Daily Retreat 01/16/07
2007 Jan 16 Tue
Heb 6: 10-20/ Ps 110(111): 1-2. 4-5. 9 and 10c/ Mk 2: 23-28
From today’s readings: “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for His Name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.... The Lord will remember His covenant for ever.... the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Lord of the Sabbath
Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the original Sabbath, and still observed as the holy day of rest by the Jews. Jesus, however, rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, the first day of God’s new creation. While the earliest Christians faithfully continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath, their awareness of the significance of the Lord’s Resurrection inspired them to gather in prayerful communion with the Risen Lord every Sunday, which soon became known as “the Lord’s Day.”
Recalling the words of Jesus that “the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath,” the Church has come to celebrate Sunday, the Lord’s Day, as the Sabbath of the New Testament. In living their faith, Christians thus are to observe the Third Commandment of the Decalogue and remember to keep the Lord’s Day holy by participating in Mass and engaging in deeds of mercy and charity, while refraining from work or activities that diminish the sacred character of the day,
Some, however, seek to dispense themselves from any sense of Sunday obligation, even appealing for justification to the Lord’s comment that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” as if He had implied that God’s Commandments were subject to personal tastes and whims.
Actually, God did not command Sabbath sanctification because He needs worship and rest, but, rather, because, as our Creator, He knows we need that! We need to punctuate our work weeks with a special day honoring God and thus insisting that humans are more than gears in the machine of the national economy. We need to come together with our larger human family to pray with and for others, and be strengthened by their prayers for us. We need the enlightenment and inspiration from listening devoutly to God’s Word solemnly proclaimed anew in our sacred assemblies. And we need the nourishment from the sacramental presence of our Lord! And God gives us all this, on His day, in His house, because the Sabbath was made for man....
For further reflection, review the Catechism of the Catholic Church §2168-2195, and Dies Domini, the 1998 apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II on keeping the Lord’s Day Holy.
Heb 6: 10-20/ Ps 110(111): 1-2. 4-5. 9 and 10c/ Mk 2: 23-28
From today’s readings: “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for His Name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.... The Lord will remember His covenant for ever.... the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Lord of the Sabbath
Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the original Sabbath, and still observed as the holy day of rest by the Jews. Jesus, however, rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, the first day of God’s new creation. While the earliest Christians faithfully continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath, their awareness of the significance of the Lord’s Resurrection inspired them to gather in prayerful communion with the Risen Lord every Sunday, which soon became known as “the Lord’s Day.”
Recalling the words of Jesus that “the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath,” the Church has come to celebrate Sunday, the Lord’s Day, as the Sabbath of the New Testament. In living their faith, Christians thus are to observe the Third Commandment of the Decalogue and remember to keep the Lord’s Day holy by participating in Mass and engaging in deeds of mercy and charity, while refraining from work or activities that diminish the sacred character of the day,
Some, however, seek to dispense themselves from any sense of Sunday obligation, even appealing for justification to the Lord’s comment that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” as if He had implied that God’s Commandments were subject to personal tastes and whims.
Actually, God did not command Sabbath sanctification because He needs worship and rest, but, rather, because, as our Creator, He knows we need that! We need to punctuate our work weeks with a special day honoring God and thus insisting that humans are more than gears in the machine of the national economy. We need to come together with our larger human family to pray with and for others, and be strengthened by their prayers for us. We need the enlightenment and inspiration from listening devoutly to God’s Word solemnly proclaimed anew in our sacred assemblies. And we need the nourishment from the sacramental presence of our Lord! And God gives us all this, on His day, in His house, because the Sabbath was made for man....
For further reflection, review the Catechism of the Catholic Church §2168-2195, and Dies Domini, the 1998 apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II on keeping the Lord’s Day Holy.
posted by FrPitstick | 1/14/2007
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