Today is no ordinary day. It is Easter, yes, and that makes it special. It is Sunday, yes, which also makes it special. But before any of those designations, today was simply known as the first day of the week, the first day of creation, the day when “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1.2). The rhythm of times and seasons, the changing of weeks and months and years, is all founded on that first day, when the universe was all either light or darkness, long before anything else came to be. But that was just the beginning.
Countless days and years passed since the creation of light; the world and the human race moved forward in time, until the days of Abraham and Isaac, the days of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, the days of the prophets and kings. And then there appeared a man unlike any the world had ever seen. This man was different because he was not just man, he was God himself, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. This man walked among us for just over thirty years, teaching us about the kingdom of God, curing people of their infirmities. But his life was not as significant as his death. Tortured and scourged, he was led off to be crucified, to suffer for the sake of the many. But then, on the first day of the week, the day light was first created, something happened – and the world has never been the same.
The resurrection of Christ is the fulcrum of history – it is the center point of all creation. What happened on that first day of the week has brought a true light, an inner light, to all of humanity – a light that can never be swallowed by darkness. For us who claim Christ as our savior, the first day of the week takes on a special significance. We gather here on this first day of the week because this is the day of resurrection, this is the day on which history forever changed course. But it’s not just today – the resurrection is so important for us as Christians that we can’t celebrate it only on Easter; we celebrate it each Sunday, on the first day of every week, the day when Christ’s resurrection forever gave “light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1.78-79). If we truly believe that Christ has been raised from the dead, then we will make each Sunday a little Easter, a weekly thanksgiving to the God who has enlightened the world.
Our Sunday celebrations are the most important things we do as a church. But too often, we don’t know or understand why we do those things that we do, especially in the Mass. For the next seven Sundays, throughout this Easter Season, I will be preaching a series of homilies on the Mass. I will talk about questions like, why should we go to church on Sundays? Why do we receive communion? What’s unique about the Catholic Mass? And, what difference does attending Mass make in my daily life? If Sunday is a little Easter, and if Easter is the most important day of the year for us as Christians, then we need to understand what Sunday is all about, and we especially need to understand what the Mass is all about. These next seven Sundays will be just a beginning, but an important beginning, to help us all mark Sunday as the day of resurrection, the first day of the week. Because we know that in a world of darkness and sin, there is only one thing that will always bring us light – Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, body broken and blood shed, for all of us who are made in his image.
Countless days and years passed since the creation of light; the world and the human race moved forward in time, until the days of Abraham and Isaac, the days of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, the days of the prophets and kings. And then there appeared a man unlike any the world had ever seen. This man was different because he was not just man, he was God himself, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. This man walked among us for just over thirty years, teaching us about the kingdom of God, curing people of their infirmities. But his life was not as significant as his death. Tortured and scourged, he was led off to be crucified, to suffer for the sake of the many. But then, on the first day of the week, the day light was first created, something happened – and the world has never been the same.
The resurrection of Christ is the fulcrum of history – it is the center point of all creation. What happened on that first day of the week has brought a true light, an inner light, to all of humanity – a light that can never be swallowed by darkness. For us who claim Christ as our savior, the first day of the week takes on a special significance. We gather here on this first day of the week because this is the day of resurrection, this is the day on which history forever changed course. But it’s not just today – the resurrection is so important for us as Christians that we can’t celebrate it only on Easter; we celebrate it each Sunday, on the first day of every week, the day when Christ’s resurrection forever gave “light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1.78-79). If we truly believe that Christ has been raised from the dead, then we will make each Sunday a little Easter, a weekly thanksgiving to the God who has enlightened the world.
Our Sunday celebrations are the most important things we do as a church. But too often, we don’t know or understand why we do those things that we do, especially in the Mass. For the next seven Sundays, throughout this Easter Season, I will be preaching a series of homilies on the Mass. I will talk about questions like, why should we go to church on Sundays? Why do we receive communion? What’s unique about the Catholic Mass? And, what difference does attending Mass make in my daily life? If Sunday is a little Easter, and if Easter is the most important day of the year for us as Christians, then we need to understand what Sunday is all about, and we especially need to understand what the Mass is all about. These next seven Sundays will be just a beginning, but an important beginning, to help us all mark Sunday as the day of resurrection, the first day of the week. Because we know that in a world of darkness and sin, there is only one thing that will always bring us light – Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, body broken and blood shed, for all of us who are made in his image.
1 comment:
I especially like the invitation to people that do not regularly attend Sunday services to come and hear some explanations of why we do the things we do in the Catholic Church. This basic understanding is often the first step toward a domino effect of learning, faith and action.
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