Significance of the Sunday Eucharist

Desmond Zammit Marmarà’s brave contribution The Sunday Mass Tradition (September 16), led me to value once more the great significance of the Sunday Eucharist. Is the latter merely a duty or a necessity?

The early Christians used to say sine dominico non possumus!, that is, without the gift of the Lord, without the Lord’s day, we cannot live.

This 1,700-year old answer has a lot to say to those of us who consider themselves Christians because they happened to be baptised but they see no relevance whatsoever of the Sunday Eucharist.

These primitive bold believers gave their answer when encircled by the dangerous milieau of harsh persecution.

Had they been caught celebrating the prohibited Sunday Eucharist, they would have been brought before the judge and automatically charged for a capital offence. Nevertheless, even though they were threatened with an eventual death sentence, they were completely adamant to celebrating the Sunday Euch­arist.

Their dual understanding of the word “dominicum/domi­nico” empowered their admir­able conviction.

The first meaning suggests that Sunday is the gift of the Lord, in other words, the Lord himself, the Risen one.

Secondly, the meeting with the Lord cannot occur in a vacuum. It is couched within a particular day, Sunday. Thus, for the early Christians, the Sunday Eucharist was not a precept to be scrupulously followed but an inner necessity without which their life of faith would have simply withered and vanished away.

Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, said: “Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul”. Since Sunday is the day of Christ’s resurrection and the Church’s weekly feast of thanksgiving and joy for God’s creation it is highly appropriate to appreciate the loving kindness which the Father has bequeathed on us through his Son’s work of salvation by actively participating in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Such participation demonstrates our freedom and equality as God’s adopted and redeemed children.

When asked about what to recommend to Catholics who say they are bored at Mass, Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez said: “Feelings must not be given too much importance: enthusiasm or apathy, desire or lack of it. The Mass is sacrifice: Christ gives himself out of love.

“It is an action of God and we cannot fully understand its grandeur because of our limited condition as creatures. But we must make the effort, not only to be at Mass, but to live it in union with Christ and the Church”.

Every Mass that is celebrated is inherently a school of self-giving to God and neighbour.

Thus, Bishop Rodríguez continued: “When the Mass is the centre and root of the Christian’s day, when all his tasks are oriented to the Eucharistic sacrifice, it can be affirmed that his whole day is a Mass and that his place of work is an altar, where he gives himself fully to God as his beloved son”.

Can Sunday, as a day of rest, be an excellent opportunity for us to include in our lives those who are marginalised? Don’t you think that, by giving himself to everyone at Mass, Jesus is showing us how to love them?