Sunday As the New Sabbath
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one
Law not abolished, but fulfilled and made new
a. The New Testament presents us with a new covenant:
i. It’s not one which contradicts the old covenant
1. Jesus says, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”
b. But that fulfillment involves a transformation
i. The prescriptions of the old law are internalized and motivated by love and the pursuit of moral perfection
ii. The covenant is opened from the Israelites to all the nations
iii. And the religious observances of the covenant community are transformed as well:
1. Inclusion in the covenant community switches from circumcision to Baptism
2. The priesthood based on descent from Levi becomes a priesthood based on succession from the Apostles
3. And the Sabbath – the Holy Day of the Week – has been moved from the day of Saturday, which celebrated creation, to Sunday, which celebrates the recreation of the world achieved by God in Jesus Christ.
two
Burden or Rest?
a. Throughout the Old Testament it was always a temptation to see the Sabbath as a rule, a burden
i. Something that restricted your options, prevented you from getting everything done that you could.
b. You see that in the Gospel too – the religious authorities have turned the Sabbath into one more rule: can’t do this, can’t do that.
i. Is that how we see Sunday? As another obligation?
c. But of course, as Jesus says, “The sabbath is made for man, not man for the sabbath.”
i. Like all the commandments, the third commandment and the sabbath-day exist for our happiness
d. The Sabbath is meant to be a day of rest, not of burden
i. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).
ii. The sabbath actually exists to free us from our burdens, our anxieties, and – even – from the sadness of our disordered entertainments.
iii. The sabbath exists to help us rest in the goodness of
1. Ourselves
2. Others
3. And the good that God has done
three
Rest in the Goodness of Ourselves
a. Work is one of the primary ways we misguidedly try to achieve some level of worth
i. But if we’re really children of God, then God loves us (and we have value) because of what we are, not what we do.
1. No parent loves their newborn child because it’s a high-productivity, high-income-generating child.
2. They love it because it’s their child.
b. So there is one day a week where God demands that we detach ourselves from this obsession with “getting stuff done,”
i. The Catechism calls it “a day of protest against the servitude of work.”
ii. Where we say to work, “You don’t define me. You don’t own me.”
c. We say, “I’m not just a cog in a wheel or an ant in a hive that has to continually justify my existence. I’m a child of God, He’s going to take care of me, and today I’m just going to be grateful for that and enjoy being alive.”
four
Rest in the Goodness of Others
a. Jesus makes it clear that the Sabbath isn’t supposed to just be about a selfish lounging around
i. Remember, one of the things Jesus was criticized for was healing on the sabbath.
b. Sunday is a day to let others know we celebrate their goodness as well as our own
i. It’s a day to be present with family – and particularly to be present to a family member or a friend who needs us to be generous with them.
ii. It’s a day to help the poor, or to be hospitable towards others – to invite people over.
c. Above all, it’s a day to show that our love of others is not predicated on their work, their performance
i. It’s predicated on their being.
ii. We can only rest, we can only be at ease with ourselves, when we know we’re appreciated by the person in front of us
1. Show that to your kids; show that to your spouse;
2. show them you delight in them on Sunday.
iii. That will allow Sunday to be a day of rest for them as well as for you.
five
Celebrating what God has done – Christ as Lord of the Sabbath
a. Above all, Sunday is a day to rest in the goodness of what God has done
i. That’s why Sunday is the new Sabbath – because the greatest thing God ever did was redeem us through His death and then show us that death is just the prelude to a richer life that awaits us.
b. The problem with both work and idle entertainment is that both cause you to lose focus on the ultimate facts:
i. You and the people around you are good
ii. This life is very good
iii. The next life is incomparably better
c. That’s why we have to put God first on Sunday – why we have to gather at Mass and worship with the rest of the Faith community
i. Because if Christ hadn’t risen from the dead, then
1. God hasn’t kept his promise
2. He hasn’t become the Son of man, and we haven’t become children of God
3. This life is a slow, inexorable decay into final annihilation
You can’t rest in delight with that vision of life.
d. But as it happens, Jesus did rise from the dead. On a Sunday.
i. God did keep his promise to the Jews of the Old Testament;
ii. He has made us His Children.
iii. We are good, and God is good, and this life is good, and the next life is unimaginably good.
e. So live like it. Especially on Sunday.