And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.- 1 Peter 5:10
But on the eighth day and thereafter, they are able to be offered to the Lord.- Leviticus 22:27(b)
Mary’s virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord’s death escaped the notice of the prince of this world; these three mysteries worthy of proclamation were accomplished in God’s silence.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (498)
I usually don’t start off with scripture or readings from the Catechism. I usually start slow, building up an appetite for godly things. People see the bible and catechism and imagine a different perspective of where the writing may go, telling you what you need to do to be right with God, or simply scaring you away with words that were never intended to be scary. But if we see, as humans, these words as transcendent, as moving, as life in letters, as life-giving, as a life vest, as rescuers, we can become the lifeguard instead of the drowning victim. For God will call us out of the water when he is good and ready.
Sunday is always our eighth day, no matter where we are, a new chance at renewal, a new year’s resolution, once a week. And I’m beginning to see it in a different light. No matter where you are in your walk of faith, I hope you will too. Entering the church doors or maybe not ready to enter the church doors. You can enter the church doors, your innermost self. Just enter, and God will be ready to meet you.
Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week.” Because it is the “first day,” the day of Christ’s Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:
(CC 2174)
Sunday provides the pathway and the light. It provides the opportunity to change. It provides a time to ask for forgiveness from the creator. It provides the opportunity to extend forgiveness. And there’s nothing the devil can do about it.
You can stop your addiction, your adultery, your dependence on the world, your anxiety, your depression; YOU CAN START OVER TODAY.
You can be bold, you can be brave, you can be free, you can be who you were created to be; YOU CAN DO IT TODAY.
Sunday is a gift, wrapped up in white, the gift of God, of His Son. Sunday is cleansing, beginning, the gift in and of itself, the gift of the Lord rising, the day to come out of your pit, the day to come out of your suffering.
Even if the week has plagued you, shaken you, forced you to hide in darkness, the light of Sunday has come. It is an offering, beckoning, Christ with open arms saying, Come to me my child, come to me.
The enemy he cannot touch you, he cannot hurt you, he has fallen. The greatest events this world has ever seen were accomplished without a word from the evil one. And if God’s plan was perfectly executed, Mary’s virginal conception, Christ’s crucifixion and His glorious resurrection, how much more will God’s plan in our own lives be accomplished if we move towards Him, if we move into Sunday.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.- Jesus
Church Set Free 