CELEBRATING A SUNDAY
(Sunday, September 24)
It’s Sunday again, which means it is both the “first” and the “eighth” day of the week, according to Christian tradition. It is also “The Lord’s Day,” specifically because “The Lord’s Supper” was always celebrated on this day, ever since the risen Lord Himself chose to break bread with His disciples on this day, first at Emmaus, and then in the upper room on this same day, and a week later when Thomas was with them.
As the “first” day of the week, Sunday reminds us of Day One of creation, when God created the heavens and the earth; when the Spirit of God was “hovering over the face of the waters”; and when God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light! On this same day, God’s only-begotten Son chose to emerge in new light and new life from a dark tomb, once again calling light from darkness, – but this time, from within the resurrected human body, that of the God-Man. We can now participate in this new light and new life, and become vessels thereof, (and not just passive observers thereof), in communion with His Body and Blood. As St. Paul says: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6) Every Sunday, as Day One of our week, we can make a new beginning in re-embracing this new light and life, by participating in the Liturgy, at which the Spirit of God in a new way “hovers over the face of the waters” of our life, transfiguring us and our gifts of bread and wine into His Body and His Blood.
As the “eighth” day of the week, as ancient Christians called Sunday, it points us to the eternal “day” beyond our time, which will never end. It also points to the “new covenant” in communion with Christ, Who through His presence in our midst updated the “old covenant” made with Abraham, which involved circumcising male babies on the eight day after their birth. We no longer do that, because now we all, both male and female, are embraced into communion with Him not through biological birth or belonging to a specific bloodline of “the chosen people,” but through our free choice to be born “from above.”
So let’s do that again, this Sunday. Let us “let there be light” in our day today; Let us let the Spirit of God hover above our life’s tumultuous waters, and be transfigured into sons and daughters of God, in communion with Him and all the communion of the saints. Because we can do that.
