Welcome to Sunday

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

Good news rocks the apple cart.  Jesus’ resurrection delivers a new outlook.   It’s a consolation and a challenge.   

During this Easter Season (which lasts through Pentecost), honestly reflect on the pressures that weigh heavily on your life – considering what Christ’s resurrection promises.   What are the glimmers of hope in your life?   What are you afraid of?   Why all the pressure to overperform, to get everything “just right”?   Christ’s resurrection challenges us to reconsider priorities.

How do we spend Sundays?  Do we make Sunday a hopeful and enjoyable day?   After all, every Sunday is Easter.  Sunday Mass not just an obligation.   Avoiding mortal sin is not the upshot of the Third Commandment any more than avoiding penalties is the upshot of football.   Rather, the obligation to attend Sunday Mass is a Gift.  A re-translated Third Commandment might read something like this: “Thou shalt not burn thyself out on Sunday.”  I cannot think of a better way to blow-off work than to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, listen to the Word of God, and receive Holy Communion.        

Bike riding is not about avoiding falls, but about enjoying the ride.  The Third Commandment is not about checking-off the “God box” but about the closeness of a loving and merciful God who makes the rest of the week worthwhile.  It’s about offering our lives to the Father through the “Paschal Mystery” (Christ’s death and resurrection), which is what happens at every Mass (even if you don’t like the priest).  Sunday Mass is a “peg in a sure place” (Isaiah 22:23) in an unanchored world which blows every which way but loose.   

Fear not wasting time with God.  “Be not afraid” (Matthew 14:27).   God wants humans to be happy and free.  Why do you think he delivered Israel from slavery?   He wanted his people to be free, not worn out.  The Third Commandment boils down to this:  Go to Mass and enjoy Sunday!  Have a “Sunday Kind of Love” (1946 pop song, credits Barbara Belle, Anita Leonard, Louis Prima).

Finding a work-life balance is not easy nowadays.  Nonetheless, life is fulfilled in love.   Welcome to Sunday.  Love, like life, grows on its own accord without effort on our part if we let it happen.    Let it happen on Sunday.