From: Rhonda Steiner
To: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Subject: Popes Letter - Why keep Sunday? (Part 5 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
5 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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(PART
5 of 6)
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
71. The teachings of the Apostles struck a sympathetic chord from the
earliest centuries, and evoked strong echoes in the preaching of the
Fathers of the Church. Saint Ambrose addressed words of fire to the
rich who presumed to fulfil their religious obligations by attending
church without sharing their goods with the poor, and who perhaps even
exploited them: "You who are rich, do you hear what the Lord God says?
Yet you come into church not to give to the poor but to take instead".
(115) Saint John Chrysostom is no less demanding: "Do you wish to
honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not
pay him homage in the temple clad in silk only then to neglect him
outside where he suffers cold and nakedness. He who said: 'This is my
body' is the same One who said: 'You saw me hungry and you gave me no
food', and 'Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also
to me' ... What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with
golden chalices, when he is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his
hunger, and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well".
(116)
These words effectively remind the Christian community of the duty to
make the Eucharist the place where fraternity becomes practical
solidarity, where the last are the first in the minds and attentions
of the brethren, where Christ himself - through the generous gifts
from the rich to the very poor - may somehow prolong in time the
miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. (117)
72. The Eucharist is an event and programme of true brotherhood. From
the Sunday Mass there flows a tide of charity destined to spread into
the whole life of the faithful, beginning by inspiring the very way in
which they live the rest of Sunday. If Sunday is a day of joy,
Christians should declare by their actual behaviour that we cannot be
happy "on our own". They look around to find people who may need their
help. It may be that in their neighbourhood or among those they know
there are sick people, elderly people, children or immigrants who
precisely on Sundays feel more keenly their isolation, needs and
suffering. It is true that commitment to these people cannot be
restricted to occasional Sunday gestures. But presuming a wider sense
of commitment, why not make the Lord's Day a more intense time of
sharing, encouraging all the inventiveness of which Christian charity
is capable? Inviting to a meal people who are alone, visiting the
sick, providing food for needy families, spending a few hours in
voluntary work and acts of solidarity: these would certainly be ways
of bringing into people's lives the love of Christ received at the
Eucharistic table.
73. Lived in this way, not only the Sunday Eucharist but the whole of
Sunday becomes a great school of charity, justice and peace. The
presence of the Risen Lord in the midst of his people becomes an
undertaking of solidarity, a compelling force for inner renewal, an
inspiration to change the structures of sin in which individuals,
communities and at times entire peoples are entangled. Far from being
an escape, the Christian Sunday is a "prophecy" inscribed on time
itself, a prophecy obliging the faithful to follow in the footsteps of
the One who came "to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release
to captives and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who
are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk
4:18-19). In the Sunday commemoration of Easter, believers learn from
Christ, and remembering his promise: "I leave you peace, my peace I
give you" (Jn 14:27), they become in their turn builders of peace.
CHAPTER V
DIES DIERUM
Sunday: the Primordial Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time
Christ the Alpha and Omega of time
74. "In Christianity time has a fundamental importance. Within the
dimension of time the world was created; within it the history of
salvation unfolds, finding its culmination in the 'fullness of time'
of the Incarnation, and its goal in the glorious return of the Son of
God at the end of time. In Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, time
becomes a dimension of God, who is himself eternal". (118)
In the light of the New Testament, the years of Christ's earthly life
truly constitute the centre of time; this centre reaches its apex in
the Resurrection. It is true that Jesus is God made man from the very
moment of his conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, but only
in the Resurrection is his humanity wholly transfigured and glorified,
thus revealing the fullness of his divine identity and glory. In his
speech in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia (cf. Acts 13:33), Paul
applies the words of Psalm 2 to the Resurrection of Christ: "You are
my Son, this day I have begotten you" (v. 7). It is precisely for this
reason that, in celebrating the Easter Vigil, the Church acclaims the
Risen Christ as "the Beginning and End, the Alpha and Omega". These
are the words spoken by the celebrant as he prepares the Paschal
candle, which bears the number of the current year. These words
clearly attest that "Christ is the Lord of time; he is its beginning
and its end; every year, every day and every moment are embraced by
his Incarnation and Resurrection, and thus become part of the
'fullness of time'". (119)
75. Since Sunday is the weekly Easter, recalling and making present
the day upon which Christ rose from the dead, it is also the day which
reveals the meaning of time. It has nothing in common with the cosmic
cycles according to which natural religion and human culture tend to
impose a structure on time, succumbing perhaps to the myth of eternal
return. The Christian Sunday is wholly other! Springing from the
Resurrection, it cuts through human time, the months, the years, the
centuries, like a directional arrow which points them towards their
target: Christ's Second Coming. Sunday foreshadows the last day, the
day of the Parousia, which in a way is already anticipated by Christ's
glory in the event of the Resurrection.
In fact, everything that will happen until the end of the world will
be no more than an extension and unfolding of what happened on the day
when the battered body of the Crucified Lord was raised by the power
of the Spirit and became in turn the wellspring of the Spirit for all
humanity. Christians know that there is no need to wait for another
time of salvation, since, however long the world may last, they are
already living in the last times. Not only the Church, but the cosmos
itself and history are ceaselessly ruled and governed by the glorified
Christ. It is this life-force which propels creation, "groaning in
birth-pangs until now" (Rom 8:22), towards the goal of its full
redemption. Mankind can have only a faint intuition of this process,
but Christians have the key and the certainty. Keeping Sunday holy is
the important witness which they are called to bear, so that every
stage of human history will be upheld by hope.
Sunday in the Liturgical Year
76. With its weekly recurrence, the Lord's Day is rooted in the most
ancient tradition of the Church and is vitally important for the
Christian. But there was another rhythm which soon established itself:
the annual liturgical cycle. Human psychology in fact desires the
celebration of anniversaries, associating the return of dates and
seasons with the remembrance of past events. When these events are
decisive in the life of a people, their celebration generally creates
a festive atmosphere which breaks the monotony of daily routine.
Now, by God's design, the great saving events upon which the Church's
life is founded were closely linked to the annual Jewish feasts of
Passover and Pentecost, and were prophetically foreshadowed in them.
Since the second century, the annual celebration of Easter by
Christians - having been added to the weekly Easter celebration -
allowed a more ample meditation on the mystery of Christ crucified and
risen. Preceded by a preparatory fast, celebrated in the course of a
long vigil, extended into the fifty days leading to Pentecost, the
feast of Easter - "solemnity of solemnities" - became the day par
excellence for the initiation of catechumens. Through baptism they die
to sin and rise to a new life because Jesus "was put to death for our
sins and raised for our justification" (Rom 4:25; cf. 6:3-11).
Intimately connected to the Paschal Mystery, the Solemnity of
Pentecost takes on special importance, celebrating as it does the
coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles gathered with Mary and
inaugurating the mission to all peoples. (120)
77. A similar commemorative logic guided the arrangement of the entire
Liturgical Year. As the Second Vatican Council recalls, the Church
wished to extend throughout the year "the entire mystery of Christ,
from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to the day of
Pentecost and to the waiting in blessed hope for the return of the
Lord. Remembering in this way the mysteries of redemption, the Church
opens to the faithful the treasury of the Lord's power and merits,
making them present in some sense to all times, so that the faithful
may approach them and be filled by them with the grace of salvation".
(121)
After Easter and Pentecost, the most solemn celebration is undoubtedly
the Nativity of the Lord, when Christians ponder the mystery of the
Incarnation and contemplate the Word of God who deigns to assume our
humanity in order to give us a share in his divinity.
78. Likewise, "in celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of
Christ, the holy Church venerates with special love the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, united forever with the saving work of her Son".
(122) In a similar way, by inserting into the annual cycle the
commemoration of the martyrs and other saints on the occasion of their
anniversaries, "the Church proclaims the Easter mystery of the saints
who suffered with Christ and with him are now glorified". (123) When
celebrated in the true spirit of the liturgy, the commemoration of the
saints does not obscure the centrality of Christ, but on the contrary
extols it, demonstrating as it does the power of the redemption
wrought by him. As Saint Paulinus of Nola sings, "all things pass, but
the glory of the saints endures in Christ, who renews all things,
while he himself remains unchanged". (124) The intrinsic relationship
between the glory of the saints and that of Christ is built into the
very arrangement of the Liturgical Year, and is expressed most
eloquently in the fundamental and sovereign character of Sunday as the
Lord's Day. Following the seasons of the Liturgical Year in the Sunday
observance which structures it from beginning to end, the ecclesial
and spiritual commitment of Christians comes to be profoundly anchored
in Christ, in whom believers find their reason for living and from
whom they draw sustenance and inspiration.
79. Sunday emerges therefore as the natural model for understanding
and celebrating these feast-days of the Liturgical Year, which are of
such value for the Christian life that the Church has chosen to
emphasize their importance by making it obligatory for the faithful to
attend Mass and to observe a time of rest, even though these
feast-days may fall on variable days of the week. (125) Their number
has been changed from time to time, taking into account social and
economic conditions, as also how firmly they are established in
tradition, and how well they are supported by civil legislation. (126)
The present canonical and liturgical provisions allow each Episcopal
Conference, because of particular circumstances in one country or
another, to reduce the list of Holy Days of obligation. Any decision
in this regard needs to receive the special approval of the Apostolic
See, (127) and in such cases the celebration of a mystery of the Lord,
such as the Epiphany, the Ascension or the Solemnity of the Body and
Blood of Christ, must be transferred to Sunday, in accordance with
liturgical norms, so that the faithful are not denied the chance to
meditate upon the mystery. (128) Pastors should also take care to
encourage the faithful to attend Mass on other important feast-days
celebrated during the week. (129)
80. There is a need for special pastoral attention to the many
situations where there is a risk that the popular and cultural
traditions of a region may intrude upon the celebration of Sundays and
other liturgical feast-days, mingling the spirit of genuine Christian
faith with elements which are foreign to it and may distort it. In
such cases, catechesis and well-chosen pastoral initiatives need to
clarify these situations, eliminating all that is incompatible with
the Gospel of Christ. At the same time, it should not be forgotten
that these traditions - and, by analogy, some recent cultural
initiatives in civil society - often embody values which are not
difficult to integrate with the demands of faith. It rests with the
discernment of Pastors to preserve the genuine values found in the
culture of a particular social context and especially in popular
piety, so that liturgical celebration - above all on Sundays and holy
days - does not suffer but rather may actually benefit. (130)
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