Has the Catholic Church invented the 30 hour day?

[FrDavid96]

Let me clarify. I was not implying that attending mass on Sunday was scientific. What I was stating, as a retired “Rocket Scientist”, that there are approximately 24 hours in a day. So, “tongue-in-cheek” I was asking how we can fulfill our “Sunday” obligation over a 24 hour period.

I struggle with what we call history. As time goes on the real reason why things are done both from a religious, as well as from a secular point of view, are many times lost. How many times do we hear “separation of Church and State”. Than someone argues that was NOT what our founding fathers meant!

I think all the points made are valid, but what I was pointing out was, when I was younger, Now almost 70, We only had Mass on Sunday. So 12:00 midnight to 11:59 P.M. was considered Sunday. Then the Bishops, belonging at that time, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, decided to make it easier to fulfill the Sunday obligation by copying our Jewish friends and stating that actually we can consider Sunday starting at sundown on Saturday. Not thinking, if that is the case, about sundown on Sunday ending the day.

The bishops certainly realized that the time for fulfilling the obligation would be more than 24 hours.

Our modern day clock (with a day beginning at Midnight) is very artificial. It’s not based on anything in nature. Midnight is not the middle of the night; the halfway point between sunset and sunrise, just as Noon is no longer the exact middle of the day. We have our reasons for using it, and it makes sense for us, but it isn’t based on any laws of nature.

The biblical method for determining when a day begins is that the day begins when the previous day ends—that is, at sunset. This was the system used in biblical times, and the cultures in that part of the world. It was the system used at the time of Christ. Beginning a day at Midnight (with 24 fixed-length hours, rather than variable-length hours) is a rather modern system.

Indeed, the biblical system has been the system used for most of Christian history (until modern times). Christians have always considered Sunday to begin at Sunset on Saturday evening, in keeping with the biblical system.

In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, all Masses had to be in the morning (I think the latest was the Noon hour, which extended to 1 PM). In the 1940s (for example) there were no Masses on Sunday afternoon (certain indults were given during WW II). The point here is that even under the 1917 code, there was not a 24 hour time period for fulfilling the Sunday obligation. It was only a 13 hour period.

The Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) have always kept the biblical understanding of the day beginning at sunset–they never lost this usage.

In the Western Church, only Solemnities (all Sundays are solemnities) begin at evening on the day-before. Non-solemnities begin at Midnight.

It was not the US bishops who did this–allowing Saturday evening Masses. It was first Pope Piux XII who gave permission under certain circumstances, one of those being that the diocesan bishop had to likewise give his permission. It changed for the whole Roman Rite in 1983 when the current Code of Canon Law made it applicable everywhere, removing any requirements for special permission, and removing any requirements that a person needed to have a good reason.

We cannot exactly go back to the biblical clock. It would be chaos for us to tell time based on the position of the sun, especially because we would all be on different times (imagine airplane schedules).

The Church is generous in allowing Catholics to fulfill the Sunday obligation according to either system. Anytime starting in the evening on Saturday is acceptable; and anytime ending at Midnight the end of Sunday is acceptable. If that makes for a 30+ hour time period, that’s fine. The Church does everything She can to make it easy rather than difficult to fulfill obligations.