In our own historical context, the Pope, said in section 67 of his apostolic letter, there remains the obligation to ensure that everyone can enjoy religious needs which are difficult to meet if there is not guarantee of at least one day a week on which people can both rest and celebrate.  There... Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy.

          Note that the Pope called for civil legislation, linked to the issue of Sunday sacredness in other words, a call to political activism, designed to promote the religious observance of Sunday.  There is nothing wrong with insuring that workers have a day off each week.  Nor is there anything wrong with Christians being politically active.  But in a nation where millions observe other days of worship, it is worrisome to hear a religious leader urge the adoption of legislation for a specific religious day.

          Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.  Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.  Inherent in our constitutional system is the safeguard that the political process not be used for religious purposes yet for years prominent clerics had thundered that there was in fact no constitutional separation of church and state in America, that it was a lie of the left, that were not going to take it any more.  Now the Pope had advocated political activism regarding a duty to keep Sunday holy.

In section 112 of the document is found:

          Christians are obliged in conscience to arrange their Sunday rest in a way which allows them to take part in the Eucharist, the Pope said, linking the Eucharist and Sunday in the same way that Vatican II had done: one people, one church, one Eucharistic mystery the supreme manifestation which is the Sunday Assembly.  In his letter he had thus returned to the theme by which the Mass, and Sunday, become the issues designed to reunite the Christian faith.  The churchs goals had not changed since 1962; indeed, they simply become more attainable.

          But nothing in the document was so challenging as his argument in section 75.  Therein he took the reader on an excursion deep into a philosophical rationale so profound that many people simply missed it: he equated Sunday and time!

          When he wrote this treatise, John Paul II was one of the foremost minds in the world.  Possessing two doctorate degrees (one of which was in the subject of phenomenology, a topic most graduate students could not even define), he was, despite age and infirmity, capable of challenging even the brightest.  And in section 75 he ventured on to such ground, with a line of reasoning one has to read several times to really understand.

          Sunday, he asserted, is the day which reveals the meaning of time.

          Time?  Outside of Deity, time is the most awesome force we face.  Whether we are rich or poor, famous or unnoticed, it sweeps us relentlessly along into a future we cannot see.  In its current we helplessly say goodbye to people we love and places we cherish, to youth and vitality.  Nothing in human experience comes close to mastering this powerful force nothing, at least, until the mind of God touches a human being called a prophet, transporting him or her forward in the stream of time to see events still to come (which suggest that when a prophet speaks. We might do well to listen).

          Yet the Pope asserted that a day of human creation now defines the mysterious and mighty river called time.  More, he went on to insist the Sunday is superior even to the cosmic cycles God established at creation to measure the passage of time.  Sunday, he asserted, has nothing in common with the cosmic cycles according to which natural religion and human culture tend to impose a structure on time.  In other words, Sunday transcends the lunar cycles from creation and the celestial events that God established to help us measure out temporal lives.   Sunday, he says, demolishes all this, redefining time itself even its previous religious structure.

          Across the corridor of centuries echoes a distant prophecy, suddenly very relevant: And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change

          To change what? times and laws.  Daniel 7:25

          But there was still more: after insisting that Sunday dominates our understanding of time, he next linked Sunday with the Advent!

          Springing from the resurrection, it [Sunday] cuts throught human timelike a directional arrow which points them toward their target, Christs Second Coming.

          In other words, in the Popes mind Sunday and the end-time events are indelibly linked!  How true this is but I am sure not the way he thinks.

The very first recording of work was on Sunday the first day of the week.  Genesis 1:3-5

Check out ancient languages in approximately 160 it means Sabbath.

Sabato (Italian), Sobota (Polish), Sabado (Spanish), Shubbuta (Bulgarian), Sabbaton (Greek)

When the Lord returns I know Who I want to be worshipping, on which day I want to be found worshipping Him and how I want to be worshipping Him.  There will be eternal consequences.  You had better also know!

See Day of Sacredness