Today many of us look toward a weekend as a time of respite from our employed work. A time to recharge for the start of the work week on Monday. We follow the Third Commandment of keeping the Sabbath holy by attending a vigil or Sunday Mass. For various reasons, however, after our Mass attendance, the rest of our Sundays look like most of our Saturdays: chores, errands, not enough downtime, not enough prayer. We know though in our hearts that attending Mass is not enough to mark the Sabbath!
Except for a smattering of restrictions around the country, gone are the days of Blue Laws that restricted Sunday activities, such as shopping, buying alcohol or playing Major League baseball, to ensure our then-Christian society kept holy the Sabbath. Tons of folks work on Sundays now, those who protect and heal us and those who entertain us with sports. Amid our post-Christian society that is plugged into information 24/7 keeping the Sabbath is a challenge.
Yet we have the thundering words of God: “Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God,” (Exodus 20:8-10).
Later in Exodus, God explains one purpose of the Sabbath is “to be the sign between you and me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the LORD, who make you holy” (Exodus 31:13).
Why are so many of us so bad at keeping the Sabbath? I propose that we have forgotten that we are holy. We have forgotten that it is God who made us holy.
In a recent article on Aleteia.org, writer Daniel Esparza shares that in the City of God, St. Augustine wrote, “The love of truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of love undertakes just work.” Esparza continues: “The Latin is even sharper: otium sanctum — holy leisure. Not mere idleness, not a collapse of exhaustion, but a quality of
rest that is oriented toward something, that has a shape and a purpose. Augustine’s point is that rest is not the absence of work. It is work’s destination.”
The purpose of Sabbath is ultimately to stand in rest and remember that we are holy and that God has made us holy. We reconnect with holiness. How this changes things! We do not have to worry about doing Sabbath rightly, about achieving the right end or correct result. We sit with holiness — the holiness of God and the holiness that God calls us to.
How different would we be, would our families be, would our churches be, if we rested in the truth of holiness weekly?
This can be done in small and age-appropriate ways.
Singles or newly married couples could visit each Sunday a 24/7 adoration chapel. Families with small children could have quiet reading time with Sunday-only children’s books that focus on faith and morality. Families with teens could have lengthened family prayer. Families with littles could have a Sunday-only prayer space of a special blanket, darkened room, and battery-operated candles. Empty nesters could pray for family from afar followed by Zoom calls — or pray on the Zoom.
Anyone can reserve Sunday for a movie on Formed.org or for praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Anyone can bring silence into the day — a disconnect from noise and electronics.
Keeping the Sabbath is good for our souls, good for our marriages, and good for our families. If you feel you need to improve keeping the Sabbath, start small and allow the practice to grow through inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Importantly, be not concerned with achieving a right result. Instead remember that we are holy and God made us holy. And, as St. Augustine wrote in Confessions, “our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (1,1.5).
