The Catechism of the Catholic Church
discusses our Sunday obligation. In addition to the requirement of attending
Mass, it says this: “On Sundays…the faithful are to refrain from engaging in
work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God…and the appropriate
relaxation of mind and body” (CCC 2185).
The Catechism goes on to say that if certain
people are required to work on Sunday—for example, medical professionals, law
enforcement personnel, retail or food service workers—then it’s OK to go to
work, as long as these folks set aside some time to worship God.
But for the rest of us who do not have
to go to our regular jobs on Sundays, what’s all this talk about “appropriate
relaxation of mind and body”? Do we even pretend to do that anymore? Sunday has
become the day of sports and traveling and yardwork and shopping and a zillion
other activities that are anything but restful or relaxing for our minds and
bodies. And we wonder why we’re so exhausted all the time?
If you’ve been around as long as I have,
you probably remember when Sundays were indeed a day of rest. If you went
downtown, nothing was open. I can remember getting ready to go to church on
Sunday morning and my father exclaiming, “Oh no, I forget to put gas in the car
yesterday! I hope there’s enough in the tank to last until tomorrow morning.”
That’s right, even the gas stations were
closed on Sundays. And back then, there were no self-serve pumps with built-in
credit card readers. You had to pay up front, usually in cash, and then the
attendant pumped the gas for you. (He also often cleaned your windshield and
checked the oil, things I forget to do nowadays for years at a time.)
Anyway, Sundays may have been a little
boring back in those days, but our culture was still respectful of Christian
traditions, so Sunday was understood to be a “day of rest.” Most of society
willingly went along with it. Now, Sunday is just the second day of the
weekend, and if you ask the average person in our culture this question, “Did
you know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest?” I suspect his or her reply
would be something like, “Umm, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But I
gotta go. We’re late for little Jimmy’s soccer practice!”
In the beginning, God took six days to create
the heavens and the earth, and then He rested on the seventh day. God set the
example for us. After working hard for six days, we should take a day off. You
may think this story from Genesis is merely symbolic, and it probably is, but
God made sure mankind preserved this story because it tells important truths
about Him and about us. First, it tells us that God truly loves us and cares
about us, so much so that He wants us to be refreshed and well-rested. And it
tells us that we are not machines. We cannot go full speed day after day after
day without eventually breaking down. We need a day off.
Modern medicine has confirmed that one
day of rest every seven days is an ideal system. It’s a terrific method for
keeping us refreshed and strong. It prevents us from getting worn out and
depressed.
Our culture no longer respects Christian
traditions, so closed stores and empty streets on Sunday are not coming back
anytime soon. We need to create the “Sunday rest” on our own. There are two
things we need to do: first, read Scripture and the Catechism to assure
ourselves that the Sunday rest is indeed a divinely-ordained blessing. Second,
we need to develop the habit of saying no. We need to say no to invitations to
shop or travel or go to a ballgame. We should stay home and rest. We can read
the Sunday newspaper, take a nap, talk with our loved ones, and simply enjoy
the rest God wants us to have and our body desperately need.
Honoring the Lord’s Day is one of the
Ten Commandments. If we really do it, we’ll be amazed at how much energy and
optimism we have, which enables us to deal successfully with the rest of the
week.
By
the way, coming up soon is the annual Connecticut Catholic Men’s Conference,
one of the most exciting and uplifting events of the whole year. This day-long
celebration of faith is on Saturday, October 20th, at St. Paul’s High School in
Bristol, CT. Go to CTCatholicMen.org to order your tickets. It’s a great day
with great speakers, great food, and great fellowship. I hope to see you there!
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