Servile labor holy days question

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grace6877

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I’m overseas right now. Tomorrow is a holy day. My host family wants me to take the train after Mass to go to someone else’s house because it’s faster. Would this count as unnecessary servile labor? And if it is, what should I do in this situation? I don’t want to participate in unnecessary servile labor but also don’t know how I could get around it if they are commanding me to do it.
 
It is important to remember that many people do not follow holy days and freely choose to work on those days. When you are put in the position of having to make an issue out of strict adherence to this rule or complying with the best comfort of your hosts, it’s okay to comply.

Your willingness to reduce the necessity for others to work is valuable in itself. Asking this question and examining how your faith is affected by the solution you come to is a right and proper way to handle it.

Have you shared your concerns with your hosts? If so, your next step can be guided by them. If they show respect for your concerns, you can request to drive. If they are baffled and get irritated, you can relent.

Begin each decision with prayer, examining your motives. Are you doing your best to treat your hosts and their customs with the respect that you hope they will have for yours?
 
grace6877 said:
I’m overseas right now. Tomorrow is a holy day. My host family wants me to take the train after Mass to go to someone else’s house because it’s faster. Would this count as unnecessary servile labor? And if it is, what should I do in this situation? I don’t want to participate in unnecessary servile labor but also don’t know how I could get around it if they are commanding me to do it
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You have to get there one way or the other, ergo it is necessary servile labor, not unnecessary.
Things such as public transportation run seven days a week out of necessity. Ditto places such as restaurants (to take the work of cooking off homemakers, and for travelers), hotels, pharmacies, and so on. Besides, if you drove, you’d be performing a form of “labor” yourself.

We are not Orthodox Jews who eschew any form of labor on the Lord’s Day. Things that are made necessary by circumstances are in no way prohibited. Besides, that train would be making the same journey whether you were on it or not. Train conductors on passengers can’t stop for 24 hours to avoid working. Where would the passengers stay?
 
Generally, it means work for profit. Normal household chores are both necessary and the fruits of love, therefore, not prohibited. To ride a train to see those you love; a train which is already in service is prudence, not servile labor.
 
From Fr. John Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary, page 501.
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Random Term from the Dictionary:​

SERVILE WORK

Originally the work done by serfs from which they were freed on Sundays and holy days in order to worship God. Until recently, servile work, forbidden on Sundays, was work that was chiefly physical. At present servile work is heavy manual labor, or such work as in a given society people commonly associate with strenuous effort and do not engage in when they have the freedom to avoid it. Implicit in the Church’s prohibition of servile work on Sundays is fidelity to the divine commandment to keep holy the Sabbath. This means avoiding activities that would hinder renewal of soul and body, i.e., needless work or business, unnecessary shopping or housekeeping.
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Work done by serfs is not paid. It is slave work. It is highly unlikely any slaves are posting here

What you posted is the opinion of one priest, not any official teaching.
 
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Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Fr. John Trigilio and others on EWTN also teach the same. I did not make this up. Saint John Paul II specifically requested Fr. Hardon, S.J. to write the English language catechism. He knows whereof he speaks.

From the Catechism:
**[2042] The first precept (“You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor”) requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.82
***82 Cf. CIC, cann. 1246-1248; CCEO, cann. 881 § 1, § 2, § 4.
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po18guy said:
Saint John Paul II specifically requested Fr. Hardon, S.J. to write the English language catechism. He knows whereof he speaks.
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Just being utterly dense here, do you mean that Fr Hardon wrote at least some of the English version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Or are you referring to some other catechism?

(Fr Hardon wrote another one in the 1970s, the one with the yellowish cover, and it is one of my catechisms of preference.)
 
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