A Sunday Canticle on the Sabbath Day
Once we observed Sunday as the Lord's Day. By "once" we're talking for maybe 2,000 years or so.
Sometime after the Ascension of Our Lord, the Church He created, with St. Peter as its first head, began to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday. Saturday had been the Sabbath Day for - well, the Bible implies since God created the universe. Genesis tells that on the "Seventh Day" the Lord rested from His "toil" in creating the Universe.
But the first Christians knew that Jesus rose on a Sunday. So they thought it would be right to "move" the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Most of these early Christians were Jews. And Jews - at least those who observed their religion in some serious manner - observed the Sabbath. Part of that observation was as a day of rest. Jews today - the serious, observant ones - do the same.
As for the Jews who no longer take their religion seriously, well, the Sabbath seems to have gone the route of Sunday for us Catholics.
When did so many of us stop keeping Sunday as the Sabbath? I don't know how to answer that. I do know that growing up Sunday was different than other days. Most commercial establishments were closed. We were taught that no "servile work" should be done on Sunday. And that typically was observed by most of us. While not all stores were closed, most were. So people - particularly Christians - didn't shop on Sunday.
Of course, some Jewish establishments were open. After all, the observant Jews closed their establishments on Saturday - their Sabbath. But even in the New York Metro area, where the majority of Americans of Jewish descent lived, there weren't that many Jewish stores open either. After all, unless their customers were mostly Jewish, the Christians weren't going shopping.
No more. Almost everything - with few exceptions - remains open on Sunday. People shop - and do all sorts of other things they'd never dream of doing back in the day.
And, of course, most of us Catholics attended Mass on Sunday. Note: most. Not like now. Now some would be a lot when it comes to attendance at Sunday Mass. And with the C-Virus closing of churches, that some has become less than some.
Sigh!
But despite all this, Sunday remains the Sabbath. So we who have held on to our Catholic Religion - even if it's by our finger nails - try to keep Sunday the Lord's Day, i.e., the Sabbath.
To remind us of the sort of spirit that would be appropriate on a Sabbath properly observed, on this Sunday we turn to first verses of Psalm 91, "a canticle on the sabbath day" (as described in the first verse).
It is good to give praise to the Lord, and to sing to thy name. O most High. To shew forth they mercy in the morning, and thy truth in the night. Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery: with a canticle upon the harp. For thou hast given me, O Lord, a delight in thy doing: and in the works of thy hands I shall rejoice.
O Lord, how great are thy works! thy thoughts are exceeding deep. The senseless man shall not know: nor will the fool understand these things...
Read the rest of this glorious psalm on your own, if you wish. It reminds us that God's works are "great," that the Lord is "most high for evermore."
And there's more for those of us who remain faithful to our God and our Holy Catholic Faith by duly observing the Sabbath:
They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God. They shall still increase in a fruitful old age: and shall be well treated.
Seems to me it behooves us to keep Sunday the Sabbath. What about you?
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