THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH:  SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAYS

Bishop Paul S. Coakley

As a teenager growing up in a Catholic home there was never any doubt about where I belonged on Sunday morning.   If I ever dared complain about having to get up for Mass my parents’ response was predictable:  “As long as you live under this roof, you will go to Mass on Sunday morning.”  (Saturday evening was an acceptable substitute.) 

This was something we did.  Period.  If we traveled on the weekend, we would always have to make arrangements in advance to attend Mass somewhere.  Sometimes that presented a challenge!  We were an ordinary Catholic family.  Skipping Sunday Mass was simply not an option. 

Times have certainly changed.  In the last few decades the number of Catholics in the United States who regularly attend Sunday Mass has declined dramatically.  Fortunately, the wisdom of the Church on this matter has not changed and the precepts of the Church are as clear as ever.  

As mentioned in a previous article (May 25, 2007), the precepts of the Church are intended to guarantee the necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer, sacramental life and moral commitment to ensure our continued growth in the love of God and love of neighbor.  They remind us of what we need. 

WE NEED THE SUNDAY EUCHARIST.  It is the foundation of our lives as Catholics.  It is the source of the divine life of grace and the summit of all Christian worship.  The first precept of the Catholic Church therefore states: You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2042).  

Sunday is the Lord’s Day.  As the Day of the Resurrection it is different from the other days of the week and ought to be treated so.  This includes, of course, the serious obligation to participate in the Mass.  But it also means that we ought to refrain from unnecessary work and commercial concerns that distract us from the worship of the Lord and the joy that is proper to the Lord’s Day. 

SUNDAY IS A DAY of rest and is meant for the relaxation of mind and body.  It is meant for family and attending to those things which nourish our faith and express our love and concern for others.   The full and proper observance of the Lord’s Day is the necessary antidote to the dehumanizing effects of a materialistic society that ignores the rights of God and treats human beings as mere cogs in the economic machinery. 

Our participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Mass is testimony of our belonging to and being faithful to Christ and to his Church.   Because of the importance of the Sunday Eucharist in terms of our duty toward God, as well as love of neighbor and our own spiritual wellbeing, those who do not participate without serious reason, such as illness or the demands of charity, commit a grave sin.  The same is true for those holy days of obligation which celebrate the principal mysteries of our faith, or the lives of the saints.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “Sanctifying Sundays and holy days of obligation requires a common effort” (2187).  Christians ought to avoid as much as possible making unnecessary demands on others that keep them from observing the Lord’s Day. 

WHEN SCHEDULING sporting activities, doing chores and household tasks, or going shopping we ought to ask ourselves if these activities are in keeping with the spirit of the Lord’s Day as a day of prayer and leisure.  Can these activities be postponed?  Do they separate families or hinder others from fulfilling their religious obligations?  If so, then they should be avoided.  Some people’s work, admittedly, requires them to labor on Sundays.  Still, employers have an obligation to ensure their employees an opportunity to fulfill their religious duties.

            Our secular culture has lost its sense of the sacredness of Sunday.  It treats Sunday as any other business day.  One of the dogmas of the secular creed seems to be: Time is money.  The Catholic view is different.  Time is sacred.  God has hallowed time through his work of Creation and Redemption.  Keeping the Lord’s Day holy acknowledges this truth.  Sunday is the primary holy day of obligation.   It is up to us as Christians, and as Christian families and the Church to reclaim the special reverence due to the Lord’s Day.