Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 187 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 187 - Part II. How important is Sunday?           

(Youcat answer - repeated) Sunday is the center of Christian time, for on Sunday we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, and every Sunday is a miniature Easter.         

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1165) When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: "Today!" - a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit (Cf. Mt 6:11; Heb 3:7- 4:11; Ps 95:7). This "today" of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus' Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history: Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover (St. Hippolytus, De pasch. 1-2 SCh 27, 117).                

Reflecting and meditating       

(Youcat comment) If Sunday is disregarded or abolished, only workdays are left in the week. Man, who was created for joy, degenerates into a workhorse and a mindless consumer. We must learn on earth how to celebrate properly, or else we will not know what to do in heaven. Heaven is an endless Sunday.                         

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1193) Sunday, the "Lord's Day," is the principal day for the celebration of the Eucharist because it is the day of the Resurrection. It is the pre-eminent day of the liturgical assembly, the day of the Christian family, and the day of joy and rest from work. Sunday is "the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year" (SC 106).                         

(This question: How important is Sunday? is continued)                     

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 187 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 187 - Part I. How important is Sunday?     

(Youcat answer) Sunday is the center of Christian time, for on Sunday we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, and every Sunday is a miniature Easter.                     

A deepening through CCC      

(CCC 1163) "Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of the year. Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's Day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year, together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ .... Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving grace"  (SC 102).          

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) If Sunday is disregarded or abolished, only workdays are left in the week. Man, who was created for joy, degenerates into a workhorse and a mindless consumer. We must learn on earth how to celebrate properly, or else we will not know what to do in heaven. Heaven is an endless Sunday.        

(CCC Comment)     

(CCC 1164) From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts, beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astonishing actions of the Savior God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the Church, between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ.     

 
(This question: How important is Sunday? is continued) 

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 186 - Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 186 - Part III. What is the liturgical year (the Church year)?          

(Youcat answer - repeated) The liturgical year, or the Church year, superimposes the mysteries of the life of Christ—from his Incarnation to his second coming in glory—on the normal course of the year. The liturgical year begins with Advent, the time of waiting for the Lord, and has its first high point in the Christmas season and its second, even greater climax in the celebration of the redemptive suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ at Easter. The Easter season ends with the feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The liturgical year is repeatedly  interrupted by feasts of Mary and the saints, in which the Church praises God’s grace, which has led mankind to salvation.            

A deepening through CCC   

(CCC 1172) "In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts the most excellent fruit of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she herself desires and hopes wholly to be" (SC 103).         

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment) 
(CCC 1173) When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for God's favors" (SC 104; cf. SC 108, 111).         

(The next question is:  How important is Sunday?)     

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 186 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 186 - Part II. What is the liturgical year (the Church year)?

(Youcat answer - repeated) The liturgical year, or the Church year, superimposes the mysteries of the life of Christ—from his Incarnation to his second coming in glory—on the normal course of the year. The liturgical year begins with Advent, the time of waiting for the Lord, and has its first high point in the Christmas season and its second, even greater climax in the celebration of the redemptive suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ at Easter. The Easter season ends with the feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The liturgical year is repeatedly  interrupted by feasts of Mary and the saints, in which the Church praises God’s grace, which has led mankind to salvation.                    

A deepening through CCC     

(CCC 1170) At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of different methods of calculating the 14^th day of the month of Nisan the date of Easter in the Western and Eastern Churches is not always the same. For this reason the Churches are currently seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord's Resurrection on a common date.           

Reflecting and meditating        

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1171) In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery         

(This question: What is the liturgical year (the Church year)? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 186 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 186 - Part I. What is the liturgical year (the Church year)?        

(Youcat answer) The liturgical year, or the Church year, superimposes the mysteries of the life of Christ—from his Incarnation to his second coming in glory—on the normal course of the year. The liturgical year begins with Advent, the time of waiting for the Lord, and has its first high point in the Christmas season and its second, even greater climax in the celebration of the redemptive suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ at Easter. The Easter season ends with the feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The liturgical year is repeatedly  interrupted by feasts of Mary and the saints, in which the Church praises God’s grace, which has led mankind to salvation.                   

A deepening through CCC           

(CCC 1168) Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a "year of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4:19). The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated "as a foretaste," and the kingdom of God enters into our time.           

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1169) Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the "Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" (St. Athanasius (ad 329) ep. fest. 1: PG 24, 1366) and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him. 

(This question: What is the liturgical year (the Church year)? is continued)