The celebration of Christ's birth will again become a Sunday event in 2033, 2039, 2044, and 2050. If I live that long I'll be a ripe 101-years-old.

So far, I have seen Sunday Christmases a dozen times in my lifetime. It will be another 11 years before Christmas comes on Sunday again. That will push me into my '80s and the question will be on which side of glory will I be then. Will I still be on earth or will the Lord have called me home to spend Christmas with Him?

Retailers love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. That gives them four full weeks of shopping. It also gives the church a fourth week of Advent.

Advent always starts after Thanksgiving which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States. Advent starts the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew which is on November 30.

Some years the first Sunday in Advent comes on November 27 meaning that the Fourth week of Advent is an entire week long. Other times Advent can begin as late as December 3, making the fourth week of Advent very short.

When Christmas Eve is Sunday night the fourth week of Advent is less than a day long. Almost immediately after the fourth Advent candle is lit and then extinguished churches are scrambling to quickly go from whisking away the Advent wreath to putting up the Christmas tree and decorations in time for the greatly anticipated Christmas Eve celebrations -- the Children's Pageant, to the much-enjoyed Christmas Eve candlelight service or Midnight Mass.

This year Advent began on November 27 giving the church four full weeks in Advent -- 28 days long -- to spiritually prepare for the birth of the Christ Child.

With Advent beginning on November 27, then Christmas Eve falls on Saturday night. Many churches hold Christmas Eve services sometimes climaxing with a midnight Eucharistic service.

But Sunday always follows Saturday evening. Christmas day follows Christmas Eve. But pastors and priests seem to be confused about the meaning of Sunday when Christmas shares that day.

Stories have broken that churches are cancelling Sunday services because they plan to celebrate Christmas Eve instead seeing no need to regather on Sunday.

What? A Christian going to church two days in a row. Heaven forbid!

Why? I don't know. Christians go to work two days in a row, three days in a row, four days in a row and even five days in a row. Farmers have to tend their herds seven days in a row. Cows need to be milked morning and evening every day. The chickens need to be fed and their eggs collected.

So, if the eight-hour workday schedule is not a hardship, why would attending an hour-long worship service two days in a row be such an imposition?

Christmas happens to fall on Sunday this year. But the purpose of Sunday is not the celebration of Christmas but the faithful remembrance of Christ's Resurrection.

If Christ had not Resurrected from the dead-on Easter Sunday His birth would have no historical meaning regardless of the day of the week it fell on.

Without Easter there is no meaning to Christmas.

That is why a Christian goes to church on Sunday because Christ was Resurrected on Sunday and His Body, the Church, sees fit to remember that on a weekly basis.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline