Best Day of the Week (9/17/2023)

One of my dear friends always calls Sunday “The best day of the week.” She has so very many memories of Sundays past when she sat in the pew with her family, with her husband. Since her husband passed away, she goes to church on Sunday morning with me. But she still calls it “the best day of the week.” And I smile every time she says it because I think she is right.

Sunday is my favorite day, as well. It is a time I look forward to in the sacred space of our parish church sitting amongst others who are on the journey of faith, hope, and love. It is a time when we listen to the Word of the LORD proclaimed, when we hear a rousing homily by our parish priest, and when we celebrate the Eucharist, a time of great thanksgiving for the gift of the Son of God to humanity, to us collectively, but most especially to us individually in the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. It is a time of community with fellow disciples ranging in age from infant to 90 something. It is time when we lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving as well as in acknowledged need expressed in hope. It is when we become what we receive, the Body of Christ in the world, and we are sent out to be just that.

Sunday is “the best day of the week.” It is a time when we sit silently and look ahead to the figure of Christ upon a cross and contemplate the price he selflessly and lovingly paid for us and for our salvation. It is a time when we feast together upon the Eucharist in anticipation of the heavenly feast in the presence of our LORD and the faithful from throughout the ages. It is a time for us to reflect on what has been and to hope for what can be. It is a time of prayer, a time of community, a time marked by the love of the LORD actualized in us.

Today as you embark upon the next leg of the journey, I hope your experience of Sunday is that it is indeed “the best day of the week.” And I pray that we all allow it to inform us, to conform us, and to transform us to live the whole week as the daughters and sons of the LORD, the disciples of Christ, and the temples of the Spirit in this world at this time.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.