Permitted business and commerce on Sundays?

[27lw]

27lw:

about how strange it was for Maria von Trapp to see suburban American women gardening in their dungarees on a Sunday

I haven’t read the book, maybe you can explain what is strange about gardening?

I view gardening as a hobby, not as work. I love to plant things and see them grow. I love to design garden beds, it is a creative outlet, not work.

And as far as “dungarees” what else would one wear to dig in the dirt?

Well, it’s not me so much as it was Maria Von Trapp. I think she considered it menial dirty work and not suitable for a Sunday. She also writes about the boys (her step-sons) having to learn how the Lord wants us to make time for a peaceful holy Sunday, not full of errands and things that you can do any other day.
Just as much a cultural thing as a religious thing.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

HomeschoolDad:

If there appears to be an “obsession”, as you put it, with Sunday work, it is probably because the people on this forum are, in the main, serious Catholics who actually care about whether they offend Almighty God by sin — not to suggest you aren’t, quite, quite, the contrary.

It has always been a traditional Catholic teaching that “you don’t work or shop on Sundays”.

I was raised by a traditional Catholic from a traditional Catholic family who went to confession regularly, didn’t eat meat on Friday etc and I never heard a thing about “you don’t work or shop on Sundays”.

I don’t doubt for an instant that your narrative is accurate, and that this was the state of affairs in the part of the US where you grew up (which, I am going to assume, was heavily Catholic). I am assuming you and I are around the same age (I will turn 60 years old next week). My difference is that I did not go through 12 years of Catholic school (only the last three), and I grew up in “the Bible Belt” where evangelicals pretty much ran the entire society. If Catholics did not shop, it may have been as much because few stores were open, as any willful abstinence from shopping on their part. It was just atmospheric that “you don’t work on Sunday if you don’t have to”. I really do not remember whether it was ever covered in religion class (grades 10-12) or not — it may have been “just understood”. I do distinctly remember that the catechist who received me into the Church did tell me of the “no unnecessary servile work” teaching, and it may be a false memory, but he mentioned something about “don’t cut the grass and don’t overhaul a car engine”. That’s been 45 years ago.

All of this being the case, to address the issue of “traditional Catholic teaching”, I do have this from the Baltimore Catechism #2 (the Kelley version, illustrated and annotated) as well as from Jone’s Moral Theology:

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The only way I see around any of this — at least the Baltimore Catechism part — is to say “well, times have changed, @HomeschoolDad’s OP reflects our present social and economic reality, and the Church is OK with us following the lead of the larger society”.

And that ennui… gotta avoid that ennui…

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Tis_Bearself is completely correct as to the “obsession” here with the Sunday work question. To have spent any time here at all will have exposed you to question such as: If gardening is my hobby, can I work in the garden on Sundays? Can I wash the car? Can I take my family out for a drive on Sunday- after all, if I need gas, I’m making someone at the gas station work? …

All of these have I seen here. And for you to imply that NOT asking such questions marks one as a not-serious Catholic who does not care about offending God is offensive, Pharisaical, and condescending.

Please. I implied no such thing. If I say “people ask questions XYZ because they are serious Catholics”. this does not suggest that “therefore, people who do not ask Questions XYZ are not serious Catholics”. It just states the fact that they ask Questions XYZ because they are serious Catholics. Period. If I say “people go to daily Mass because they are serious Catholics”, I haven’t said an earthly thing about people who don’t go to daily Mass. Now, if I said “if they were serious Catholics, they’d do that”, then your statement would be correct. But I didn’t say that.

CAF is hardly a cross-section of the Catholic laity at large. We get all kinds of questions here about topics as diverse as “am I obliged to go to Sunday Mass if State of Affairs XYZ exists?”, “did I commit a mortal sin?”, “are married couples allowed to do XYZ?”. And so on. These people are not “obsessed” with anything. They just have questions. I have to assume they’re serious Catholics, to be asking the question in the first place. There’s no more to it than that.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I note the part about “necessity excuses one from Sunday rest”. I’m pretty sure everything I mentioned regarding job work, factory work, yard work etc would have fallen under “necessity”. Like I said, it’s not like people wanted to go do those things. I remember the parents of one of my friends would just not answer the phone on certain days because that way they avoided the dad being called into work.

Shopping outings to browse in the mall, usually after a restaurant lunch with family, would have fallen under leisure or “family time”, especially since we didn’t have much money to buy anything. I was lucky to get 50 cents to a dollar to spend on some treat like popcorn or a slushee.

And yes, I lived in a heavily Catholic area for the first two decades of my life. The only other denominations around were a few mainline Protestants, mostly Lutherans. I didn’t meet a Jewish person till I was 17, and the only Baptists I knew were my grandma and her family who lived several states away and we visited once a year.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I must correct myself on one point, and for some reason I can’t edit my past comments. I re-read Jone, and he didn’t mention ice cream parlors. False memory. I’ve been reading about this stuff for 45 years, and I’ve read a lot. I know I read it somewhere. I thought it was Jone. Evidently it was somewhere else.

 

[CelticWarlord]

not answer the phone on certain days because that way they avoided the dad being called into work.

Wow, can I ever relate to that. Prior to having call display and voice mail there were times when I absolutely dreaded picking up the phone for fear it was someone from work. Even in the last few years I could barely stand stepping into my office on an actual work day and checking voice and emails, the environment had become so stressful and toxic.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I had the exact same problem with one of my jobs, prior to the advent of Blackberries. I really didn’t want to have to see what the day’s e-mail might bring.

Now of course I am bombarded with messages through multiple e-mail accounts, two mobile devices, and a laptop running Outlook, Gmail, Skype and Teams, but at least my job is no longer toxic so it’s not so bad.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I had the exact same problem with one of my jobs, prior to the advent of Blackberries. I really didn’t want to have to see what the day’s e-mail might bring.

Now of course I am bombarded with messages through multiple e-mail accounts, two mobile devices, and a laptop running Outlook, Gmail, Skype and Teams, but at least my job is no longer toxic so it’s not so bad.

When I started having to bring my company-provided laptop (IBM ThinkPad, awesome computer!) home with me, that was the beginning of the end. For the last three months of my tenure at the firm from which I retired, the only light-hearted moment was a raucous Christmas celebration I had with my son and parents. It was time to move on.