The Sunday in Every Week

Fr Vincent Sherlock, parish priest of Tubbercurry, addresses the question of the place of Sunday in our week.

Austin Clarke’s poem ‘The Planter’s Daughter’ is as beautiful as it is well known. In it he describes the planter’s daughter, one normally aloof and out of reach, as a beautiful and downto-earth woman in the community. Wherever she goes, she is admired for her loveliness and her unquestionable beauty. Men and women are in awe of her – not least, perhaps, because in the ordinary run of things she would have nothing to do with them, but she is the exception and is accessible to all and yet shrouded in mystery.

The phrase I am drawn to in the poem is ‘And O she was the Sunday in every week’.

It is, to me, a lovely image of beauty. A sort of high point, the destination we are hoping to reach so that it can be fully enjoyed and appreciated. It is certain that when Clarke wrote these lines people had a keen awareness of Sunday and its place in the life of a parish – the life of a nation. Shops closed and churches open would have been the norm. Now, alas, for many the roles have been reversed.

Why would this phrase be used to celebrate and describe beauty? Maybe to reveal the truth that Sunday stands tall in the story of life? Sunday is intended to be a day of rest and for worship. It was, and can be, the day of the Sunday clothes, going to church, slowing things down and being with family or indeed oneself in peace. We have all heard the stories of the Saturday night bath for the family, ensuring the best was there to be presented on Sunday morning.

Where is Sunday now? Sadly, in the eyes of too many, it is a day like any other. Though there is certainly truth in that understanding, there remains a place in the spiritual life for recognising Sunday as the call to worship. Clarke’s poem, in another description of the girl’s beauty, used the line ‘like a bell that is rung’, and maybe we hear again the echo of the Sunday Mass bell as it casts its sound of invitation, even beyond the parish boundary, to wherever it is heard and whoever may hear it. The bell still rings, and the invitation continues.

It was on Easter Sunday, at the mouth of an empty tomb, that Jesus told the woman who mistook him as a gardener to tell the brothers to meet him in Jerusalem. It was on a Sunday evening that he caught up with two men on the Emmaus journey and joined them in conversation, listened to them and opened their eyes to a deeper truth. That remains the intention of Sunday, a time and space – a place – where we can be together, pray together.

Can we, in these post-Easter days, commit to Sunday? Of course we can, but there are many obstacles in the path of doing that. Reasons like lack of faith, loss of interest and for some, anger with the Church are there, but other more subtle reasons are there too. Children are asked to tog out for training or challenge matches, quite often at the same hour the church bells are ringing. Parents, wanting to support their children, accompany them and families are often drawn away from church for no other reason than clash of time. For others, Sunday has become the big shopping day and trips to the shopping centre have replaced a visit to the local church. The truth remains we can combine these interests with a bit of thought, commitment and time management.

At the heart of Sunday, for those who believe, there is still a call to pray and be together in faith. What can we do to make this a reality? The answer is in praying hands and praying hands are at their best when God is acknowledged, respected and listened to –‘Keep holy the sabbath day’.