling
the earth and subduing it by means of their work, in the observance of
God's Law.
"Shabbat": the Creator's joyful rest
11. If the first page of the Book of Genesis presents God's "work" as
an exemple for man, the same is true of God's "rest":"On the seventh
day God finished his work which he had done" (Gn 2:2). Here too we
find an anthropomorphism charged with a wealth of meaning.
It would be banal to interpret God's "rest" as a kind of divine
"inactivity". By its nature, the creative act which founds the world
is unceasing and God is always at work, as Jesus himself declares in
speaking of the Sabbath precept: "My Father is working still, and I am
working" (Jn 5:17). The divine rest of the seventh day does not allude
to an inactive God, but emphasizes the fullness of what has been
accomplished. It speaks, as it were, of God's lingering before the
"very good" work (Gn 1:31) which his hand has wrought, in order to
cast upon it a gaze full of joyous delight. This is a "contemplative"
gaze which does not look to new accomplishments but enjoys the beauty
of what has already been achieved. It is a gaze which God casts upon
all things, but in a special way upon man, the crown of creation. It
is a gaze which already discloses something of the nuptial shape of
the relationship which God wants to establish with the creature made
in his own image, by calling that creature to enter a pact of love.
This is what God will gradually accomplish, in offering salvation to
all humanity through the saving covenant made with Israel and
fulfilled in Christ. It will be the Word Incarnate, through the
eschatological gift of the Holy Spirit and the configuration of the
Church as his Body and Bride, who will extend to all humanity the
offer of mercy and the call of the Father's love.
12. In the Creator's plan, there is both a distinction and a close
link between the order of creation and the order of salvation. This is
emphasized in the Old Testament, when it links the "shabbat"
commandment not only with God's mysterious "rest" after the days of
creation (cf. Ex 20:8-11), but also with the salvation which he offers
to Israel in the liberation from the slavery of Egypt (cf. Dt
5:12-15). The God who rests on the seventh day, rejoicing in his
creation, is the same God who reveals his glory in liberating his
children from Pharaoh's oppression. Adopting an image dear to the
Prophets, one could say that in both cases God reveals himself as the
bridegroom before the bride (cf. Hos 2:16-24; Jer 2:2; Is 54:4-8).
As certain elements of the same Jewish tradition suggest,(12) to reach
the heart of the "shabbat", of God's "rest", we need to recognize in
both the Old and the New Testament the nuptial intensity which marks
the relationship between God and his people. Hosea, for instance, puts
it thus in this marvellous passage: "I will make for you a covenant on
that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the
creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword,
and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I
will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in
righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will
betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord"
(2:18-20).
"God blessed the seventh day and made it holy" (Gn 2:3)
13. The Sabbath precept, which in the first Covenant prepares for the
Sunday of the new and eternal Covenant, is therefore rooted in the
depths of God's plan. This is why, unlike many other precepts, it is
set not within the context of strictly cultic stipulations but within
the Decalogue, the "ten words" which represent the very pillars of the
moral life inscribed on the human heart. In setting this commandment
within the context of the basic structure of ethics, Israel and then
the Church declare that they consider it not just a matter of
community religious discipline but a defining and indelible expression
of our relationship with God, announced and expounded by biblical
revelation. This is the perspective within which Christians need to
rediscover this precept today. Although the precept may merge
naturally with the human need for rest, it is faith alone which gives
access to its deeper meaning and ensures that it will not become banal
and trivialized.
14. In the first place, therefore, Sunday is the day of rest because
it is the day "blessed" by God and "made holy" by him, set apart from
the other days to be, among all of them, "the Lord's Day".
In order to grasp fully what the first of the biblical creation
accounts means by keeping the Sabbath "holy", we need to consider the
whole story, which shows clearly how every reality, without exception,
must be referred back to God. Time and space belong to him. He is not
the God of one day alone, but the God of all the days of humanity.
Therefore, if God "sanctifies" the seventh day with a special blessing
and makes it "his day" par excellence, this must be understood within
the deep dynamic of the dialogue of the Covenant, indeed the dialogue
of "marriage". This is the dialogue of love which knows no
interruption, yet is never monotonous. In fact, it employs the
different registers of love, from the ordinary and indirect to those
more intense, which the words of Scripture and the witness of so many
mystics do not hesitate to describe in imagery drawn from the
experience of married love.
15. All human life, and therefore all human time, must become praise
of the Creator and thanksgiving to him. But man's relationship with
God also demands times of explicit prayer, in which the relationship
becomes an intense dialogue, involving every dimension of the person.
"The Lord's Day" is the day of this relationship par excellence when
men and women raise their song to God and become the voice of all
creation.
This is precisely why it is also the day of rest. Speaking vividly as
it does of "renewal" and "detachment", the interruption of the often
oppressive rhythm of work expresses the dependence of man and the
cosmos upon God. Everything belongs to God! The Lord's Day returns
again and again to declare this principle within the weekly reckoning
of time. The "Sabbath" has therefore been interpreted evocatively as a
determining element in the kind of "sacred architecture" of time which
marks biblical revelation.(13) It recalls that the universe and
history belong to God; and without a constant awareness of that truth,
man cannot serve in the world as co-worker of the Creator.
To "keep holy" by "remembering"
16. The commandment of the Decalogue by which God decrees the Sabbath
observance is formulated in the Book of Exodus in a distinctive way:
"Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy" (20:8). And the
inspired text goes on to give the reason for this, recalling as it
does the work of God: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (v. 11).
Before decreeing that something be done, the commandment urges that
something be remembered. It is a call to awaken remembrance of the
grand and fundamental work of God which is creation, a remembrance
which must inspire the entire religious life of man and then fill the
day on which man is called to rest. Rest therefore acquires a sacred
value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to
rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him, in praise and
thanksgiving, intimate as a child and friendly as a spouse.
17. The connection between Sabbath rest and the theme of "remembering"
God's wonders is found also in the Book of Deuteronomy (5:12-15),
where the precept is grounded less in the work of creation than in the
work of liberation accomplished by God in the Exodus: "You shall
remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your
God brought you out from there with mighty hand and outstretched arm;
therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day" (Dt
5:15).
This formulation complements the one we have already seen; and taken
together, the two reveal the meaning of "the Lord's Day" within a
single theological vision which fuses creation and salvation.
Therefore, the main point of the precept is not just any kind of
interruption of work, but the celebration of the marvels which God has
wrought.
Insofar as this "remembrance" is alive, full of thanksgiving and of
the praise of God, human rest on the Lord's Day takes on its full
meaning. It is then that man enters the depths of God's "rest" and can
experience a tremor of the Creator's joy when, after the creation, he
saw that all he had made "was very good" (Gn 1:31).
>From the Sabbath to Sunday
18. Because the Third Commandment depends upon the remembrance of
God's saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time
inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day
after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the
Lord rose from the dead. The Paschal Mystery of Christ is the full
revelation of the mystery of the world's origin, the climax of the
history of salvation and the anticipation of the eschatological
fulfilment of the world. What God accomplished in Creation and wrought
for his People in the Exodus has found its fullest expression in
Christ's Death and Resurrection, though its definitive fulfilment will
not come until the Parousia, when Christ returns in glory. In him, the
"spiritual" meaning of the Sabbath is fully realized, as Saint Gregory
the Great declares: "For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our
Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ".(14) This is why the joy with which
God, on humanity's first Sabbath, contemplates all that was created
from nothing, is now expressed in the joy with which Christ, on Easter
Sunday, appeared to his disciples, bringing the gift of peace and the
gift of the Spirit (cf. Jn 20:19-23). It was in the Paschal Mystery
that humanity, and with it the whole creation, "groaning in
birth-pangs until now" (Rom 8:22), came to know its new "exodus" into
the freedom of God's children who can cry out with Christ, "Abba,
Father!" (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). In the light of this mystery, the
meaning of the Old Testament precept concerning the Lord's Day is
recovered, perfected and fully revealed in the glory which shines on
the face of the Risen Christ (cf. 2 Cor 4:6). We move from the
"Sabbath" to the "first day after the Sabbath", from the seventh day
to the first day: the dies Domini becomes the dies Christi!
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