On March 3, 321, the Roman Emperor Constantine made Sunday a legal holiday, a public day of rest, which it remained for almost 17 centuries - until living memory. I am old enough to remember when most businesses were closed on Sundays, when most people had the day off, when many marked the day by going to church in the morning, followed by a family Sunday dinner and other family-centered gatherings and activities. Now, of course, all sorts of business are open, and many are forced to work on Sunday, many of then unable to attend Sunday Mass as a result. There were all sorts of things that were wrong with the world when I was growing up, but Sunday was one of the things that that world got right, something sadly which we have lost to our own detriment and that of generations to come.
On February 12, 304, at Abitinae in Roman Africa, 49 Christians were martyred for having illegally celebrated Sunday Eucharist in defiance of Emperor Diocletian's edict. One of then, Emeritus, famously said: Sine dominico non possumus (We cannot be without the Lord's Day). Their heroic witness attests to the singular importance of Sunday in Christian worship and life. The loss of Sunday as a society-wide special day - largely in my own lifetime - represents a monumental loss for both the Church (whose weekly worship has suffered accordingly) and society (which has lost that traditional rhythm of rest and work).
Now, exacerbated by the pandemic, the loss of Sunday may be irretrievable. On Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Dame Maggie Smith) famously asked, "What is a weekend?" Will future generations have to ask, "What was a Sunday?"
(Photo: Bernini's Statue of Constantine, Saint Peter's Basilica at the base of the Scala Regia)
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