The core theme is to explain the principles behind observing Sundays and holy days of obligation in Christianity, emphasizing that these days are for human benefit and spiritual well-being, not rigid adherence to outdated rules.
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Back when I lived in California, I would
often go to Jiffy Lube, an oil change
place on Sunday mornings. I'd go to
Early Mass just like I did every week.
And then when my car needed an oil
change, I'd stop at Jiffy Lube
afterwards. It was very convenient.
Early Sunday morning, I was usually the
first customer and didn't have to wait.
But then I moved back to my hometown in
Arkansas and found things were
different. The local Jiffy Lubes weren't
open on Sunday morning. When I
discovered that, I couldn't have been
more pleased. Let's get into [Music]
it. Howdy, folks. If you like this
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you can help me keep making this
podcast. And you can get early access to
patreon.com/jimmypodcast. A lot of
people have questions about what they
can and can't do on Sunday and other
holy days of obligation. Is it okay to
work? Uh what kinds of work can you do?
Can you mow your lawn? Is it okay to go
shopping? How about going out to a
restaurant? I get a lot of questions
like this, and so I thought I'd do a
video to answer
them. The starting point for
understanding the principles behind the
Christian celebration of Sunday is the
Jewish Sabbath that preceded it. In the
Ten Commandments, we read, "Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days
you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the
Lord your God. on it. You shall not do
any work, you or your son, or your
daughter, your male servant, or your
female servant, or your livestock, or
the sojourer who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made the heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath,
and made it holy. Now, because of its
place in the Ten Commandments, some
later Jews took this commandment in an
overly strict sense. And by the time of
the first century, this was definitely
the case. We thus read of multiple
instances in the Gospels where Jesus's
opponents criticized him for doing
things like healing on the Sabbath,
which prompted Jesus to point out that
they were placing what they understood
to be the requirements of the Sabbath
above human needs. For Jesus, taking
care of human needs was what was
ultimately important. And in Luke 14, we
read about how Jesus healed a man with
dropsy, also known as edema or swelling,
on the Sabbath. Jesus responded to the
lawyers and Pharisees saying, "Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?"
But they remained silent. Then he took
him, that's the man with the dropsy, and
healed him and sent him away. And he
said to them, "Which of you having a son
or an ox that has fallen into a well on
a Sabbath day will not immediately pull
him out?" And they could not reply to
these things. The answer to Jesus's
question of who wouldn't pull a son or
an ox out of a well on the Sabbath was
nobody. All of Jesus's hearers would
have pulled out their son or their ox
out of a well, even on the Sabbath.
That's why no one could answer him. They
didn't want to admit that they
themselves would take care of human and
animal needs on the Sabbath. Because if
they did admit that, then they would
have to admit that Jesus was right to
take care of human needs by healing
people on the Sabbath. In another
passage, Mark 2, Jesus's opponents have
been criticizing him for letting his
disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath to
satisfy their human need of hunger. And
on this occasion, Jesus tells them, "The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath." So the Son of Man is Lord
even of the Sabbath. This establishes
two important principles. The first is
that the Sabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath. This principle
helps us get our priorities right. Man
was not made for the Sabbath, which
means that the Sabbath doesn't take
priority over man. You don't have to
bend human nature and human needs to fit
the supposed requirements of the
Sabbath. Instead, the Sabbath was made
for man to help man. And so, if there's
a conflict between a human need and the
Sabbath, it's the Sabbath that needs to
bend, not man. From this principle,
Jesus derives the second that the son of
man is Lord even of the Sabbath. In
other words, as the son of man, Jesus
has the authority of a lord over the
Sabbath. That is, he gets to make or
abolish rules for it. And he's already
indicated what his priority is. It's
taking care of human needs. So, this is
an important principle each one of us
should remember. We shouldn't be getting
scrupulous about what it's okay to do or
not do on Sundays. Jesus is the Lord of
the Day, and he says it was made for us,
not the other way around. And so if
doing something takes care of a
legitimate human need, it can be done on
Sunday. You don't have to go to great
lengths to avoid doing things on Sunday
that you need to. We're not supposed to
be scrupulous about this. We also need
to remember that Jesus shared his
authority with the disciples. Thus, in
Matthew 18, we read, "Truly I say to
you, whatever you bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Binding and loosen refers to the ability
to establish and abolish laws for the
community. So Jesus gave the church the
authority to regulate the way days like
Sunday are to be observed, which will be
important for our discussion going forward.
forward.
One of the things that's important to
know is that the Jewish Sabbath is not
the same thing as the Christian
celebration of Sunday. They involve
related principles, but Sunday is not
the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath has
not been moved. It is and always has
been Saturday and it was binded on the
Jewish people prior to the time of
Christ. But Sunday is not the same
thing. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church states, "The Sabbath, which
represented the completion of the first
creation, has been replaced by Sunday,
which recalls the new creation
inaugurated by the resurrection of
Christ. This shift can be a bit
confusing given the presence of the
Sabbath and the Ten Commandments, which
is also known as the Decalogue or 10
words. Many people have the idea that
the ten commandments are unalterable and
binding on everyone. And that's true
when it comes to most of them, but not
when it comes to the Sabbath command.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent
explains, "The other commandments of the
Decalogue are precepts of the natural
and perpetual law under all
circumstances unalterable. Whence,
notwithstanding the abrogation of the
law of Moses, all the commandments
contained in the two tables are observed
by the Christian people, not because
Moses so commanded, but because they
agree with the law of nature, by the
dictates of which men are impelled to
their observance. Whereas this
commandment touching the sanctification
of the Sabbath, if considered as to the
time of its observance, is not fixed and
unalterable, but susceptible of change,
and belongs not to the moral, but
ceremonial law. Neither is it a natural
principle, for we are not taught or
formed by nature to give external
worship to God on the Sabbath rather
than on any other day. But from the time
the people of Israel were liberated from
the bondage of Pharaoh, they observed
the Sabbath
day. So natural law doesn't require that
we give worship to God on one particular
day rather than some other. As a result,
even the Israelites didn't observe this
day until they came out of Egypt during
the Exodus. Consequently, we're not
obliged to observe the Sabbath. Instead,
we're obliged to honor the moral
principles that lie underneath the
observance of the Sabbath. The Catechism
of Trent
continues, "The worship of God and the
practice of religion which are comprised
in this precept have the natural law for
their basis. Whereas it is natural for
us to give some time to the worship of
God, a proof of which is the fact that
we find among all nations certain
regular and public festivals consecrated
to the performance of the rights and
simnities of religion. For it is natural
to man to give some time to necessary
functions such as bodily repose, sleep,
and other such matters. So also does the
same nature require that sometime be
allowed to the mind to recruit its
energies in the contemplation of God,
and thus as some portion of time ought
to be consecrated to divine things and
paying the worship due to the deity.
This no doubt appertains to the moral
law. The apostles therefore resolved to
consecrate the first day of the seven to
divine worship and called it the Lord's
day. So the apostles consecrated Sunday
as the Lord's day and that is what
Christians are celebrated. It isn't the
same thing as the Jewish Sabbath but a
parallel celebration based on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. When it
comes to what is to be done or avoided
on this day, the Catechism of Trent
focuses not on the external behaviors
themselves, but on the principle that
underlies them. After quoting the words
from the Bible that says you, your
family, and your servants are to have
the day off, it says, "In these words,
we are taught in the first place to
avoid altogether whatsoever may
interfere with the divine worship. For
it is easy to perceive that every manner
of survile work is forbidden, not
because it is improper or evil of its
own self, but because it withdraws our
mind from the divine worship, which is
the end of the
commandment. This passage refers to a
concept known as survile work, which
we'll come back to. But the important
thing to note is that surviile work
isn't forbidden for its own sake. It's
not an evil. Instead, the catechism says
that surviile work withdraws the mind
from the worship of God, which is what
the Sunday celebration is all about. So,
the reason that survi work was to be
avoided on Sunday was not that it was a
bad thing, but that it interfered with
divine worship. It's the underlying
principle that's
important. When they encounter older
texts like this, a lot of people wonder
what survile work is. This isn't
surprising since survile work is not a
phrase we use today. So, a lot of people
won't be familiar with it. It's also a
phrase that isn't used in the church's
current laws regarding Sunday, as we'll
see. That's why you won't encounter the
phrase in current church documents.
However, we can clear up what it is
fairly easily. The term survi comes from
the Latin word servous, which means
slave, servant, or surf. So, survile
work is the kind of work that a slave, a
servant, or a surf does. This was
understood to be physical labor in
contrast to mental labors. For example,
the section on the third commandment in
the catechism of St. Pius I 10th states.
Question, what does the third
commandment forbid? Answer. The third
commandment forbids survile works and
any other works that hinder the worship
of God. Question, what survile works are
forbidden on festivals? Answer. The
surviile works forbidden on festivals
are those works called manual. That is
those material works in which the body
has more part than the mind. Such for
instance as are ordinarily done by
servants, laborers and
artisans. Similarly, the explanation of
the Baltimore catechism says this
question. What are servi works? Answer.
Servi works are those which require
labor rather of body than of mind.
Survile that is work which was formerly
done by the slaves. Therefore writing,
reading, studying etc are not survile
because they were not the work of
slaves. Now even at the time it was
recognized that there were situations in
which you could do physical labor on a
Sunday. The explanation of the Baltimore Catechism
Catechism
continues. Question. Are survile works
on Sunday ever lawful? Answer. Survile
works are lawful on Sunday when the
honor of God, the good of our neighbor,
or necessity requires them. Honor of
God, for example, erecting an altar that
could not be erected at another time, so
that the people may hear mass on that
day. Good of our neighbor, such as
reconstructing a broken bridge that must
be used every day, or clearing away
obstacles after a railroad accident that
trains may not be delayed.
necessity, firemen endeavoring to
extinguish a fire, sailors working on a
ship at sea, etc. So, in keeping with
Jesus's principle that human needs took
priority over the strict observance of
the Sabbath, such needs could justify
the performance of physical labor on
Sundays. This brings us to what canon
law has to say about activities on
Sundays and holy days of obligation.
Canon law is the legal system that is
binding on Catholics and it's based on
the power of binding and loosen that
Christ gave to his church. And in
addition to the various laws that have
been created and modified in the last
2,000 years, it's been codified or
placed into a single book just two times
in the Latin church. The first
codification happened in 1917 with the
release of the 1917 code of canon law.
According to canon 1248 of the 1917 code
on feast days of precept mass is to be
heard. There is an absence from surviile
work legal acts and likewise unless
there is a specific indul or legitimate
customs provide otherwise from public
trade shopping and other public buying
and selling. Feast days of precept refer
to what we would call a holy day of
obligation and would include Sundays.
This cannon establishes both a positive
requirement, something that is to be
done on such days, and a set of negative
requirements, that is things that are
not to be done. The positive
requirement, the thing you're supposed
to do, was to hear mass said, and there
were several negative requirements or
things to be avoided. The first of these
was survile work. That is the physical
labor that servants typically did and
that almost everybody typically did back
in 1917.
Also to be avoided was plac in legal
acts. Legal acts being a form of
intellectual labor that also was thought
to distract from the worship of God.
Nothing more boring than going through
the fine print of contracts and laws and
things like that. The final thing that
was to be avoided basically amounted to
engaging in commerce. Public trade,
shopin, and other public buying and
selling were listed as not to be
performed unless there is a special
indul or legitimate customs provide
otherwise. So it was recognized that
this was not an absolute prohibition.
Church authorities could and did grant
indults and allow for legitimate customs
involving buying and selling on Sundays
and holy days.
Now, that was the law as it stood in
1917. But the 20th century saw a lot of
change and work began on a revised code
of canon law. This new version was
finally released in 1983 and the law on
this point was substantially revised.
One of the things the drafters took into
account was the enormous number of
different circumstances that Catholics
find themselves in across the world.
Whole categories of jobs existed in 1983
that were unknown in 1917, like computer
programmers, for example, and all kinds
of people were doing different sorts of
labor than had been the case in the
preceding decades. In 1917, most people
did manual labor in farms and factories
during the week. And so, taking a break
from survile work on Sundays made sense
for basically everybody. But by 1983,
people who did physical work like that
on a farm or in a factory were a much
lower percent of society with many many
more people doing intellectual rather
than survile work during the week. So
telling them not to do survile labor on
Sundays wouldn't really give them a
break from what they were ordinarily
doing. As a result, it was decided to
retire the concept of surviile labor
from the law and instead refocus the law
on the underlying principles that would
be true regardless of what the job by
which you earn a living happen to be.
Canon 1247 of the 1983 code of canon law
thus states on Sundays and other holy
days of obligation, the faithful are
obliged to participate in the mass.
Moreover, they are to abstain from those
works and affairs which hinder the
worship to be rendered to God, the joy
proper to the Lord's day, or the
suitable relaxation of mind and body.
Like the cannon in the previous code,
this one also had a positive requirement
of what to do and several negative
requirements of what not to do. The
positive one was the same, to
participate in mass, while the negative
requirements were completely
restructured. Instead of focusing on
specific types of action like physical
labor, place in legal acts, and engaging
in commerce, the new canon spells out
the goals that we're supposed to be
pursuing on Sunday and prohibits
anything that would conflict with these
goals. Thus, it says that we are to
avoid works and affairs which hinder one
of the three things which are the goals
to be achieved on Sundays and holy days.
The first goal is the worship to be
rendered to God on such days. The second
is the joy that it's appropriate to have
on the Lord's day. And the third goal is
the suitable relaxation of mind and
body. So you can do anything, absolutely
anything, on a Sunday or holy day as
long as it doesn't conflict with one of those
those
goals. This means that the law adapts to
whatever circumstances you find yourself
in. For example, let's suppose you do
physical labor all week. Maybe you're a
farmer or a construction worker. You
work with your body hard every day and
you don't get a lot of breaks. Well,
Sunday is your day to rest physically.
Continuing to work hard on Sunday would
hinder the suitable relaxation of body.
And so, everything being equal, you want
to chill out on Sunday and have a chance
to physically recuperate. On the other
hand, you might want to do something
intellectual on Sundays to get some
mental stimulation and thus promote the
suitable relaxation of mind. Maybe you
want to take a class and learn something
new. Or maybe you want to start writing
a book. Or maybe you want to play a
musical instrument. Whatever will help
you stimulate and relax your mind is
fine. But now, let's suppose that you're
an information worker like me. You spend
all week pulling in and pushing out data
and squeezing your brain hard. Well,
come Sunday, you want to get out of the
intellectual groove you've been in all
week and do something different. For
you, the suitable relaxation of mind
means not participating in the same
intellectual grind that you do every
day. In my own case, I work with faith
related information 6 days a week. I'm
constantly studying the Bible and church
documents. And so when Sunday arrives, I
should do something else, not more Bible
study and church documents. So I might
read fiction for a change or watch a
movie or binge a TV show. I like
something that gets me out of the study,
teach study, teach groove that I'm
normally in. Even better, I might up my
physical activity to get some exercise
and thus help with the suitable
relaxation of body. I might do home
improvement projects or gardening or mow
my lawn or go dancing or play sports and
get the kind of physical stimulation
that I lack every other day of the week.
For someone who does intellectual labor
to earn a living, all of these things
would be good alternatives in principle.
But there's another factor to be
considered, which is personal
preference. You see, I hate mowing my
lawn. Some people may like mowing. It
gets them outdoors. It gets them some
exercise, and it gives them a sense of
accomplishment. For people like that,
mowing on a Sunday might be just the
thing. But that's not me. For me, mowing
my lawn would be just as much of a chore
on Sunday as it would any other day of
the week. As a result, for me, mowing my
lawn on Sunday would interfere with the
joy proper to the Lord's day because I
would hate it. So, I like everybody else
should try to find things to do on
Sunday that I actually enjoy. These
should be different than what I do on a
day in dayout basis so that I'm not
stuck in the same groove I'm in the rest
of the week. And if possible, they
should be things I find fun, things I
enjoy so that I have extra joy on the
Lord's day. But the key thing to be
aware of is that now the law adapts to
your particular circumstances. We're no
longer in a situation in which 95% of
the population works on a farm and we
all do manual labor 6 days a week.
People are living in just too many
different kinds of situations for a
one-sizefits-all list of rules that fits
everybody or almost everybody. And
that's why the law now focuses on the
goals to be achieved on Sunday rather
than specific practices. So it adapts to
whatever circumstances you find yourself
in. Of course, we also have
responsibilities on Sundays and holy
days. Remember how Jesus noted that even
in his own Jewish society, people who
had a son or an ox fall into a pit on
the Sabbath would immediately pull it
out. Well, they had to do other things
on the Sabbath, too. They were living in
a society where 95% of people worked on
farms. And one thing that's true about
cows and sheep and goats is that they
still get hungry on the Sabbath and have
to be fed. So even on the Sabbath, you
still had to make sure that they got
fed. What's more, if you had dairy
animals, you had to make sure that they
got milked. You can't let a dairy cow,
sheep, or goat go without being milked
for too long, or it will cause the milk
to build up in painful ways inside the
animals, potentially leading to
inflammation, infections, bruising,
injuries, and serious conditions like
mastitis. So, you had to make sure that
the animals got fed and got milked even
on the Sabbath. Jewish farmers had
chores to do even on the Sabbath, and
Christian farmers have had chores to do
even on Sundays. There's no escape in
our responsibilities and so we shouldn't
expect Sundays to be nothing but fun.
We're going to have to do some things
we'd prefer not to. The Catechism of the
Catholic Church says that family needs
or important social service can
legitimately excuse from the obligation
of Sunday rest. The faithful should see
to it that legitimate excuses do not
lead to habits prejuditial to religion,
family life, and health. The charity of
truth seeks holy leisure, but the
necessity of charity accepts just work,
meaning work that is just or right. So
there's a balance to be had between
leisure and responsibility, and you can
take care of your family needs on
Sundays. They do legitimately excuse
from the obligation of Sunday rest. We
should see to it though that we don't
let legitimate excuses lead to habits
that are harmful to our religion, family
life, or health. But that doesn't mean
that we can't help people with their
human needs. Just like when Jesus healed
people on the Sabbath, the catechism
says that Sunday is traditionally
consecrated by Christian piety to good
works and humble service of the sick,
the infirm, and the elderly. Given how
busy our lives are, it can also be
difficult to find the time to do some of
the things that we need to do on other
days of the week. The catechism
acknowledges that and that it's okay to
do them on Sundays. It
says Christians will also sanctify
Sunday by devoting time and care to
their families and relatives, often
difficult to do on other days of the
week. So, it's okay to do some things
for your family that are hard to do at
other times during the week, like
laundry or whatever. Once again, the
principle is the Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the
Sabbath. When I first moved back to
Arkansas, I found that the Jify Loops
were closed on Sundays. That's because
people in Arkansas have more of a common
celebration of Sunday than people in
California do. There are lots of
businesses here that are closed on
Sunday, and I think that's great. Is it
less convenient than it is in
California, where basically every
business is open every day? Yeah. But
there are other benefits that having a
common celebration of Sunday promotes.
Not only does it make it easier for
people to go to church, but even for
those who don't go to church, it
provides a common day of rest. It makes
it easier for people to take time off
and it affects the rhythm of the life of
the community, providing a communal
pause and time to do something else.
This is something that the catechism
endorses. It says in respect and
religious liberty and the common good of
all, Christians should seek recognition
of Sundays and the church's holy days as
legal holidays. They that is the
Christians have to give everyone a
public example of prayer, respect, and
joy and defend their traditions as a
precious contribution to the spiritual
life of society. The catechism also says
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. So, we should make a common effort
to have Sundays as legal holidays. But
there's a balance to be struck here and
the catechism discusses that
balance. Some people get scrupulous
about asking others to work on Sundays
and that can be a problem. I get
questions from people who wonder if it's
okay for them to go to the supermarket
or the gas station on Sunday. Some of
them are afraid to do so. I even get the
sense that some are a little prideful
about it. I'm not going to ask someone
else to work on a Sunday. Well, the
catechism acknowledges that we should
work to have Sundays be a legal holiday,
but it also acknowledges that there are
legitimate limits to how extensive a
holiday it should be. Remember, the
Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath. And it's all about meeting
human needs. And it's okay for some
people to work to meet those needs.
Thus, the catechism says traditional
activities, sports, restaurants, etc.,
and social necessities, public services,
etc. require some people to work on
Sundays. But everyone should still take
care to set aside sufficient time for
leisure in spite of economic
constraints. Public authorities should
ensure citizens a time intended for rest
and divine worship. Employers have a
similar obligation towards their
employees. So traditional activities
like sports and restaurants are okay on
Sundays. It's okay to go to the sports
game and okay to go to a restaurant on
Sundays even though that means some
people work. Sports correspond to the
human need for rest and recreation. And
restaurants correspond to the human need
for food, which can be coupled with the
human need for rest and recreation if
you don't have to cook the meal
yourself, if you get out of the house,
and if you get to eat food that you
wouldn't or couldn't make for yourself.
Both sports and restaurants can be
enriching cultural activities. Now,
sports isn't my thing, but I do like
cheeseburgers. And so for Sunday lunch,
I go to a local sports bar and grill,
smoke by pipe, and have cheeseburgers to
celebrate the Lord's day. The people who
work there are thus helping me fulfill
my human needs for rest and recreation
as well as food and the enjoyment proper
to the Lord's day. What's more, by
giving them my business on a Sunday, I'm
helping them fulfill their human needs
by helping them earn a living. And most
people who work on Sundays tend to need
to work on Sunday. If I just stayed home
and denied them my business that day,
I'd be hurting them rather than helping
them. This is similar to what Jesus says
in Matthew 12. Have you not read in the
law how on the Sabbath the priests in
the temple profane the Sabbath and are
guiltless? In ancient Israel, most
people rested on the Sabbath. But there
were still some like the priests who
worked on it and they did so without
guilt. In the same way, it's okay for
most people today to take Sundays off
and yet have some people, like people
who work in sports or food service, to
do their jobs. It's not the case that
everybody has to go home and stay there
all Sunday. When I lived in California,
I was happy to have the people at Jiffy
Lube do my oil change on Sunday morning.
That let them earn the money they need.
But I was also happy that here in
Arkansas, the Jiffy Lube workers got
Sundays off. That's good, too. And here
I give my Sunday business to restaurant
workers. It's all a question of balance.
And the underlying principle is that
it's okay for the majority of people to
take Sundays off while other people do
work that they need to do on Sundays,
provided that they take care to set
aside sufficient time for leisure and
that their employers honor this
obligation toward their employees. So
they don't make them work 7 days a week.
Now, what happens if you're one of the
people who needs to work on a Sunday?
Well, assuming that your employer isn't
denying you the time off that you need
on some other days of the week, you may
well be grateful for the business that
people provide on Sundays. It helps you
earn a living. And it's okay for you to
work on Sunday or any other holy day of
obligation. You still need to attend
mass if at all possible either on the
Sunday or the evening of the preceding
day. And you need to do what you can to
honor the spirit of the day. As the
catechism says, if a country's
legislation or other reasons require
work on Sunday, the day should
nevertheless be lived as a day of our
deliverance, which lets us share,
quoting from the book of Hebrews, in
this festal gathering, this assembly of
the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven. So, what can and can't you do on
a Sunday or holy day of obligation?
Well, the first and the only hard and
fast rule is go to mass either on Sunday
itself or the evening of the preceding
day. Even then, there can be exceptions
for legitimate reasons and so forth. But
it doesn't matter what mass you go to.
It doesn't matter what the readings you
hear are. All of the different Catholic
rights use different calendars of
readings. And the canon law provides
that a person who assists at a mass
celebrated anywhere in a Catholic right
either on the feast day itself or in the
evening of the preceding day satisfies
the obligation of participating in the
mass. Of course, if you can't go to
mass, you're excused from your Sunday
obligation. But go to mass if you can.
Second, beyond the obligation to attend
mass, there is no specific list of dos
and don'ts. There used to be such a list
back when 95% of society did physical
labor, but that isn't the case today.
So, stop thinking in terms of a list of
specific things you can do and specific
things you can't do. There is no such
list now. The law adapts to your
circumstances. What you want to do is
pursue the goals of the day. You want to
abstain from those works and affairs
which hinder the worship to be rendered
to God, the joy proper to the Lord's
day, or the suitable relaxation of mind
and body. To that end, it would likely
be a good idea for you to do something
different on Sundays. Do things you
don't normally do. To the extent
possible, you also want to do things you
enjoy so as to bring you more joy on the
Lord's day. Trying to do things on
Sunday that you don't normally get a
chance to do, but that you're looking
forward to do would be great. You also
should fulfill human needs, including
your own, those of your family, and
those of others, including the less
fortunate, and including giving your
business to those who need to work on
Sundays. These same principles apply not
just to Sundays, but also to other holy
days of obligation, even if we have to
work on them. It's just that we're often
members of the group that needs to work
on these other holy days. Just apply the
principles as best you can in the
circumstances. And finally, don't be
scrupulous. Remember, as Jesus said, the
Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath. Human needs take priority
over rules about how we observe the day.
If you like this podcast, you can help
me out by liking, commenting, writing a
review, sharing the podcast, and
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when I have a new video. And you can
help me keep making this podcast and get
patreon.com/jimmypodcast. Thank you.
I'll see you next time and God bless you always.
always. [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
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