Pope Francis said:
The common definition of holiday, as Pope Francis indicates, is a day without work.
From the Oxford dictionary:
oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/holiday
Please don’t change the definitions of words in order to prove a point.
The Third Commandment says:
It makes no reference to family. As Catholics we keep the day holy by Mass attendance, prayer, penance, and other things.
From your quote, Christ wants us to gather in His name. Our Holy Father made no reference to His name. Merely gathering as family has nothing to do with the scripture you quoted.
Sorry, but I have a different take, despite what you or even Pope Francis may mean by it.
Holiday to me means Holy Day. My husband is a Catholic from India and we have done a lot of research there over the 45 years of our marriage. I can say the people there (if not in America) recognize that “days off from work” are almost always Holy Days – since they give such days off for Hindu, Muslim, and Christian Holy Days. What those days entail is being with family, going to church/temple/mosque, making sweets and sharing them with the neighbors, including those who are not of one’s faith, eating good and special food, and praying together. It is a still highly religious country, tho it is slowly slipping into Western secularism. It’s also interesting that many in India do not get Saturdays off since there are so many Holy Days for all those religions, including Good Friday (which is not even a “holiday” in the US), or they only get half days off on Saturdays (that’s how their school system works). That leaves only Sunday off unless there is one of the many Holy Days that week, which really focuses one’s attention on the religious aspect of Sunday. Even India’s Independence Day falls on August 15th and has always been considered by my husband’s people both a national holiday AND a Holy Day.
Of course in the US and probably much of the West, the idea of holiday has become in recent centuries secular, except for Christmas and Thanksgiving (and even those have become secularized), with all other “holidays” marking some secular national event – 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day. And Memorial Day could be sort of be considered somewhat religious in that it has to do with remembering the dead (but that’s really stretching it, I guess). No, you are right, in the West holiday has become secular, even Christmas and Thanksgiving.
It can also be pointed out that “holiday” is not the same thing as vacation – which is a time of recreation. But even recreation is religious in the sense of being “re-creation.”
It just depends on whether a person lives in a religious or secularized world or state of mind. I’ve luckily been living in a more religious than secular world, esp with my marriage to an Indian Catholic. Every day is God’s day, every minute God’s, every breath comes from God. Holy Days simply help to draw attention more strongly to that fact. And “church” at the basic level involves “family.” So Holy Days should be shared with one’s family and involve good and special food, as well.
I’m think we need to bring back the Holy in holiday in the West. Good idea. People then will truly be more happy, bec they won’t be focused on “what’s in it for me” for Xmas, etc, and getting disappointed bec material things are never enough to satisfy or bring happiness.
