Today, we start proclaiming the Gospel with the expression: «That very same day after the sabbath» (Lk 24:13). Yes, the day after Sabbath, Sunday. Easter —it has been said— is like a great Sunday lasting fifty days. O, if we would only knew how important this day is for our life as Christians! «There are reasons to say, as suggested in the homily of an author of the 4th century (Eusebius of Alexandria), that the ‘the holy day of Sunday is the commemoration of the Lord. It is called the Lord's because it is the Lord of all days’ (...). This is, in fact, for all Christians a “paramount holiday”» (St. John Paul II). For us Sunday should be the motherly embrace, cradle, delectation, home and also missionary halitus. O, if we could only have a glimpse of the depth and poetry it may transmit! We could then affirm, along with those martyrs of the first centuries: «We cannot live without the Sunday».
But when the Lord's day loses its importance in our existence the “Lord of all days” also evanesces, and we become so pragmatic and “earnest” that we only accord any credit to our projects and foresight, to our plans and strategies; then, even the very freedom God behaves with, can be a motive of trouble and withdrawal. By ignoring the amazement we close ourselves off from the most luminous manifestation of God's glory, and everything becomes an evening of disappointment, prelude of an endless night, when life seems doomed to perennial insomnia.
But, the Gospel proclaimed in the middle of Sunday gatherings, is always an angelic announcement of a refulgence addressed to minds and hearts so foolish and slow to believe (cf. Lk 24:25), and, accordingly, it is a soft one, not stunning, as otherwise, rather than throwing light upon us it would dazzle us. It is the Resurrected Life the Holy Spirit transmits us with the Word and broken Bread, while respecting our treading made out of not always properly oriented short steps.
Every Sunday we recollect that Jesus «went in to stay with them» (Lk 24:29), with us. Have you recognized Him, today, you Christian?