THE NEW SUNDAY
Sunday is not what it was a few years ago. In a short time, it’s grown and been converted into the «weekend», which starts Friday afternoon and in which most people can go about life differently, escaping the obligations of work, of an imposed schedule, and of daily routine.
Not all of us live out the weekend in the same way. For some it’s truly fortunate: they can take the initiative, explore possibilities and join friends to enjoy those days. For others it’s a cruel time, since they feel more strongly their loneliness, sickness or old age; Sunday only awakens in them sadness and nostalgia. Others are afraid of Sunday, don’t know what to do with it, get bored; if football didn’t exist it would be unbearable.
Theologians and liturgists ask themselves today what will be the Christian Sunday in the future. Will it be reduced to a celebration of Mass on its own and without any connection to the weekend of the people? On the other hand, «wouldn’t it be possible» – asks Xabier Basurko – «to have a dynamic integration of the human values of the weekend in the mystic of Sunday?» This Basque liturgist offers us some starting points.
The Christian Sunday could be the soul of the weekend, which helps believers to better experience the freedom of God’s children, without impositions or utilitarian ends. The Eucharist would be able to help to recover quiet and revive inner strength. On the weekend we could be a little more «ourselves».
On the other hand, you would be able to recover Saturday as a celebration of creation; this way you would be able to pursue on Sunday the celebration of salvation. So think some liturgists. The faith would then help to live out the weekend as celebrating the Creator and as an encounter with nature, not by means of work but by enjoyment and contemplation.
Lastly, the celebration of the «Eucharistic assembly»” can give a deeper meaning to that other dimension of the weekend, which is the endearing and gratifying communication with friends and family members, or the encounter with other people and other cultures. The weekend can be the experience of encounter and communion of brothers and sisters. Will the Christian Sunday grow until it is «leaven and salt» of the weekend of today’s culture? In any case, we can ask ourselves this question: do we Christians know how to extract from the Sunday Eucharist strength and joy so as to live out a new Sunday?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
