“It is the Mass that makes Sunday Christian! The Christian Sunday revolves around the Mass. What is Sunday for a Christian if there is no encounter with the Lord?”. This is how Pope Francis answered the central question of his catechesis today in the Paul VI Hall: “Why go to Mass on Sundays?”. Because “the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life”, Pope Francis explained, quoting from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “We Christians go to Sunday Mass to meet the Risen Lord, or better, to let ourselves be met by Him, to listen to His word, to nourish ourselves at His table, and thus become Church, that is, His living mystical body in the world today”. “Jesus’ disciples immediately understood this – the Pope said -, they would celebrate the Eucharistic encounter with the Lord on the day of the week called ‘the first of the week’ by the Jews and ‘the day of the sun’ by the Romans, because on that day Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to His disciples, speaking with them, eating with them, giving them the Holy Spirit. Even the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost took place on Sunday, the fiftieth day after Jesus’ resurrection”. For these reasons, Pope Francis said, “Sunday is a holy day for us, sanctified by the Eucharistic celebration, the living presence of the Lord among us and for us”.