Questions & Answers
What does the first precept of the Church command?
Natural law imposes on all men the obligation of worshiping God. And He Himself defined how men had to fulfill this obligation when He issued His divine positive precept in the Old Testament. The Third Commandment of the Law of God states:
“Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days shalt thou labor and shalt do all thy works. But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Ex. 20:8-11).
Following Christ’s Resurrection, this day became the Sunday, the “Lord’s Day”—“dies Domini.”
Consequently, in her first precept, the Church has determined how Christians should sanctify the Sunday and holydays of obligation by prescribing certain acts and forbidding others, as detailed in the 1917 Code of Canon Law:
“On feast days of precept, Mass is to be heard; there is an abstinence from servile work, legal acts, and likewise, unless there is a special indult or legitimate customs provide otherwise, from public trade, shopping, and other public buying and selling” (canon 1248).
While the Jewish Sabbath was marked mainly by rest, the Church, from the beginning, has given the Lord’s Day a more spiritual focus, giving primacy to the positive aspect, that is, the obligation of rendering to God the worship that is due to Him, and of taking care of those things that concern the interests of one’s soul. The Church’s law has made these duties concrete with the obligation to attend Mass, as a minimum.
Nonetheless, the duty of rest undoubtedly remains. It includes abstaining from servile work, judicial proceedings and public markets. Abstention from work and the rest that follows from it, besides having the natural purpose of replenishing our forces, has the clear religious finality of helping us turn our attention and activity towards God and away from the world.
In a previous issue of The Angelus (May-June 2022), we have considered how to fulfill the first part of the ecclesiastical precept, the positive obligation of attending Mass. Let us now proceed to the negative aspect, abstaining from work, a duty that in today’s world is often disregarded, even by Catholics.
What is the traditional discipline regarding work on Sundays?
The Catechism of the Council of Trent had explained that resting on the Sabbath means abstaining from servile work:
“All servile works are forbidden, not because they are improper in themselves, but because they withdraw the attention from the worship of God, which is the great end of the Commandment.”
But what is “servile work”? Although the term has been used by the Church for centuries, it has never been defined, and even the 1917 Code of Canon Law refrained from doing so. The description of what constitutes “servile” work is to be found in the decrees of particular councils, in the teaching of theologians, and in the local customs that the Church has accepted.
Most manuals of moral theology describe it as physical, manual labor, done for the needs and advantage of the body; the kind of work that was in the past performed by slaves or, in more recent times, by domestic servants and hired laborers. Such are agricultural labors (plowing, digging, etc.) and mechanical or industrial labors (printing, building, plastering, etc.).
It is distinguished from “liberal” works, which are the product chiefly of the mental faculties, immediately directed towards the development of the mind, and which in the past used to be performed by persons who were not slaves or servants. Works of this kind are intellectual works (teaching, reading, writing, studying, etc.), artistic works (playing music, singing, drawing, painting a picture, embroidering, etc.), and also works of recreation (moderate sports or diversions such as baseball, tennis, and chess).
In the traditional discipline, in order to discern whether an activity is either servile or liberal work, the determining factor is the nature of the work itself (finis operis), without taking into consideration any extrinsic circumstance, such as the purpose of the agent (finis operantis) or the physical effort attending the work, or its duration. Thus, if the work is “servile” it remains forbidden whatever its motive may be.
The obligation is grave, but the contravention of the precept may be considerably lessened if the work does not require excessive effort, does not last for more than two hours, and does not provoke scandal.
As Our Lord has also said that “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mac. 2:27), the Church, distancing herself from pharisaical excesses, admits different reasons that excuse from the abstention from work on Sunday:
It is clear that not every reason excuses from the Church precept. Thus, those who unnecessarily place themselves in the impossibility of observing the law commit a sin (for example, by taking a job that requires them to work the whole Sunday), or whose excuses are frivolous (as those who work on Sunday merely to keep busy).
To avoid self-deception the faithful should consult their pastor or confessor if there is doubt about the sufficiency of the excuse.
What does the present legislation say?
Throughout the 20th century, and especially after the two great wars, considering the changed social and economic circumstances of the world, there had been much discussion among theologians with regard to the definition of servile work.
A faint echo of those discussions is to be found in the present discipline of the Church, which is enshrined in the canon 1247 of the New Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983:
“On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass. Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body.”
The new Code, in comparison with the previous legislation, does not mention “servile” work, yet maintains the obligation of abstaining from work on Sundays while shifting the emphasis on how it is to be done by adding the reference to the “relaxation of mind and body.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2187) elaborates on the canonical requirement:
“Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day. Traditional activities (sport, restaurants, etc.), and social necessities (public services, etc.), require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. With temperance and charity the faithful will see to it that they avoid the excesses and violence sometimes associated with popular leisure activities. In spite of economic constraints, public authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship. Employers have a similar obligation toward their employees.”
Then, what should we do?
As we see, the new legislation does not contradict or reject what the Church has demanded before, but expresses it in more general terms. At the same time, it points out the spirit in which the law is to be observed, that is, the goal that the legislator—God and the Church—have intended to achieve by imposing a particular obligation. As St. Paul (II Cor 3:6) had already pointed out, we must avoid disregarding the spirit of the law while keeping to its letter.
Therefore, in general, we should submit to the traditional discipline, but without losing sight of the expanded criterion of discernment that the new law has pointed out.
The abstention from servile work aims at allowing us to break away from our daily toil, making us free to render God the worship due to Him. It also allows us to care for the welfare of our souls while giving ourselves time and opportunities for rest and honest enjoyment. From time to time, we need to take a break from the worries and fatigue inherent in the daily struggle for life. Without prudent and well-managed recreations, our physical and mental forces would soon be exhausted, incapacitating us for any kind of work.
Therefore, on Sunday, we must preferentially give time to God, to spiritual things, and to the elevation of our souls towards Him. Of course, attending Mass is the minimum that the Church requires, but that does not mean that we may forget about God for the rest of the day and focus exclusively on enjoying our leisure.
Though the Church does not impose an excessive, pharisaical observance of the Sunday rest, neither does she admit laxity in the observance of the Lord’s Day. As one author puts it, “Sunday need not be funereal, but it may not be Godless.”
We must neither indulge in things that are awkward or harmful for ourselves or others, nor completely lose our seriousness of soul, or do something in dishonest circumstances.
Thus, our Sunday must not be taken over by playing games or watching televised sports, by idle conversations or mindless hilarity, or by being glued to our computers, or ceaselessly checking our social media—actions that in themselves may not be necessarily objectionable but that effectively divert our minds and hearts away from God.
Could you give some examples of how that translates into practice?
Sometimes, people of goodwill find themselves troubled because they find joy and relaxation in activities like gardening on Sunday, which, strictly speaking, qualify as “servile” work and are prohibited.
But even the traditional legislation considered that such work would not be a serious violation of the Sunday rest if it did not demand strenuous physical effort, if it was done for a short, limited time, without causing scandal, and without interfering with our obligations towards God.
In light of the new Code, the same work, performed in such circumstances, would also be permissible if intended as relaxation and recreation, as a simple way to break away from the concerns that prey on our minds the rest of the week. If that is the case, such souls should not be unnecessarily disturbed.
On the other hand, the traditional legislation allowed “liberal,” intellectual work, such as that of a lawyer preparing a file, an architect drawing plans for a building, an accountant preparing tax returns, etc.
But in light of the recent legislation, these activities—while not being a sin, as they are authorized by the previous law—should nonetheless be discouraged, at least as imperfections, if they unnecessarily prolong into the Sunday the worldly concerns and tasks that absorb us every day of the week, as in that case the spirit of the law, the intention of the legislator, would not be adequately fulfilled.
In conclusion…
All these explanations aim at helping us to make a prudent judgment when it comes to decide whether in good conscience we may or may not engage in certain work or activity.
Nonetheless, we must not only avoid sin but also strive to a higher perfection in all our actions. Thus, we must not be too eager to take advantage of every loophole that we may find or every excuse that we may think of. The love of God, strengthening our common sense and guiding our prudential discernment, must prevail in everything and above all.
In this matter of abstaining from work, we must keep in mind the terrible warning of Our Lady at La Salette:
“If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it… ‘I have appointed six days for working. The seventh I have reserved for Myself. And no one will give it to Me’… This it is which causes the weight of my Son’s arm to be so crushing.”
Knowing our own weaknesses, let us therefore address St. Joseph, asking for his help and guidance in keeping the Lord’s Day holy:
“O most glorious Patriarch, St. Joseph, obtain, we beseech thee, from our Lord Jesus Christ abundant blessing upon all those who keep holy the Sundays and Holydays of Obligation of the Church, and grant that those who profane them may realize, while they still have still, the great evil which they commit and the punishment which they draw upon themselves both in this life and in the next, and grant that they may be speedily converted. O most faithful St. Joseph, thou who during thy life on earth didst so loyally observe the laws of God, grant that the day may soon come when all Christians will abstain from forbidden works on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation, attend seriously to the salvation of their souls, and give glory to God, who liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen” (St. Pius X, May 20, 1905).
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