I believe that Father is making a point that is going right over many people’s heads or we’re too focused on one part of the holy day and missing the bigger picture. I’m Jewish. In Jewish tradition a holy day is a day of zero temporal activity. The more orthodox you are, the less you do. The Orthodox Jews don’t even turn on the lights. They do it the night before. They walk to Temple.
The Catholic concept of Holy Day comes from Judaism. A Holy Day of Obligation is a Holy Day that must be observed. It is not optional. This means that everything temporal stops. We’re not expected to be as strict as are Orthodox Jews who walk rather than drive on holy days. But we are expected to stop. It’s a day for prayer, rest and family.
The discussion here has reduced the holy day to attending mass. That’s wrong. That was never the Jewish tradition, nor was that how it was passed from Judaism into Christianity. A holy day of obligation is a day when we stop what we’re doing to worship God, re-create ourselves and be with family.
In today’s world, that is very difficult for most people to do during a work day, especially in today’s economy. The school system will count the day against your child, if you keep him home. You’re employer can refuse to give you the day off, even if you have vacation days. Vacation days must be taken when they are convenient to the company. If you use a sick day, the employer has the right to ask for a medical certificate.
Even though there are some people who can take the day off and who may be able to pull their children from school and the child will not be penalized for it, that’s not the case for most people. The Church cannot create two holy days to accommodate for those who can observe Holy Thursday and those who cannot do so. Her job is to save souls, not to make salvation an unreasonable hardship. Therefore, since the Church has the power to bind and unbind, she can move a holy day to a day of the week when the majority of the people can take the ENTIRE DAY for this purpose.
The comparison to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is an invalid one. The Church has never decreed them to be Holy Days of Obligation. Guess why not? Because it is a hardship to men and women who do not live in Catholic countries where those days are not observed. Once upon a time, they were holy days of obligation in Catholic Europe. Catholic Europe no longer exists and there has never been a Catholic USA.
In some places you have another challenge, that is the availability of priests to celebrate mass that day. I’m not sure where most people live, but where I live, we have a parish staffed by six religious, but only one is ordained. On Sundays, they have diocesan priests who graciously agree to celebrate mass and hear confessions. One of these men is a high school principal. He’s not available during the week. If there is a weekday mass, he celebrates it for his high school students. The other is a university professor. He’s not available during the week either. He can celebrate mass before or after class. He can only help, if the parish schedule coincides with his class schedule. The third man works at the tribunal. He may be available on a holy day, because the chancery and tribunal are closed.
There are logistic problems for the clergy as well as for the laity. You can forget the order ordaining more men. That’s not going to happen. They’re only supposed to ordain as many as they need to celebrate mass for their brothers, not to staff parishes.
We can be a little more patient and understanding here.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
