We have had two straight home games. Which means most of us have woken up with the Sunday scaries two weeks in a row. But fear, dread, anxiety and hard, tedious work were never meant for Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Sunday is rather a day for joy, merriment, worship and rest. Sunday scaries need to become for us Sunday merries.
While it is true that “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27), the obligation to rest on Sunday is not a dead letter of Judaism. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” states, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are 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).
The concept of an obligation to rest and be merry is a funny one. We normally think of obligations as external impositions that restrict our freedom, but God’s laws are rather expressions of invisible patterns by which we realize our freedom. Hence, the revelation of God’s law should be a source of joy: “Lord … lead me in the path of your commandments, for that is my delight,” (Psalm 119:35). It is good for us to set aside a day for prayer and rest. It is not good for us to work hard all week, play hard Friday and Saturday and start working hard again on Sunday.
The pattern of worship, rest and merriment on Sunday has been woven into our hearts through Creation and the Resurrection. The moral pattern is within us whether we like it or not (And we should like it!). We can either heed it and flourish, or deny it and wilt; but we cannot pretend it does not exist, live however we like and be unaffected. The days of the week might seem arbitrary, but they are not. There is a built-in sacredness to Sunday, which we either respect or fail to respect. The day itself comes as a great gift; all we have to do is receive it graciously, and yet we are often so obstinate and anxious that we turn away with tunnel vision on ourselves, our work, our plans, our success. Each Sunday, God offers us the great gift of Sunday merries, but we turn Him down and prefer our Sunday scaries.
Last Sunday’s Gospel featured the saying, “You cannot serve God and mammon,” (Luke 16:13). Notre Dame is a place of both-and: both academics and football, both work and play, both reason and faith, both mind and heart, both success and service. Fr. Dowd said in his inauguration address, “In a polarized world drawn to the confines of Either-Or thinking, our Catholic mission calls us to embrace Both-And.” On Sunday, for many of us, this both-and becomes both going to Mass and spending the rest of the day swamped in work. That is not how we should be spending our Sundays. Sometimes, our Catholic mission demands from us a choice. For “no servant can serve two masters,” (Luke 16:13). When we squeeze in Mass amidst the Sunday scaries of piles of work, whom or what are we serving — God? Or mammon (success)?
I am not saying we cannot be both Catholic and successful (Otherwise, why are we at Notre Dame?), but one part of our identity must come first. How we spend our Sunday is a test of our priorities. When Sunday is not only not a day set aside for rest, but a day positively set aside for work, I think we are failing that test. When the library is never more crowded than on a Sunday afternoon, I think we are failing that test.
“I wish I could rest and be merry on Sunday,” you might be thinking, “but I just have too much work!” I get it. Things need to get done. But how much work we do on Friday and Saturday influences how much work we will have on Sunday. Should we not shape our Friday and Saturday around Sunday, the Lord’s Day? And if we cannot rest on Sunday even when doing chunks of work on Friday and Saturday, then maybe we are trying to do too much.
Notre Dame does not exactly carve out Sunday rest and merriment for us. Clubs do not hesitate to have meetings on Sunday, and professors sometimes hold discussion sessions on Sunday. Setting aside Sundays is not an effort we students should have to undertake ourselves. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” again states: “Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day,” (CCC 2187).
Each Sunday, God offers us the great gift of Sunday merries. May we accept that great gift and ask God to calm our Sunday scaries. May our Sundays be occupied with joy in the Resurrection, rather than with anxiety over an upcoming test. For the real test will be not so much how hard we have worked but how graciously we have received God’s gifts. So, each Sunday, may we be prayerful, merry and grateful — may we be just glad to be here.
Richard Taylor is a senior from St. Louis living in Keenan Hall. He studies physics and also has an interest in theology. He encourages all readers to send reactions, reflections or refutations to rtaylo23@nd.edu.
