What's the right thing to do here?

[Kathrin]

It is Saturday again. Last Satirday I asked the question about going to the store on Sunday.

Here’s another one. I wonder if I am doing the right thing. I was watching my uncle’s garden this week since he has been on vacation. I thought he would come back today - which he will, but in the evening. I forgot to check if the tomatoes have enough water yesterdy.

Now I have been debating whether I should go again today to make sure my uncle won’t have to water them tomorrow (Sunday).
It is quite a long extra trip though and my uncle said on the phone I didn’t have to worry, he’ll go tomorrow and check out everything (he will do that anyway).

So I KIND OF decided it’s ok to not go today, but I am not sure?
(I did say “ok” on the phone, so if I went now anyway he might be confused. But I kind of feel I was “too” relieved to be able to just say ok, like now I have a good excuse to not go.)

Just generally speaking, the question might be this: If doing something on saturday would involve a long extra trip, and you’re (or somebody else is) going there on Sunday ANYWAY, is it ok to leave that for Sunday?

Kathrin

 

[Pete_1]

I hope this helps:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=175078

  			 					[**Michelle Arnold**](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/member.php?u=9) 					http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/statusicon_cad/user_offline.gif   					 vbmenu_register("postmenu_2561019", true);  					 				
  		 				Catholic Answers Apologist
  		 				 			 			  			 				 				 					Join Date: May 3, 2004
  			Location: San Diego, CA
  			 					 						Posts: 2,220 					
  			 					 					    
  		
  		 			 		 		 		 	   	 	 	 		 			 			 				http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon1.gif 				**Re: Do Catholics observe the Sabbath?** 			
  	 			 		 		 		 		Catholics do not observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week (Saturday) and is observed by Jews and by some Christian groups who have rejected the Catholic understanding that Christians no longer observe the Sabbath (e.g., Seventh-Day Adventists).

From the earliest times, Catholics have observed Sunday as the Lord’s Day, which is “expressly distinguished” from the Jewish Sabbath (CCC 2175). Sabbath was the memorial of creation and God’s rest on the seventh day; Sunday commemorates the new creation instituted by Christ’s Resurrection on the first day of the week. While early Christians celebrated both Sabbath and Sunday – mainly because the early Church included a significant number of Jews who had converted to Christianity – as the Church became predominantly Gentile, the observance of the Sabbath by Christians eventually ceased.

While the Sabbath included a number of laws restricting what one could do on that day – the reason for which was to promote active rest, not legalism – the Church’s regulations for Sunday were mainly concerned with insisting that Catholics go to Mass and have the time free from work to do so (which is why legislation arose in Christian countries closing businesses on Sunday). The Church generally has not concerned itself with making other restrictions on what people may do on Sunday. While avoiding servile work is encouraged by the Church, and while the Church promotes Sunday rest, it is left to individual Catholics to determine what genuinely constitutes meeting the obligation to “refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body” (CCC 2185).

 

[1ke]

Kathrin,

Scrupulocity is difficult, I am sure. You need to talk to your spiritual director about these constand thoughts of committing sins at every turn.

It is not wrong to do gardening on Sunday.

 

[baltobetsy]

Kathrin, wasn’t the apologist’s answer about the Lord’s Day versus the Sabbath enlightening? You see, we are no longer Jews or subject to the Jewish laws concerning sabbath rest.

Even Jesus taught about it when He healed a man on the Sabbath. He asked the Jews if they would pull their animal out of a well if it fell in on the sabbath. Of course they would. And there is no wrong in it. Jesus healed on the sabbath, and it wasn’t OK just because it was Jesus and He exempted Himself from the rules - it’s because it was the right thing to do.

Our Faith does not require us to surrender our common sense. Let’s think through a concrete example together. Let’s take the action of plowing up a patch of land for a garden and putting plants in. This would take several hours. Would it be wrong to do this on Sunday? Let’s examine three different situations.

1. A landscaper who does this same work all week long has an opportunity to do this job on Sunday, but it does not need to be done on Sunday. He should not do it, but rather go to Mass and take a needed rest from his work.
2. A farmer who has been prevented by weather from doing this job wakes up to a perfect day on Sunday for this work, and a bad weather report for the rest of the week. He should make sure he gets to Mass and go ahead and do the work. His livelihood depends on it. Common sense at work.
3. An office worker who sits behind a desk all day gardens as a relaxing hobby with his family. After Mass on Sunday, they all head out to plant the garden. Perfectly fine - the rest and recreation proper to Sunday.

In your case, watering a few tomato plants is not enough work to even give it a second thought. It requires little time and little effort and may be considered relaxing and pleasurable. There is no harm at all in letting your uncle water his own tomatoes on Sunday.

Betsy

 

[Kathrin]

This was indeed enlightening.

And I am glad I decided this way and didn’t cause more complications by going back there today anyway.

Yeah, I guess i have been looking at the Sunday almost as Sabbath like the Jews do… I have come upon another thread about this topic, started by somebody else, and there somebody said that one could get really scrupulous about this (if taken too far) and then Sunday ends up being a burden on the rest of the week. This of course is NOT the purpose of the Sunday rest. I do get that!

Thank you everybody!

Kathrin