The Meaning of the Lord’s Day and Its Frequent Violation

08-18-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

St Thomas Aquinas reminds us that religion has as its object the honor, reverence, and worship due to God. Religion is the chief of the moral virtues because its acts are directed immediately to God’s honor and glory, 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.” ~ Pope John Paul II To purposely miss Mass on Sundays/Holy Days of Obligation is grave or mortal sin.

Miserentissimus Redemptor (Most Merciful Redeemer) is the title of an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, promulgated on May 8, 1928, on reparation to the Sacred Heart. This encyclical deals with the concepts of acts of reparation/atonement for blasphemies and offenses against God. We were reminded of the reality of blasphemies and offenses against God in the shameful parody of the Last Supper and the satanic perverse themes in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris. Cardinal Muller commented that woke ideology in the West has expressly atheistic roots, is deeply characterized by hatred towards Jesus Christ, and is marked by the worst incitement against the Catholic Church. Another reason for reparation and atonement to God was expressed in a Prayer of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Encyclical “for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays.” (NOTE: Blasphemy is directly opposed to the Second Commandment. It consists in uttering against God - inwardly or outwardly - words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. …The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion. Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.)

Pope John Paul II gave the Church a whole reflection on the meaning of the Lord’s Day in an Apostolic Letter Dies Domini (The Lord’s Day). He noted: 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”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us about the meaning of the Third Commandment “Keep holy the Sabbath” and the Lord’s day:# 2174 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week.”Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day …Sunday: #2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God….

#2176… Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people. #2177 The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."

NOTE: Also to be observed are …the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany ,the Ascension of Christ, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception,Assumption, and the feast of All Saints." These are the six Holy Days of Obligation celebrated in the United States that are like Sunday and hence the obligation to worship God through the Mass."

#2179 "A parish ….is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love: You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests. #2180 The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass." "The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day." #2181 The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.

#2185 On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health…. #2186 Those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and the same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works and humble service of the sick, the infirm, and the elderly. Christians will also sanctify Sunday by devoting time and care to their families and relatives, often difficult to do on other days of the week. Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.

Key explanations of reparation/atonement are given by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical: But we must ever remember that the whole virtue of the expiation depends on the one bloody sacrifice of Christ, which without intermission of time is renewed on our altars in an unbloody manner, (the Mass) "For the victim is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different" (NOTE: It is offered in an unbloody way under what looks like bread and wine. On Good Friday it was offered in bloody fashion.) (Council of Trent, Session 23, Chapter 2). Wherefore with this most august Eucharistic Sacrifice there ought to be joined an oblation both of the ministers and of all the faithful, so that they also may "present themselves living sacrifices, holy, pleasing unto God" (Romans 12, 1). For this reason, the Apostle (St Paul) admonishes us that "bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus" (2 Corinthians iv, 10), and buried together with Christ, and planted together in the likeness of His death (Cf. Romans 6, 4-5), we must not only crucify our flesh with the vices and concupiscences (disordered desires) (Cf. Galatians 5, 24), "fleeing the corruption of disordered desires which is in the world" (2 Peter 1,4), but "that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies" (2 Corinthians 4, 10) and being made partakers of His eternal priesthood we are to offer up "gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews 5, 1)

.… the more perfectly that our oblation and sacrifice corresponds to the sacrifice of Our Lord, that is to say, the more perfectly we have immolated our love and our desires and have crucified our flesh by that mystic crucifixion of which the Apostle speaks, the more abundant fruits of that propitiation and expiation shall we receive for ourselves and for others. For there is a wondrous and close union of all the faithful with Christ, such as that which prevails between the head and the other members; moreover by that mystic Communion of Saints which we profess in the Catholic creed, both individual men and peoples are joined together not only with one another but also with him, " who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4, 15-16). It was this indeed that the Mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, when He was near to death, asked of His Father I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. (John 17, 23). (All emphasis added)