A restful, prayerful Sunday needed now more than ever
Anyone who has spent time with a toddler likely knows one great mystery of young minds: fierce opposition to naps. This is a mystery to me because, as an adult in a busy world, I often find myself wishing that mandatory naps were a part of my everyday life. Yet, to those much younger than I, rest is something to be resisted with every ounce of strength. This is true even if it is loving, caring adults who know that rest refreshes and recreates and that lack of rest is a recipe for a difficult day.
Before I criticize my youngest sisters and brothers too much, though, I have to ask if we adults do the same thing.
I know that Sunday is a day we are commanded to “keep holy” and that it is a day to be set aside for rest, just as God Himself rested on the seventh day. I know that Sunday should be devoted first and foremost to the worship of God and, then, for that sacred rest that allows us to re-create ourselves and spend time caring for and being cared for by our loved ones. I know that there is a loving God who planned this order of things, knowing that rest refreshes and renews.
Yet, it is so easy to resist this plan. It seems Sundays have become just as hectic as the other six days of the week. Stores bustle with shoppers. Work emails are sent and received. Online orders are filled, and ubiquitous delivery trucks prowl the neighborhoods. The early morning cacophony of lawnmowers and string trimmers breaks the peace of quiet streets, while Sunday traffic jams rival those of weekdays. Youth sports – even in Catholic leagues and Catholic schools – maintain grueling Sunday schedules. Many employers, customers, and clients now expect 24-7 availability, not merely 24-6 access. The urge to keep up with others and not fall behind makes it even more difficult to see Sunday as a special day, distinct and different from the others.
It is easy to look back with nostalgia at a time when so-called “blue laws” slowed the treadmill of life a bit and may have made it easier to keep Sundays as a day of worship and rest. Nevertheless, even though it seems harder now, the importance of a restful, prayerful Sunday may be more urgent than ever before.
As autumn beckons, many of us will be resetting our routines to embrace the busier life that starts anew when the activities of our communities, parishes, and schools resume after the summer hiatus. This may be exactly the right moment to consider how our Sundays will look in our new routines. It may be the time to look at the commitments we make for our Sundays and ask whether they bring us closer to God, give us time with loved ones, and allow us to rest for the week ahead. For some whose work is essential for protecting the health and safety of others, Sunday labor is indeed a gift to their sisters and brothers – and a gift for which I am deeply grateful.
Our attitudes toward Sundays are especially worth reflecting upon as our nation celebrates Labor Day. As we honor all who labor, this holiday is a time for gratitude for all those who worked and work tirelessly to improve the conditions of the workplace. Unsafe working conditions, long hours, dangerous child labor, and exploitative wages were some of the harms that our predecessors fought hard to change.
In a particular way, labor leaders influenced by Catholic social teaching fought strenuously for the right of workers to have their Sundays as a day of worship and rest. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII spoke of this in Rerum Novarum. In addressing the obligation to protect workers on their days of rest and worship, he wrote that a worker “has interests in which he should be protected by the State; and first of all, there are the interests of his soul. … From this follows the obligation of the cessation from work and labor on Sundays and certain holy days… [I]t should be rest from labor, hallowed by religion. Rest (combined with religious observances) disposes man to forget for a while the business of his everyday life, to turn his thoughts to things heavenly, and to the worship which he so strictly owes to the eternal Godhead….” It is sadly ironic that this right to Sabbath rest, so valiantly fought for, can be so quickly and voluntarily surrendered.
As a new season comes and we celebrate the dignity of workers, there is a chance to think of Sundays anew, to recommit to their sacred purpose, and celebrate the holy rest of ordinary time.
Lucia A. Silecchia is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. “On Ordinary Times” is a biweekly column reflecting on the ways to find the sacred in the simple. Email her at silecchia@cua.edu.
