I want to discuss the precept, "rest from servile labor" and what that means

[Bookcat]

Not long after my wife converted to our Catholic faith, I was “resting and avoiding unnecessary servile work”… in my recliner, in front of a Sunday football game. My lovely wife walked in and told me that since she was now a Catholic…she had Visions. Today’s was the Angel Gabriel and our Blessed Mother. They informed her that household chores were not “servile labor” and it was God’s will that I get my butt out of the chair and mow the lawn.
How can you argue with a convert…??? They have visions.

In authentic visions are to be rejected not acted upon…

(seriously mowing the lawn is not something one ought to be made to do - unless there is a real necessity)

(not comment on the football…something I do not get involved with so I will not comment)

 

[Zoltan_Cobalt]

In authentic visions are to be rejected not acted upon…

While we are awaiting validation of the Visions by our local Bishop…I think it is wise to error on the side of God’s will until the investigation process proves otherwise. Don’t you agree?

(seriously mowing the lawn is not something one ought to be made to do - unless there is a real necessity)

Yeah, I tried that one too…I claimed it was a form of slavery. My wife said that Mary told her it was not. The blessed Mother also told her that St. Joseph didn’t work on the Sabbath but he did all the household chores without her asking him.

I mean…how do you argue with that?

(not comment on the football…something I do not get involved with so I will not comment)

Sunday football is probably the best form of avoiding servile (or ANY) work an American husband can turn to.

Unless you have a convert wife who has visions.

 

[Bookcat]

While we are awaiting validation of the Visions by our local Bishop…I think it is wise to error on the side of God’s will until the investigation process proves otherwise. Don’t you agree?

Nope.

The will of God is manifest in the precept of the Church…

(and such would be a common application of such…)

 

[TimothyH]

With the possible exception of emergency personnel and hospital workers, everyone would just stay home.

If we are going to fulfill the letter of the law then we have to close pharmacies, hospitals, police stations and shut down 911 call centers. No emergency room. No fire station. No national defense. And no priests. Priests should not be made to work on Sunday.

Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? (Matthew 12:5)

Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Fulfilling the letter of the law is clearly not what Jesus had in mind.

We know that Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays, and the company is doing quite well, but would the employees be better off if they could pick up a few more hours each week by working on Sundays?

Don’t get me started with the hypocrites who run that company.

They believe it is a sin to work on Sunday but are happy to use the Lord’s Day as an occasion to have the grease traps cleaned, building painted and parking lot sealed by others. I don’t know how they can tell their employees that it is against God’s will to work on Sunday and then hire work crews to maintain their infrastructure on Sunday at the same time.

It might have something to do with the fact that most of their employees are perfectly white Barbie and Ken clones and most of the work crews are black or Mexican.

-Tim-

 

[Bookcat]

CA Apologist answer lifted from another thread:

Dear friend,

This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about Sunday observance:

2190 The sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ.

2191 The Church celebrates the day of Christ’s Resurrection on the “eighth day,” Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord’s Day (cf. SC 106).

2192 “Sunday . . . is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church” (CIC, can. 1246 § 1). “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass” (CIC, can. 1247).

2193 “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound . . . to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body” (CIC, can. 1247).

2194 The institution of Sunday helps all “to be allowed sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives” (GS 67 § 3).

2195 Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day

I would think that perhaps you could do the mowing on weekday evenings…Certainly, there are things we must do sometimes that do require manual labor on Sundays. What the Church is most strict about, of course, is participation in Sunday Mass.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.

 

[exnihilo]

If we are going to fulfill the letter of the law then we have to close pharmacies, hospitals, police stations and shut down 911 call centers. No emergency room. No fire station. No national defense. And no priests. Priests should not be made to work on Sunday

I don’t think people who advocate a more restful Sabbath think hospitals and pharmacies should be shut down. In the old days in a small town of three pharmacies each might take turns being open on Sunday while the others were closed. Such an arrangement is not going to happen in modern corporate America, but it is not utterly impossible.

They believe it is a sin to work on Sunday but are happy to use the Lord’s Day as an occasion to have the grease traps cleaned, building painted and parking lot sealed by others. I don’t know how they can tell their employees that it is against God’s will to work on Sunday and then hire work crews to maintain their infrastructure on Sunday at the same time.

It might have something to do with the fact that most of their employees are perfectly white Barbie and Ken clones and most of the work crews are black or Mexican.

That certainly might be an inconsistency, but isn’t what they do better than what everyone else does? If more companies were like them I think the world would be better. And while they may be employing people on Sunday they aren’t making money.

As to the comment about motives that seems unwarranted and calumnious.

 

[Zoltan_Cobalt]

Nope.

The will of God is manifest in the precept of the Church…

(and such would be a common application of such…)

OK…that is cool. So It is not God’s will that I mow the lawn during Sunday football. Is there any other servile work I can get out of on Sundays? I need to know because my wife (the visionary) has developed quite a cult. All the ladies of the Mother’s Club at our parish are on her side. Their husbands are now mowing lawns or cleaning rain gutters on Sundays and they are blaming me for encouraging my wife to become Catholic and have visions.

Help me out here, Bookcat…I know you have a degree in Theology…how can we (Catholic husbands) get out of servile work during Sunday football, or whatever?

Do I resort to the good old…“wives be subject to your husbands…” line ???

 

[Bookcat]

OK…that is cool. So It is not God’s will that I mow the lawn during Sunday football. Is there any other servile work I can get out of on Sundays? I need to know because my wife (the visionary) has developed quite a cult. All the ladies of the Mother’s Club at our parish are on her side. Their husbands are now mowing lawns or cleaning rain gutters on Sundays and they are blaming me for encouraging my wife to become Catholic and have visions.

Help me out here, Bookcat…I know you have a degree in Theology…how can we (Catholic husbands) get out of servile work during Sunday football, or whatever?

Do I resort to the good old…“wives be subject to your husbands…” line ???

Simple- a gentle “not today dear” “Tis the Lords Day”. …

“I am not bound to follow such an alleged Private Revelation” “Especially since it contradicts the precept of the Church”.

(I again do not sign off on the football though…)

…

And

“I am reporting your cult to the ATF as a dangerous cult -as likely amassing a large stash of illegal weapons with plans to enforce their views on the neighborhood…”

 

[John_Martin]

I agree it is wise to listen to a convert who has visions…

And seriously, it is the day of Rest.
What is “Rest”? It is the condition of the Will, of the Person, when satisfied, when the activities carried out by the movement of the will to obtain satisfaction of union with what is desired are complete.

God “rested” on the seventh day in that he was satisfied and smiling at the success of his will to create all in the way he had desired.

On Sunday our “rest” is an assertion that we are satisfied with our life being fulfilled in Christ. [if I need to see the Vikings beat the Packers before my life is satisfied, then I am not asserting to anyone that I am satisfied, especially not confirming it to myself].

I think that many Catholics view this idea of resting on Sunday as another task to perform toward holiness, in other words “resting” is a form of unrest, a form of acquiring life in the un-resting task of being Catholic. And I do not really know how to point out that it is a time of feeling the fullness of the banquet you just finished with the Mass, the completion of your participation in the Covenant.

 

[DaisymaeD]

I know a lot of the replies to this thread have been humorous, and fun(ny) to read, but I’d like to add something.

I’m a nurse, and I have to work every other weekend. However, I’m also the type of person who gets very anxious and driven about the housework–then wind up exhausted–so in the past few years I’ve been really trying to reclaim the Lords Day.

This reasoning is more “selfish”, than theological, but I find I’m more efficient when I allow myself to slow down on Sundays and put aside work that can really wait until Monday. I feel more refreshed on Monday, better able to face all the challenges when I take a little down time once a week.

Maybe, just maybe, The Lord was on to something when He gave us a day off every week!

 

[TravisandJill]

So what about Holy Days? It’s sinful to work today?

 

[IwishIknew]

I could apply vacation days to the Holy Days of Obligation, but I don’t prefer to. However if this is grave matter and/or possibly a mortal sin or even if it is a pre-meditated venial sin not to take the days off (considering that I can take them off) then I just might apply my vacation time toward this. Any further thoughts, insights?

 

[utah_rose]

I nderstand this and notmally do things on other days or Saturday. However, my husband has been ill. And today the electricity was off for 3 hours, so I got behind. I just mopped the floor and will vacuum. Usually I’d put off the lawn till Monday (we have a very small lawn) but we’re getting a heat wave all of next week.

We usually attend an afternoon Latin Mass. My husband can’t do this anymore and it would only take 30 minutes for me to do in the morning. I might add that this is not a hard activity for me but more of a relaxing one.

Id also like to add I’m in my 70s with arthritis problems in my back and only so much I can accomplish in one day.

Would this really be considered a sin for me to do this just once?

 

[psalm90]

Our minds seem to run in certain grooves and it’s hard to get people to think outside the groove they are stuck in.

Let’s agree that Sunday is the new Sabbath, that’s an argument for another thread.

What does “rest” mean, in the most spiritual sense? It’s a foretaste of the eternal rest in heaven, where by Christ we have overcome the curse of sin, and the requirement for daily labor.

Look what we’ve done with it.

The Jewish sabbath was a FAMILY tradition, in the home. You didn’t go to the Temple (too far away) and maybe not even to the synagogue until they were invented.

It was a time of celebration, to put aside all the cares of the work week, to praise God and worship Him very intimately. But, it has become alienated from the home, we have to go to a special place to observe it,

At another level, we should want to go to Mass to worship God for all that he has done for us, it should be a highlight of our week. And, for his part, God wants TO GIVE HIMSELF to us in the Eucharist, a foretaste of the eternal divinization, where our mortal life is merged into the divine life.

In a family, the parents are the leaders and should be ensuring that the kids are fully attending to this day of worship, relieved of the distractions of any sort that take our attention away from God and the freedom that he has given us.

Our Sunday sabbath should be a lot more than putting in our hour in Church (if we even do this) and then celebrating the life of the family. Put the football game on the DVR and don’t be so obsessive about watching it.