The Third Commandment is understood to include not only the worship owed to God, but also a rest from our normal routine and work. 

 

It is easy to focus on that first part while forgetting the second. But it reminds us that Sunday is to be a different day than other days of the week. It is meant to be a day set apart, and this is to be reflected with how we spend the whole of the day insofar as possible. 

 

Beyond attending Mass, we should ensure that we’re attending to our spiritual and physical needs, including our need for leisure and rest. We may not think of pursuing leisure as fulfilling God’s command, especially as Americans where it is something that we may feel we need to earn, or something reserved for when all our work is done. 

 

But the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that leisure is a good and necessary thing to live a balanced, healthy and holy life (see CCC 2184, 2185). While there may be times and circumstances where there is legitimate or even urgent need to work on Sundays, the catechism also cautions us to be on guard lest these situations become habitual or the norm. 

 

Reserving Sunday as a day of rest and leisure has grown increasingly difficult given our modern context. Activities that even a few years ago would never be scheduled on a Sunday are done routinely today, further crowding already overburdened schedules. Stores being open seven days a week — even 24 hours a day, seven days a week — have become not only common, but somewhat expected. Other businesses frequently offer at least some service on Sundays. 

 

Naturally, there are still a few hold outs — including some famous holdouts like “Chick-fil-A” and “Hobby Lobby” — both of which are Christian-run businesses trying to honor the commandment by refusing to open on Sunday. This is done not only because of the owner’s faith, but as a simple justice to their employees — wanting them, especially those who are Christians, to be able to follow the commandment without their jobs becoming an obstacle to living out their faith as fully as possible. 

 

Implicit in this is also the simple recognition that human beings are made for things beyond what work can offer or provide. 

 

Nevertheless, by and large, Sunday has become just another day of the week. Given this reality, Christians are confronted with several dilemmas. 

 

First, defining what constitutes “work” is sometimes difficult. 

 

Second, Sundays are sometimes the only day of the week that we can do certain necessary chores. 

 

Third, many people have jobs which require work on Sunday. 

 

How are we to deal with these realities and still be faithful to living the Third Commandment well? We’ll look at the first dilemma here and the others in a future column.

 

In this context, it is perhaps best to try to understand “work” in contrast to “recreation.” When we think of “work” we might think in terms of a job, but we might also be tempted to think generally of physical activity. 

 

The commandment wants to protect us from our normal “work” routine or the kind of tasks which simply spend our time and energy without offering any true refreshment in the process, and furthermore, don’t need to be done on the Lord’s day. 

 

Physical activity, even strenuous physical activity, is not what the commandment is forbidding, however. 

 

For some, Sunday may be a day to engage in strenuous activities (like exercise or yard work) as forms of recreation. As such, they can offer a person the opportunity to recharge and feel refreshed, which really gets to the heart of the word itself: “re-creation.” The legitimate need for human beings to be active is part of what the commandment seeks to protect. As such, it reminds busy people like us of something all too easily forgotten.