EXPLAINING THE MYSTERY OF THE SABBATH AND OF THE LORD’S DAY

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

EXPLAINING THE MYSTERY OF THE SABBATH AND OF
THE LORD’S DAY
AND REFERRING TO THE GOSPEL OF NEW SUNDAY
By Saint Gregory Palamas

TODAY WE KEEP THE FEAST OF NEW SUNDAY, or rather we celebrate the INAUGURATION OF THE New Lord’s Day. So our word today is intended to reveal a little of the mystery of Sunday to your charity, as far as time allows. If this is a great and exalted mystery, and not even its more accessible aspects are easy for everyone to understand, we must give thanks to the Lord of All Who gave His name to this day, and Who, through His coming in the flesh, bestowed on those who draw near to Him through faith things which are perhaps a little difficult for our mind and reason to grasp…

"…In six days God not only made and adorned the whole visible world, He also created and brought to life the only creature with senses and a mind: man (Genesis 1:1-27; 2:7). To him He granted dominion over all the animals and plants throughout the world (Genesis 1:28). Then on the Seventh Day God rested from all His works, as we are taught by Moses (Genesis 2:2), who was born later, but beheld the foundation of the world long before his time, or rather as the Holy Spirit in His love for mankind sound in our ears and souls through Moses’ words. "And God." it says, "BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY AND SANCTIFIED IT" (Genesis 2:3). Why did He bless and hallow that day on which He did nothing? For He did not bless and hallow the first day as the most exalted, which is why it was referred to by Moses as "one" and not as "first" (Genesis 1:5), that day on which God brought forth everything out of nothing all at once, and illuminated it with NEW LIGHT, although He had not yet put it in due order, assigning everything to its place and kind…

"…Another reason why that day was blessed is that He Who formed this world in six days foresaw that man would turn towards evil and would, as a result, go back to the ground, descend to Hades and be imprisoned there, and this whole world would grow old and useless because of man, but would be renewed by God becoming man. This renewal was effected when God incarnate descended into Hades through death and declared there on the sabbath the recall of souls. It was because He foresaw that this would happen on the sabbath that He rightly deemed it the only day worthy to be blessed. However, although this work was secretly made ready on the seventh day, the sabbath, everything was clearly brought to light and accomplished when the body too had been summoned to immortality through the Lord’s RESURRECTION ON THE EIGHT DAY. THIS IS WHY WE ALL IT THE LORD’S DAY. As Friday, the day of preparation, stands in relation to the sabbath, so is the sabbath in comparison with Sunday, which is obviously superior to it. As perfection and reality surpass beginning, pattern and shadow, so is Sunday more excellent and honorable, because on it the exceedingly blessed work was finished, and on it we await the General Resurrection OF ALL, the perfect entry of the Saints into the divine rest and dissolution of the world into its elements.

Whatever is said in praise of the seventh day applies even more to the eighth, for the latter fulfills the former. It was Moses who unwittingly first ascribed honor to the eighth day, the Lord’s Day… Moses esteemed the seventh day because it led into the truly honorable eighth day. Just as the law given through him is honorable is so far as it leads to Christ (cf. Galatians 3:24), so the seventh day is honorable because it leads into the eighth day on which the Lord’s RESURRECTION TOOK PLACE. The eighth day comes next after the seventh, and if you look carefully you will find that after the seventh day, when we are told that all the dead from past ages were resurrected, on the eighth day Christ arose. Not only was Christ’s Resurrection accomplished on the eight day, but it was both the eighth day in relation to the day before, and also the first day in relation to the hoped-for resurrection, the rising again, of all men in Christ. That is why Christ hymned as "the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20) and "the first begotten of the dead" (Revelation 1:5). In the same way, Sunday is not just the day eighth in order after the preceding days, but THE FIRST OF THE DAYS THAT COME AFTER. So it becomes in its turn the New Day, THE FIRST OF ALL DAYS, WHICH WE CALL THE LORD’S DAY, AND WHICH MOSES REFERRED TO NOT AS THE FIRST DAY BUT AS "ONE DAY" (Genesis 1:5), being exalted above all other and the prelude of the one day without evening of the age to come.

You will understand how much better Sunday is than other feast days from what follows. Every other festival comes round once a year, but the Lord’s Day comes round four times every month, and this frequent recurrence makes the whole year a year of TRUE REMISSION FOR US, A YEAR ACCEPTABLE TO THE LORD (cf. Isaiah 61:2). It was in order to teach us to celebrate it in practice at the end of each week that the Lord first appeared to the Holy Disciples inside the house while Thomas was absent (John 20:19-24). He PROVED THAT HE WAS ALIVE AND GAVE THEM PEACE. By His breathing upon them He RENEWED THE DIVINE BREATH GIVEN IN THE BEGINNING (Genesis 2:7), and endowed them with the grace of the Holy Spirit, imbuing them WITH DIVINE POWER TO BIND AND LOOSE SINS. HE MADE THEM SHARERS IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS HEAVENLY LORDSHIP, saying to them, "RECEIVE YE THE HOLY SPIRIT: WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT, THEY REMITTED UNTO THEM; AND WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINED" (John 20:22-23).

The Lord granted them this power and grace when He appeared to them ON THE VERY DAY OF HIS RESURRECTION, OBVIOUSLY A SUNDAY. Then, letting the intervening days of the week elapse, He appeared in the same manner and in the same house, ON THE EIGHTH DAY, THE SUNDAY WE CELEBRATE TODAY, TO INAUGURATE HIS FESTIVAL AND TO BRING THE HESITANT THOMAS TO FAITH. According to the Savior’s beloved evangelist and disciple, "After EIGHT DAYS again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you" (John 20:26).

You will see that it was Sunday when the Disciples assembled and the Lord came to them. On Sunday He approached them for the first time as they were gathered, and EIGHT DAYS LATER, when Sunday came round again, He appeared to their assembly. Christ’s Church CONTINUALLY REFLECTS THESE GATHERINGS BY HOLDING ITS MEETING S MOSTLY ON SUNDAYS, AND WE COME AMONG YOU AND PREACH WHAT PERTAINS TO SALVATION AND LEAD YOU TOWARDS PIETY AND A GODLY WAY OF LIFE.

Let no one out of laziness or continuous worldly occupations miss these Holy Sunday gatherings, which God Himself handed down to us, lest he be justly abandoned by God and suffer like Thomas, who did not come at the right time. If you are detained and do not attend on one occasion, make up for it the next time, bringing yourself to Christ’s Church. Otherwise you may remain uncured, suffering from unbelief in your soul because of deeds or words, and failing to approach Christ’s surgery to receive, like the divine Thomas, holy healing. There exist not only thoughts and words of faith BUT ALSO DEEDS AND ACTS OF FAITH — "SHEW ME," IT SAYS, "THY FAITH BY THY WORKS" (James 2:18) — and if someone abandons these and is completely distanced from the Church of Christ and given over wholly to worthless pursuits, HIS FAITH IS DEAD, OR NON-EXISTENT, AND HE HIMSELF HAS BECOME DEAD THROUGH SIN…

"… So let us, brethren, meet together and often come to God’s Church, where all who are truly godly are present and never stay away. When each of you enters the church, look for the more godly of those within, whom you can recognize just by seeing how they stand in attentive silence. Watch for those who are more pious and God-fearing than the rest, and go and attach yourself to them, and attend upon God with them… If you do this, I know for sure that Christ will invisibly come to you, give peace within the thinking part of your soul, increase your faith, strengthen your steadfastness, and in due time set you among His chosen in the heavenly Kingdom.

May we all attain to this in Him Who has now died and risen for us and afterwards will come in glory, Christ the King of the ages, to Whom belongs glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. (Homilies)

___________
"Glory Be To GOD

For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +

With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George