Why Rest on the Sabbath?
Keeping the sabbath is super important, but our culture doesn’t do it well. As one of the Ten Commandments is to keep Sunday holy, the sabbath helps us to rightly order our lives.
The first thing I think of when reflecting on the sabbath is how God rested on the seventh day after he created everything. Sabbath means “to rest” and as co-creators with God, we, too, rest on Sundays. This not merely relaxing and kicking back; it’s about resting in God and finding peace in him.
Because we are co-creators with God, the Creator, we also rest on the seventh day:
“God's action is the model for human action. If God ‘rested and was refreshed’ on the seventh day, man too ought to ‘rest’ and should let others, especially the poor, ‘be refreshed.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2172).
Resting can be a difficult practice in our culture because of the emphasis on productivity. Work can become an idol, but observing the sabbath liberates us from this slavery. Sometimes, we just need to rest and let God love us. The Catechism states that the sabbath is “a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money,” (2712).
Rest is not about the passivity of God, but rather an active enjoyment of his good work that he has accomplished. In Dies Domini, St. John Paul II writes, “this is a ‘contemplative’ gaze which does not look to new accomplishments but enjoys the beauty of what has already been achieved,” (11).
Therefore, "the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath," (Mark 2:27). Our ability to think, be creative, help others, etc. in whatever work we do demonstrates our human dignity because it presents the capabilities that God gave to us and no other creature. God created us “to know, to love, and to serve him,” not to be a slave to our work (Catechism, 1721).
The sabbath reminds us of our human dignity. All offenses against humanity results from a lack of respect for human dignity. Therefore, Sundays, if observed properly, have the potential to change our culture! Notice that the day of rest comes right after man is created in God’s image and likeness (see Genesis 1:26). This powerful quote from St. Ambrose explains what this means:
“Thanks, then, to the Lord our God who accomplished a work in which he might find rest. He made the heavens, but I do not read that he found rest there; he made the stars, the moon, the sun, and neither do I read that he found rest in them. I read instead that he made man and that then he rested, finding in man one to whom he could offer the forgiveness of sins.”
Sometimes we need to work on Sundays to provide for ourselves and for our families, act as caregivers for loved ones, etc. The Lord understands this. Even so, I think Sunday should feel different from the other 6 days of the week and we can have an interior disposition that helps us with this.
What are some ways to keep the sabbath? Sunday is a wonderful day for family and friends. Leisure or recreational activities can be part of the day. Special time of prayer can be set aside to rejoice in the resurrection of Christ. It can also be a day to read, learn from, and delight in spiritual books. Following the Fourth Commandment of keeping Sunday holy gives us peace and helps to rightly order the other six days of the week.
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
then you shall take delight in the Lord.”
Isaiah 58:13-14