![[home]](/catechism/images/usccb_logo.gif){kind=logo}
Catechism Update
Fall 1998
In his introduction to the apostolic letter Dies Domini, Pope John Paul II states that l "Given this array of new situations [the impact of socioeconomic conditions and cultural customs on the celebration of Sunday] and the questions which they prompt, it seems more necessary than ever to recover the deep doctrinal foundations underlying the church's precept, so that the abiding value of Sunday in the Christian life will be clear to all the faithful." (DD, #˘) Dies Domini and the Catechism
It is in this context that the Catechism Committee offers the first in a series of correlations between Dies Domini and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The paragraphs selected from the Catechism have been chosen for their specific relevance to the particular issues treated in Dies Domini. This correlation is not intended to be exhaustive.
This issue will focus on the introductory paragraphs to the apostolic letter and the first chapter "Dies Domini: Celebration of the Creator's Work." It is our hope that this will provide bishops and their staffs with readily available resource material.
Dies Domini The fundamental importance of Sunday has been recognized through 2,000 years of history and was emphatically restated by the Second Vatican Council: "Every seven days, the church celebrates the Easter mystery. This is a tradition going back to the apostles, taking its origin from the actual day of Christ's resurrection—a day thus appropriately designated the Lord's Day" (#3).
Catechism of the Catholic Church "By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday." The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath inaugurates the "day the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening." The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet" (#1166).
We follow in the footsteps of the age-old tradition of the church, powerfully restated by the Second Vatican Council in its teaching that on Sunday"Christian believers should come together in order to commemorate the suffering, resurrection and glory of the Lord Jesus, by hearing God's word and sharing the eucharist, and to give thanks to God, who has given them new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (cf.1 Pi 1:3)" (#ó). Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather "to listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the Passion, Resurrection and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving thanks to God who ‘has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead' unto a living hope" (#1167). The theme of"God's rest" (cf. Gn.2:2) and the rest which he offered to the people of the exodus when they entered the Promised Land (cf. Ex.33:14; Dt.3:20; 12:9; Jos.21:44; Ps.95:11) is reread in the New Testament in the light of the definitive "Sabbath rest" (Heb.4:9) into which Christ himself has entered by his resurrection. The people of God are called to enter into this same rest by persevering in Christ's example of filial obedience (cf. Heb.4:3-16). In order to grasp fully the meaning of Sunday, therefore, we must reread the great story of creation and deepen our understanding of the theology of the Sabbath (#8). God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work," concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God" (#337).
Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the response of the Christian faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked themselves: "Where do we come from?""Where are we going?" . . . (#282).
All human life, and therefore all human time, must become praise of the Creator and thanksgiving to him. But man's relationship with God also demands times of explicit prayer in which the relationship becomes an intense dialogue, involving every dimension of the person. "The Lord's Day" is the day of this relationship par excellence when men and women raise their song to God and become the voice of all creation (#15). Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. This is why the Fathers of the spiritual life in the Deuteronomic and prophetic traditions insist that prayer is a remembrance of God often awakened by the memory of the heart: "We must remember God more often than we draw breath." But we cannot pray"at all times" if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it. These are the special times of Christian prayer, both in intensity and duration (#2697). Because the Third Commandment depends upon the remembrance of God's saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. The paschal mystery of Christ is the full revelation of the mystery of the world's origin, the climax of the history of salvation and the anticipation of the eschatological fulfillment of the world (#18). Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of creation. As the rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over the "work of God," that is, solemn worship. This indicates the right order of human concerns (#347).
In the liturgy of the Church, God the Father is blessed and adored as the source of all the blessings of creation and salvation with which he has blessed us in his Son, in order to give us the Spirit of filial adoption (#1110).
Staff Appointments
Father Daniel J. Kutys, named Executive Director of the Office for the Catechism in June, began his work in the Office in August. Fr. Kutys, who served as Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1993 to 1998, has previously assisted the Ad Hoc Committee as a consultant. The members of the Catechism Committee are extremely grateful for His Eminence Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua for releasing Fr. Kutys for service at the NCCB.
In July, Brian M. Keane, Director of Religious Education in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, was named Coordinator of Assessment for the Office.. He has previously served the Ad Hoc Committee in several capacities over the past three years. He will begin his work in the Office in October. The members of the Committee are grateful for Bishop Donald Wuerl's willingness to permit Mr. Keane to serve the Catechism Committee and the Conference.