25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Am 8:4-7
Second Reading: 1 Tim 2:1-7
Gospel Reading: Lk 16:1-13
Today, in our society, the Third Commandment is perhaps the most neglected: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath” – a rest day – “to the Lord your God.”
In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. He also commissioned humans to rule it all “in justice and holiness,” while serving him alone and referring everything to him as creator, Pope St. John Paul II said in his Dies Domini (“The Day of the Lord”),
God “looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. Then he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”
Unlike us, God is not subject to time: he is unchangeable. Anything he does or is, he does or is without beginning or end. In particular, “the creative act” by which he “founds the world” is “unceasing.”
What, then, is the meaning of those days of work and rest?
Genesis portrays what God did “as an example” for us, the Pope explained. It shows that we, who are subject to time and change, can offer everything to God, who is timeless and permanent, through a rhythm of work and rest, for rhythm reconciles change and permanence.
God is the God of all days, not just one day. However, the only way we can acknowledge him as such is to allocate time for work and time for rest.
The rhythmic sabbath interruption of work calls us “to rest in the Lord, bringing the whole of creation to him in praise and thanksgiving.” It is not just a religious discipline; it defines and expresses our relationship with God.
In a special way, then, Sunday, the Christian sabbath, is the Lord’s day, when we cease working to recall our creation, our covenant with God, and our re-creation through Christ.
It is God’s gift to us, which the Church “safeguards” by obliging us to participate in the Mass, if possible. The obligation is grave, even during holidays.
However, obeying the Third Commandment means living the whole of Sunday – family life, social life, relaxation – so that “the peace and joy of the risen Lord emerge.”
For example, families can eat together, pray together, listen to one another, and share their faith. It can be difficult to keep Sunday holy in our non-Christian society, but we should try to please God, not settle for minimalism and mediocrity.
Even for non-Christians, rest is sacred. We withdraw from earthly tasks, burdened perhaps by exploitation, poor conditions, or long hours. We put worldly concerns into perspective, see the true faces of people around us, and rediscover nature’s beauties.
However, to celebrate Sunday fully, we must rediscover “Christian joy”: the joy of the disciples at the resurrection, the joy to which Christ will welcome us at our death.
In a sense, this joy is a virtue – a good habit – and so we must nurture it, at least as carefully as the manager in the Gospel Reading conducted his dishonest dealings. Think of how hard we work to make Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and anniversaries joyful.
As far as possible, we should organize Sunday to exclude the work we do for a living and activities that are incompatible with the day’s holiness. However, we must not let it become empty or boring. It must offer freedom, spiritual enrichment, and opportunities for fraternal union and service.
“If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honourable,” God said; “if you honour it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice – then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.”
In honouring God, we discover ourselves. The Lord’s day is also our day.
Father Hawkswell will start teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English, with new insights, in September. The whole course will be available in written form and, one session per week, in YouTube form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Father will also be teaching the course in person: on Sundays at 2 p.m. in the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 4885 St John Paul II Way, Vancouver (on 33rd Avenue between Cambie and Oak Streets) starting Sept. 11; and on Mondays at 10 a.m. in St. Anthony’s Church hall, 2347 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver, starting Sept. 12.
