Homilies for Sundays and Solemnities of Years-ABC (Second Edition)
Author: Fr Benjamin A Vima
More than two third of the Christians around the globe go to Churches, on Sunday to observe and celebrate it as the Lord’s Day. We observe it as the Holy Day of Obligation because it is the second commandment of God. We want to act in the footsteps of God who rested and blessed it holy. In six days, the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day He rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. We rejoice on that Day admiring and praising God by remembering gratefully all his marvellous deeds He has been doing in our midst. We also observe Sabbath as a sign of the irrevocable covenant between God and ourselves. Besides all the above-mentioned Old Testament factors that influence us to observe the Lord’s Day, there is a remarkable and groundbreaking fact that inspires us to continue it in a more enhanced and renewed way. This inspiration comes from the Lord Jesus in the Gospel. While he was faithful to the Sabbath observances, he taught his disciples, the worthy ways of observing the second Commandment, because he said “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” and added, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
From the revelation of Jesus, his disciples understood the true meaning of this Sabbath observance and added more nuance to it. They began observing the Sun Day as ‘Son Day’, namely as a celebration of the new creation that happened in Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus became the sunrise (Son-Rise) to the humanity on this Sunday (Son-Day).
It is true, Sunday Mass or service is the central part of our Sabbath observance, as the community of God in Jesus. As Pope John Paul II said, “On this day we celebrate the identity of the parish community encountering the Risen Lord in the table of the Word and the table of His Body.” However, the greatest mistake people make, is to consider the attending of an-hour-long Sunday service as all to observe the Lord’s Day holy. However today, celebration of the Lord’s Day as it is observed in many churches, looks very gloomy and as a private enterprise. Most of us come to this celebration of the Lord’s Day only to be blessed by God and not to be a blessing; many among us, especially the young ones grudgingly attend the Sunday services with the unfulfilled expectation of fun-oriented theatrical experience from them; almost all of us consider the weekend, especially Sunday, as the only time of rest. The very sad factor is that we have been participating in Sunday celebration as one of the minimum time-spent activity in our busy schedule of the weekend. This is because of our social and economic system, that makes us work 6 days outside and only one day inside our homes. In order to have a meaningful and fruitful celebration of the Lord’s Day, we are advised by many spiritual leaders to use the entire Sunday as Holy and Separate; join with our community of believers with one mind and one heart, in celebrating the Eucharist; spend more time than in weekdays in personal prayer and meditation of the Word; gather our family at home in enjoying the togetherness and nearness of the family bond; spend time with our spouses and kids and even our neighbors in group prayers and Scriptural discussion; and to spare more time, money and talent towards the proclamation of the Good News and to engage ourselves in works of charity, especially the corporal works of mercy.
This book contains homilies for all Sundays and Solemnities of three (ABC) Liturgical Years. It is published mainly for the people who consider Sunday/holy day obligations as the Lord’s command. It will be of great help to them while going through the Sunday/holy day scriptures before they go to their services, so that they can be attuned to the spirit’s move during the liturgy of the World it will enrich their understanding of the day’s preaching as their pastors break the Word of God. It will also be of great help to their Lord’s Day-family gathering at home to converse together little more about the Word of God with spouses and kids. — ATC Team
Year of Publication: 2017
Pages: 502
Rs. 500
ISBN: 9788170866046
Paperback
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