Dear Friends,
This Sunday we commemorate the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord. Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly domain (CCC #665). This feast reminds us that like the first disciples, we are not to dally “looking up at the sky,” but are to get busy proclaiming the glory of God’s kingdom by the witness of our lives. On Pentecost which will be celebrated next week we will be given the assurance of the presence of the Spirit emboldening us to do the mission entrusted to us by Jesus.
This time of the year is a time to take a break from our usual schedules. It is true also of our bulletin. During the summer months our bulletin will shed some pages and will not feature the regular lengthy articles to read. However I will be coming up with some great materials that are worth reading. I would like to continue where we left off last summer with the Apostolic Letter titled “Dies Domini,” written by St. Pope John Paul II on 31st May 1998. It deals with the important topic of how to Keep the Lord’s Day Holy.
Each week we will continue to feature a few paragraphs for our reading and meditation. So we begin this week with To “Keep Holy” by “Remembering”.
APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON KEEPING THE LORD’S DAY HOLY (Continued)
To Keep holy” by “remembering”
- The commandment of the Decalogue by which God decrees the Sabbath (13) observance is formulated in the Book of Exodus in a distinctive way: "Remember the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy" (20:8). And the inspired text goes on to give the reason for this, recalling as it does the work of God: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (v. 11). Before decreeing that something be done, the commandment urges that something be remembered. It is a call to awaken remembrance of the grand and fundamental work of God which is creation, a remembrance which must inspire the entire religious life of man and then fill the day on which man is called to rest. Rest therefore acquires a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord, bringing the entire creation to him, in praise and thanksgiving, intimate as a child and friendly as a spouse.
- The connection between Sabbath rest and the theme of "remembering" God's wonders is found also in the Book of Deuteronomy (5:12-15), where the precept is grounded less in the work of creation than in the work of liberation accomplished by God in the Exodus: "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with mighty hand and outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day" (Dt 5:15).
This formulation complements the one we have already seen; and taken together, the two reveal the meaning of "the Lord's Day" within a single theological vision which fuses creation and salvation. Therefore, the main point of the precept is not just any kind of interruption of work, but the celebration of the marvels which God has wrought.
Insofar as this "remembrance" is alive, full of thanksgiving and of the praise of God, human rest on the Lord's Day takes on its full meaning. It is then that man enters the depths of God's "rest" and can experience a tremor of the Creator's joy when, after the creation, he saw that all he had made "was very good" (Gn 1:31).
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(13) Cf. A. J. Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (22nd ed., 1995), pp. 3-24.
Happy Feast of the Ascension! Be Blessed!
With love,
Fr. John