Rev. Fr. Petros Mwale (Mzuzu Diocese – MALAWI)
INTRODUCTION
Fr. Petros please help: What kind of work (if any) is allowed on Sunday? I work Monday Friday and if it rains on Saturday can I cut my grass on Sunday? Can I do laundry? If so how much? – Bonfancio (St. Cecilia Parish Mpherembe)
RESPONSE
Dear Bonfancio, we owe the very foundations of our faith to our Jewish roots. We have inherited the Ten Commandments from our older brothers and sisters in Abraham (the Jewish people) Exodus 20:2-17. As a part of that deposit of faith, we find the command to keep holy the Sabbath Dt 5:4 and Exodus 20:4.
THE SABBATH
In ancient Israel, and for modern Jews, the Sabbath is technically the time from sundown on Friday evening until sundown on Saturday evening. The word originates from the Hebrew word Shavat which means ceasing from work. It has always been a day consecrated to God and observed through Worship and Rest. These are the two ways of observing the Sabbath.
IDEA OF HOLY
Before we go any further, it will help us to understand that to keep a thing holy meant to keep it separate or set aside for God in ancient times. This seems to hint at the reality that the Sabbath is going to be different than the rest of the week. What will make it different? Well, basically, it is the Worship and the Rest. This command was given (with the other nine) after the Hebrews were set free from slavery in Egypt. This is critical. As a sign that they were no longer slaves, and were entering into a new phase of their relationship with God, they were given the Law.
SERIOUS CONSIDERATION
Consider this: all what the Hebrews knew was slavery. They did not know what it was to be free. So they are given a Sabbath: a command to take a day each week to live differentlyto celebrate the fact that they were no longer slaves (therefore no work) and they were Gods People (therefore they were allowed to worship Him as His People).
IN CHRISTIANITY
In Christianity, we celebrate our new relationship and new life with God on Sunday. When Jesus was about to be given up to death, He made a new covenant in His own Blood. This new covenant fulfilled all of the old covenants and brought us into an entirely new relationship with God Luke 22:20. When Jesus rose from the dead, he not only conquered sin and death, but He also made it possible for us to truly become sons and daughters of God, Hebrews 8:6-13.
WHAT KIND OF WORK?
Bonfancio, we dont only keep the Sabbath on Sunday (the day the Lord set us free, a day of HIS resurrection), but we also keep the day holy through Worship and Rest. The Worship is the prayer Jesus commanded at the Last Supper – the Mass (Mat 26:17-29, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-38 and 1 Cor. 11:23-25), and the Rest is you and I living like free men and women. This means avoiding any unnecessary work.
The Christian Faith makes it clear that those who provide care to others (health care workers for example) have a duty, in Christian charity, to perform their work so that others may experience Gods love through them. Further, if the individual who supports the family has a job that forces them to work on Sunday, they ought to attempt to arrange their schedule in such a way that they dont have to work on Sunday. If they cant make those arrangements, they have a duty to support their family by going to work. Charity trumps the Sunday obligation to rest!
Working in the garden, cutting grass, doing laundry, building a shed, or tinkering with your car are not necessarily work. They might be opportunities for you to do what feeds your soul. These things might be opportunities to live as a free person and not as a slave to your real job, but go to Church and worship Him first.
Lastly, many students will ask me if keeping the Sabbath holy means that they cant do any school work on Sunday. Not necessarily. Fr. Isaiah (Parish Priest St. Cecilia Parish, Mpherembe) recommends that students give what they can. He asks that they do no schoolwork from Saturday evening until after Mass on Sunday (around noon). While not a perfect solution (as some may not agree with him), it is a start to training oneself to live as a free child of God and no longer as a slave to work.
CONCLUSION
Some people have jobs that require them to work on Sunday, arrange with your boss to have some hours that you can worship. There is a good reason that on the Sabbath God rested from all the work of creating that he had done Gen 2:3. He took a day off to replenish himself. This should be an example to us rest and worship HIM!
Receive my Priestly Blessings from St. Cecilia Catholic Parish (Mzuzu Diocese – Mpherembe)
Rev. Fr. Petros Mwale – Feedback: +265884150185 (WhatsApp only)
SOURCES
Henry M Gwatkin, the Sabbath, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005.
A.M. Renwick and A.M Harman, the Sunday Law, New York: Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 2000.
Catholic Doctrines 