Review article
Theology and morality of sunday according to recent church documents
Luka Tomašević
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split
Abstract
In the last century the Catholic Church has re-examined its
theology and morality of Sunday or the Lord’s Day. It is relevant to
note that this matter is discussed in the recent documents such as
the Catechism of Catholic Church, John Paul’s II Apostolic Letter
Dies Domini and the Letter of Croatian Bishops The Lord’s Day with
Croatians. In this work the author is trying to point out the main
stresses of church teaching on theology and morality of Sunday.
The line of thought begins about the meaning and celebration
of Saturday. Originally Saturday was understood as the day of
covenant, then as the day of recollection of magnificent acts of God
in the history of salvation. Christian Sunday does not derive from
Saturday, but Saturday is only an image of it. Sunday is the day of
Lord, the day of Christ’s resurrection, the day of sun, for Christians
our day. Its meaning is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection,
eucharistic encounter and significance of future glory. For this
reason, it is a Christian day of joy. As such, it takes along its
morality that originates from the encounter with Christ. It is the
day of Christian joy and relaxation, that is, the time that should
be dedicated not only to celebration of God but to meeting with
and helping to people, especially to the weak and sick. Catechism
places the morality of Sunday under the third God’s command that
says: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you
shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
for Yahweh your God. You shall do no work that day (Ex 20,8-10).
Then the catechism brings Christ’s words: The Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is master even
of the Sabbath. (Mk 2,27-28) In that way, Catechism reads the third
command theologically and Christologically. As if it wanted to say
that only by such reading one can understand its true meaning.
Keywords
Sunday; the day of Lord; Church; Saturday; morality; the Eucharist
Hrčak ID:
93016
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2004.
Visits: 2.453 *