Since the beginning of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the emphasis of having a day off from work in the week has been a staple in society. Led by God’s divine command and example in the story of Creation, the 7th day of the week is reserved for rest and communing with God. And those who honestly commune with God, find themselves led to worship Him which necessarily elevates us from our humble sinful state into His divine life.
For the Jewish people, the Sabbath (7th day) was (and still is) Saturday. The most strict of Jews refused to do anything that could be considered work. This came to such an extreme that at the time of Jesus, they persecuted Him to the point of death for healing on the Sabbath (and other things) because healing was considered work. This extremism was obviously not what God had intended for Sabbath rest, but as a whole the Jewish people correctly reserved their Saturday for the Lord.
Saturday was the day of rest for creation that had fallen into sin. When Jesus comes and establishes the new creation with His Resurrection after His passion and death, the day of His Resurrection, Sunday, becomes the 8th of creation and the new Sabbath for Christians. Since the day of the Resurrection, the Apostles and disciples of Jesus broke bread in worship on the first day of the week, and that practice continues to this day until Jesus comes again in His glory.
Yet, the statistics are out there that tell us most of America is not taking a Sabbath rest. Even most Catholics are not taking their Sabbath rest. While just under 30% of Catholics attend mass on a weekly basis in the United States, I would wager that even less are actually taking a Sabbath rest, especially when Sunday mass becomes just one of the other activities that occur on Sunday.
While many are not taking Sabbath rest, they are taking rest. Inherently God created us with the need to rest, and most importantly, the need to rest IN HIM. Sabbath rest is when we correctly rest in praise and gratitude to our Heavenly Father which draws us into worship of Him. However, many avoid resting and worshiping Him because of busy-ness or pursuit of entertainment. When we do this, it reveals to us that God is not actually first in our life. Rather than serving Him, we serve or worship our desires, busy schedule, etc. It is no coincidence that our American society typically does the thing it loves most during the times that Catholics are obligated to celebrate the Sabbath (Saturday evening through Sunday evening). Whether it is parties, shopping, golf, football, youth sports, video games, alcohol consumption, brunch, overtime work, or simply scrolling on the internet, if a person wants to know what they worship, they just need to see what they live for between the hours of 4pm Saturday to 11:59pm on Sunday instead of resting with their Heavenly Father. It’s not to say that those things are inherently bad. In fact, many of those things can foster a community oriented toward God. However, when these things substitute our worship, that is when they become problematic.
Even those who go to mass on Sunday’s can be guilty of not having Sabbath rest. Because of the convenience of multiple mass times at parishes and cars being able to get us to any parishes in the surrounding area, we can have the tendency to try and fit mass into our schedule. While this is admirable compared to those who make no effort to go to mass, if mass is just squeezed between a plethora of other events that we would rather be at, then we most likely are not resting in the Lord. Mass becomes just a box to be checked with the other things that supposedly need to get done. The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shalom, meaning ‘peace’. This means that our Saturday evenings into Sunday are meant to be filled with the peace of God. If it is not then it is time to reexamine if we are actually worshiping God on this day both at mass and when we return home. The heart of worship is sacrifice, and if we are not willing to sacrifice our time, busy schedule and entertainment for God then we abandon our inheritance of peace as children of God. This is not to say we have to go home and stare at the wall, but if we do have special emphasis on Godly activities on the Sabbath than our sacrifice of our time to worldly things will ultimately make us slaves to the world and all of its empty promises. Maybe this is why American society is so unhappy in general.
For each of us, we must ask ourselves if we do actually worship God with our Sabbath rest, because ultimately that rest is for our good. God does not need rest. God does not need us. But we do need rest and we do need God. That is how we were created, and we will ultimately find peace when we commit ourselves to this rest. Because when we do, His peace will flow into and bless our work filled week, and our work filled week will be a sacrifice as we return to that Sabbath worship and rest. The cycle of peace and grace will sustain a happy life, no matter the trials, but it can only happen when we truly enter into His rest.
