Sunday Solemnities
theophilus June 3rd, 2009
As every Catholic knows, Sunday Mass has the prime spot on the church calendar. It is the centerpiece of a devout Catholic’s week and a fixture on their schedule.
But, let’s take a quick quiz – how many Sundays in the Liturgical Calendar have special significance over and beyond being a “# Sunday of [Advent][Lent][Easter][Ordinary Time]?” How many are considered Solemnities, the highest form of celebration on the calendar (above feasts, memorials, and optional memorials)?
Of all of these special days, Easter is the easiest to come to mind. I don’t know if Palm Sunday is considered a solemnity, but it would fall into the category of being pretty memorable. How about the Epiphany (2nd Sunday after Christmas) and Christ the King (Last Sunday of Ordinary Time before Advent), both of which are solemnities?
There are also two other Sundays in Christmas that have a special spot on the calendar – Holy Family (1st Sunday after Christmas and a feast) and the Baptism of the Lord (1st Sunday of Ordinary Time and a feast)?
These days are important to us, to our faith; yet we tend to gloss over some of them. Other than Easter and Palm Sunday, they become just another Sunday with no real significance to us.
And that’s a shame because each of these Sundays carries so much meaning about Christ, that we short-change our spiritual lives when we treat these days as nothing special.
That is why I’m really trying to pay attention to the period of Sundays we are in now, because they are all solemnities. Two Sundays ago was Ascension Sunday; last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday; next Sunday is Trinity Sunday; and then the next Sunday is Corpus Christi Sunday. Throw in Sacred Heart Friday (solemnity) and Immaculate Heart Saturday (memorial) for the weekend thereafter. Six very holy days (five of which are solemnities) following distantly behind the Resurrection, and centered around the Ascension and the Pentecost. It is a period when we reflect upon separate parts of Christ’s life and his being, and the very essence of the triune God. Six very holy days that always occur together.
The Nicene Creed, which we pray most every Sunday, professes that we believe in one God, in one Lord, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. We believe in Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life who has spoken through the prophets. We believe that Christ was born of the virgin Mary and became man and that for our sake he was crucified, suffered, died and was buried. In these passages of the Creed, our Creed, we have the essence of these holy days during these four plus weeks.
As the priest exclaims at baptisms, this is our faith, this is the faith of our church. As these six holy days say so much about our faith, we need to make sure we are paying attention to them, instead of just letting them float on by, on our way between Easter and the laziness of Summer.
