The First Day of the Week

Happy Feast of Pentecost!

Has anyone ever wondered why we as Christians worship on the first day of the week, on Sunday?

One of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because God began His work within this universe on the first day of the week. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… so the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:1, 5).

Another of the reasons we worship on Sunday is because the Resurrection, our hope, also happened on the first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). Jesus Christ rose from the dead on this day, bringing eternal joy to us, and the hope that we will follow Him. As God began the original creation on the first day of the week, He also began the new creation on the first day of the week. It is the new beginning of humanity, and it is sometimes called the Eighth Day (the number of eternity), because for us it is our entrance into eternity.

The Pentecost, which we are celebrating today, was seven weeks after the Resurrection, making it a Sunday. This is the day that the Promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the likeness of tongues of fire. And the end of days began. As St. Peter the Apostle preached quoting Joel the Prophet, “‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams… And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’” (Acts 2:17, 21). As such Pentecost then is the birthday of the Church, because all that was promised for the Church to start its mission was fulfilled.

The Apostles also from the beginning began to meet on Sunday for fellowship and this tradition carried on to the rest of the Church by the will of God, as St. Luke the Apostle records in the Acts emphatically, “On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).

Therefore let us as Christians following in the Holy Tradition of the Lord and His Apostles keep the first day of the week as the day we as the Body of Christ meet and have fellowship.

Glory be to God both now and ever and unto the age of all ages. Amen.