Happy Sunday

Last time, we talked about a few of the reasons behind the idea of a Sabbath in general, and more specifically, what it was meant to be as a celebration of God. Today, we’re going to see how we went from celebrating the Sabbath to Sunday.

First off, it’s important to note that Sunday is not the Sabbath. We didn’t simply move the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It’s much deeper than that. Instead, we celebrate the day of greatest joy for the Christian- Easter. We’ll go into Easter with more depth next week (because it’ll actually be Easter). Easter we know for sure was on a Sunday. However, another very special event fell on a Sunday shortly after the Resurrection- Pentecost, often called the “birthday of the Church.” This is the day when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the Upper Room (Acts 2). Pentecost is another celebration whose origins were actually Jewish, rather than Christian, but we’ll discuss that later.

From the first century, the Apostles were calling Sunday “the Lord’s Day,” and it’s even in the Bible (Revelation 1:10). But those early believers had a few slight problems, especially once they left Israel for the greater Roman Empire. Outside Israel, there really wasn’t much of a set “week” as we know it. Instead, the Christians would gather before sunrise, so that they could continue going about their days along with the rest of society. Because of the early issues with the Jewish converts, who wanted to stay Jewish, an emphasis on the difference between the Sabbath and Sunday was stressed.

As time progressed on, the Christians began to find new symbolism hidden within this new celebration. Sunday was now the day after the seventh day. It was not only the first day of the week, it was representative of the “eighth day.” According to the Church Fathers, Sunday represents eternity. Why? Because it represents the day after creation- the day which will never end.

Now, the origin of the name “Sunday” does begin to bring in some pagan influences. However, this is not an example of the Church becoming pagan to attract converts. Instead, this is an example of showing the pagans where they are wrong to bring them in. The Church used the name “Sunday” (or in German, “Sonntag”), which already existed, but for the people who worshipped the sun. In adopting the name for themselves, the Christians were trying to teach the pagans to worship Christ, the true “sun” and the Light of the World.

Now, in celebrating the weekly Easter and Pentecost, the Church is forever reminding the faithful of their purposes here. Sunday is the day that we recite the Creed in Mass. We do this to try to remind ourselves of the promises of Baptism. It also is supposed to remind us and reaffirm our commitment to live out the Gospel message.

Sunday is so important to the Church that she will only accept calendars that respect the seven-day week that will allow for a Sunday. This means that calendars such as the ten-day, Sunday-free calendar proposed by the French Revolution would be found objectionable by the Church. Why? Because that’s how important Sunday is. The Eucharist is considered to be the “source and summit” of our faith, yes. But Sunday is the day we forget the world in order to live it out.

We’ll be taking a slight break from discussion of Sunday next week in order to discuss Easter and why it should be such an occasion of joy. Or I might finish this series up this week. We’ll see.