Day of rest

For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day
in this manner,

"And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;"

and again, in the previously mentioned place,

"They shall not enter into my rest."

Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest,
so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience.

As I read this passage from today's first reading, I cannot help but be reminded of what has happened to Sunday: what we have done and what we have failed to do.

For many of us (and I do not exempt myself here), we observe the Lord’s Day only by going to Church - and sometimes perhaps not even that!

The “Day of Rest” in modern culture morphed into a “Day of Leisure” – of parties, of games, and of other entertainments. Then, as we filled up the rest of our days with all manner of pursuits, Sunday became yet another opportunity to do errands and even to work (and I do not exempt myself here) .

We may have good reasons for doing what we do (or don’t do) on Sundays – or we may not. In either case, the words of John Paul II, from his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, are valuable for us all. Here is an excerpt (but the letter is well worth reading in its entirety):

“The spiritual and pastoral riches of Sunday, as it has been handed on to us by tradition, are truly great.

"When its significance and implications are understood in their entirety, Sunday in a way becomes a synthesis of the Christian life and a condition for living it well.

"It is clear therefore why the observance of the Lord's Day is so close to the Church's heart, and why in the Church's discipline it remains a real obligation.

"Yet more than as a precept, the observance should be seen as a need rising from the depths of Christian life.

"It is crucially important that all the faithful should be convinced that they cannot live their faith or share fully in the life of the Christian community unless they take part regularly in the Sunday Eucharistic assembly. The Eucharist is the full realization of the worship which humanity owes to God, and it cannot be compared to any other religious experience.

"A particularly efficacious expression of this is the Sunday gathering of the entire community, obedient to the voice of the Risen Lord who calls the faithful together to give them the light of his word and the nourishment of his Body as the perennial sacramental wellspring of redemption. The grace flowing from this wellspring renews mankind, life and history.

“It is with this strong conviction of faith, and with awareness of the heritage of human values which the observance of Sunday entails, that Christians today must face the enticements of a culture which has accepted the benefits of rest and free time, but which often uses them frivolously and is at times attracted by morally questionable forms of entertainment.

"Certainly, Christians are no different from other people in enjoying the weekly day of rest; but at the same time they are keenly aware of the uniqueness and originality of Sunday, the day on which they are called to celebrate their salvation and the salvation of all humanity.

"Sunday is the day of joy and the day of rest precisely because it is 'the Lord's Day,' the day of the Risen Lord."