With the Eucharistic Revival (www.eucharisticrevivial.org) underway, it is fitting to reflect on how we live Sunday as the Lord’s Day. Sunday was created by God to benefit the human person. Sunday affirms the great dignity of the human person, made in the image of God.  

When Christians make a choice to celebrate Sunday, they bear witness to the true meaning of freedom and the goal of life.  

How does Sunday relate to the meaning of freedom? Pope Benedict XVI said that “to lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God.” (Sacrament of Charity, para. 73, 2007) 

Why is it a day to be sanctified? In Dies Domini (Day of the Lord), Pope St. John Paul II wrote of the “various dimensions of the Christian celebration of Sunday,” calling it the “Dies Domini with regard to the work of creation; Dies Christi as the day of the new creation and the Risen Lord’s gift of the Holy Spirit; Dies Ecclesiae as the day on which the Christian community gathers for the celebration, and Dies hominis as the day of joy, rest, and fraternal charity.” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 73)

These dimensions are mysteries of our faith that we are meant to recall and draw strength from for our journey to heaven. We remember we are created, coming from God, and returning to the Father’s house.   

On Sunday, we keep in mind the joy of Easter Sunday and our own rising to new life in Christ by His divine mercy. We do this through prayer and most especially in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. We set aside time to be with and support loved ones and join the larger community of the faithful at Mass as family members of Christ’s Body, the Church.  

We keep an “authentic sense of Christian freedom” by prioritizing Sunday, making a free choice to use our time as it was intended. This includes work and activities that incorporate “the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2185)   

Children of God act with freedom when they make deliberate decisions to set time aside to become a gift of self to God and others, giving of their time, attention and charity.  

Keeping the Lord’s Day also reflects a Catholic perspective of time. God made time and each day of the week for our participation in His plan for our salvation. All time is a gift and comes from God for our good. God made Sunday to help us become more fully human on our life’s pilgrimage. 

Most of all, Sunday is a day to adore God and receive Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament. It is a day to worship the Lord, in keeping with the virtue of religion. 

Pope Francis emphasizes the Eucharist as “the living center of the universe, the overflowing core of love and of inexhaustible life.” (Laudato Si, 236). “Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world.” (LS, 237)

Recently, Pope Francis said, “Sunday, before being a precept, is a gift that God makes for his people; and for this reason, the Church safeguards it with a precept. The Sunday celebration offers to the Christian community the possibility of being formed by the Eucharist.” (Desiderio Desideravi, 65)

Let us reflect on how to best prepare our hearts and lives to be formed by Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and live in accord with the Lord’s Day.  

Readings on this topic, available online at www.vatican.va, include:

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1343, 1163, 1193, 1389, 1166-67, 2042, 2174-7, 2180-2195, 1994.

• On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy (Dies Domini), Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, 1998.

• On the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church (Ecclesia de Eucharistia), Encyclical of Pope John Paul II, 2003.

• Sacrament of Charity (Sacramentum Caritatis), the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Benedict XVI, paragraphs 70-83 on “The Eucharistic Form of Christian Life,” 2007.

• On the Liturgical Formation of the People of God (Desiderio Desideravi), Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis, paragraphs 63-65, 2022.

Sister John Paul Maher, OP, is principal of Worthington St. Michael School and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.