"The Church, therefore, fulfills a duty to the Divine Plan when it consecrates time, setting it apart for the Kingdom. Already in the Old Testament this is shown by the Jewish Sabbath, which celebrated the creative order by setting apart the last day of the week for God. Likewise, in the new era the Christian Sabbath celebrates the redemptive order by setting apart the day of the Resurrection as the Lord's Day." ~EWTN, "The Consecration of Time"
For the last two weeks, we've talked about the consecration of the year. Today we're going to scale down a bit and talk about the consecration of the week.
Most Christians are at least somewhat familiar with the idea of Sunday as being the Lord's Day (even if they choose to disregard it). In accord with Jesus' words that He came "not to abolish, but to fulfill," the earliest Christians saw the value present in the Jewish Sabbath and set apart their own day to honor the Lord. For this, they chose Sunday.
They chose Sunday first to commemorate Our Lord's glorious resurrection. As St. Jerome put it, "The Lord's day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord's day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father."
But there's another reason for celebrating on Sunday, and when I first heard about it, my thoughts were something along the lines of, "Wait, whaattttt? That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard." I'll let St. Paul begin the discussion:
"...the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now." ~Romans 8:21-22
As Christians, we eagerly await this renewal of the earth. What does this have to do with Sunday? Well, creation was perfected in seven days. Celebrating on the eighth day shows our faith that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which occurred on that day, is even now bringing about the renewal and perfection of His creation. It symbolizes our hope that "there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9), an eternal one made possible by Christ's Resurrection.
In the words of St. Augustine, "So the day which was first will be also the eighth, so that the first life might not be done away, but rather made eternal."
While "we do not yet see everything in subjection to him" (Heb. 2:8), and we are not yet enjoying our eternal rest in Christ, Sunday gives us a fleeting glimpse of what is to come. We humans are forgetful creatures, so consecrating this day to God gives us a regularly recurring reminder to persevere in our faith and maintain a lively hope.
(I don't know. Maybe it's just me. But that seems pretty cool...the significance of Sunday as the Lord's day is way deeper than I would have imagined.)
But in order for the Lord's day to point us towards His Resurrection and the grace that flows from it, renewing His creation, sanctifying us and so preparing us for Heaven, we have to faithfully keep it. We must set it apart--consecrate it--for God. It's to be a time when we free our minds from the cares of the week in order to contemplate the things of God.
This principle, to make Sunday different than other days and to make it different in a way that allows us to turn our minds more wholly to God, can be played out in a vast number of ways.
Attending church is probably the most common one. One thing my family does is make a strong effort to get all of our weekly cleaning done on Saturday, even if it means spending Saturday evening cleaning, in order to avoid doing it on Sunday. Other ways to consecrate the Sabbath could include taking a break from technology/social networking or using the time freed up by absence of homework to spend extra time studying Scripture or theology.
What things do you/your family do to set apart the Lord's day?
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