The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 283: The Day of Rest (2025)

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

We all tend to make an idol of work. The Catechism teaches us that Sunday is a day of grace and rest from work. Fr. Mike explains what holy leisure looks like, emphasizing the importance of spending time with family, serving the poor, and taking time to meditate and pray. Resting on the Sabbath reminds us that our freedom and identity are found in the Lord. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2184-2195. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan, if your goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family. As we journey together toward a heavenly home, this is day 283. We are reading paragraphs 2184 to 2195. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism

in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY. That stands for Catechism in a year. If you got this far and didn't realize that yet, a little insider secret. Lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. As we said, day 283, paragraphs 2184 to 2195. We have some nuggets. because we are coming to the conclusion of the third commandment as well as the conclusion of those commandments that are directly related to the Lord. I mean, obviously all the commandments are related to the Lord. But remember, out of the 10 commandments here, the first three are specifically to the Lord and the last seven are how we interact with each other. Now, yesterday,

we talked about the Sunday obligation. We talked about the parish, what a parish is. We talked about how the Sunday Eucharist is the heart, right? It's the foundation and it's everything. It is everything for us. At the same time, we recognize that the commandment not only entails the obligation to worship. It also instructs us that we also have to take time aside to rest, to rest from work. It's a day of grace and rest from work. And that's what the header of paragraph 2184 highlights and reminds us of. Now, this is one of those things. I said this yesterday and maybe even the day before. There are some aspects of this commandment that are going to be convicting. There are some aspects that you're going to say, wait, what does that mean for me? Yes, that's good. That's really,

really good. The explanations here in paragraphs 2184 to 2188 is going to be really, really important and valuable when you say, wait a second, if this obligation, this command to rest from work doesn't just land on me. It actually lands on how I live my life because am I choosing to spend my Sunday in such a way that I'm forcing other people to work, then I may need to take another evaluation of how I'm spending that day of rest, how I'm spending that Sunday, the Lord's day. And so again, this is going to be a great day of conviction for probably so many of us because we resist the commandment to enter into rest. We resist the commandment to allow Sunday to be a day of grace. And so our rebellious hearts need to be surrendered to the Lord. I know my

rebellious heart needs to be surrendered to the Lord. And so we pray, Father in heaven, In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, I ask you to please send your Holy Spirit into this moment, send your Holy Spirit into this next time of listening to your church, explain to us how you're calling us to live out the commandments, particularly the command to rest, to not be a slave, to rest from servile work, and to rest from allowing these idols in our lives to become powerful. Lord God, we ask you to help us, kill our idols, so that you. You can be the true God in our lives. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 283. We're reading paragraphs 2184 to 2195. A day of grace and rest from work. Just as God rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done, human life has a rhythm of work and rest.

The institution of the Lord's Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives. 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. 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 prejudicial to religion, family life, and health. St. Augustine stated,

The charity of truth seeks holy leisure. The necessity of charity accepts just work. Those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works, and Hubble's service of the sick, the infirm, and the elderly. 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.

Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life. 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. traditional activities, sport, 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. With temperance and charity, the faithful will see to it that they avoid the excesses

and violence sometimes associated with popular leisure activities. In spite of economic constraints, public authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship. employers have a similar obligation toward their employees. In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church's holy days as legal holidays. They 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. If a country's legislation or other reasons require work on Sunday, the day should

nevertheless be lived as the day of our deliverance, which lets us share in this festal gathering, this assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. In brief, observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. The seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. 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. The church celebrates the day of Christ's resurrection on the eighth day, Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord's Day. Sunday is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the Universal Church.

On Sundays, another holy days of obligation, the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass. On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are bound to abstain from those labors and business concerns, which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord's Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body. The institution of Sunday helps all to be allowed sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day.

All right, there we have it, paragraphs 2184 to 2195. As I said, there is every one of these commandments has something convicting us. You know, this last piece of this third commandment, I think if there's anything countercultural, yesterday we talked about the obligation to enter into worship, right? The obligation of going to mass, that can be counterculture. That can be personally countercultural in my own personal culture. But if there's any commandment that is countercultural, I mean, yes, in some ways they all are, right?

But this one, this part of this third commandment goes so directly against how we live our lives in the West, right where we just have this nonstop work we have this nonstop activity in fact you might even say that we've made activity and idle you might even say we've made work and idle which goes back all the way to the beginning of this commandment with the context for this enter into rest is you're not a slave anymore the context is you've been set free and so we have to live like that we have to live as free beings and so here we are paragraph 2184 it says the institution of the lord's day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives. So think about those, those four areas there, right? Cultivate their familial. Because how many, how many times,

how much time is there for family? I mean, it's so rare. Again, in our day and age, in our postmodern world, how much time is there for family? There is so little time. I can remember even when I, I mean, I'm relatively old, but at the same time when I was growing up, you had no sporting events on Sunday, at least high school sporting events or kids supporting events. And now Sunday is no longer off limits. Right now in so many states, in the United States at least, Sunday is just another day you get to take advantage of an all-day tournament schedule. That's what it is now. And yet, what is Sunday meant to cultivate leisure, cultivate family, cultural, social, religious lives? So important for us, paragraph 2185 highlights this. Not only are we obligated to enter into

rest ourselves. It goes on to say 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. So that's the first part. Okay. So if I'm going to work in such a way that it takes away from my ability and availability to get to Mass, I need to avoid that. Next, the joy proper to the Lord's Day. Now, sometimes people will say, so I really like working in my garden or I was planning on building a shed. I was going to work on my house, do some house projects. Can I do those on a Sunday? Can I do those on a Sunday? day. And the commandment here, as Christians understand it, is not you can't work. It's not that you can't do strenuous things. It's not that you can't engage in labor. It's to avoid servile

labor, right? If you're working in your garden, it's probably because you enjoy gardening. If you're going to work on a house project, it's probably because you enjoy working on your house projects. And so it says here, there we're to avoid the activities that hinder the joy proper to the Lord's Day, which would be servitude, right, slavish labor, that the labor that we can't escape from. So again, working on your project, billing a shed, mowing your on, those are not the same kinds of things. It's not work per se. It is entering into rest. That's the goal. The goal is not avoiding work. The goal is entering into rest. It goes on to say, the performance of the works of mercy. You know, I don't know how many of us have actually cultivated the Lord's Day

as a day where we perform the works of mercy. You know, what are those works of mercy? Well, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, visiting the elderly, right? The idea of being able to even spend time with those who have no one to visit them or doing good. Again, in our world, it is so rare that you find a family or even individuals who say, yes, Sunday is a day that not only are we worshiping God, not only are we refraining from slavish labor, but Sunday is a day that we enter into the works of God himself, those works of mercy. He goes on to say the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. though those are all so important right those four aspects so worship ode to god joy proper to the lord's day

the performance of works of mercy and appropriate relaxation of mind and body chances are you can't do that every sunday let's just get out there right now chances are sunday is still only 24 hours and so you can't probably do all four of those things every single sunday but how do we in our individual lives how do we in our family lives how do we incorporate those things into our lives it goes on to say family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. So obviously, if you need to take care of your family, that can be a legitimate excuse. If you are a nurse or a doctor, if you're someone who works in plumbing, right, you work in the sewer system, you work with septic.

I mean, that would be an act of grace for you if there is a backed up sewer. If there is a failed septic tank for you to arrive on the scene, that would be an act of mercy essentially for you. So it says family needs are important social service. being in the military, being a firefighter, being a police officer can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. Goes on to say, the faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to family, religion, or health. So keep that in mind, is that yes, you might find yourself in a place where how about this, how about you're the

primary breadwinner of your family, your household? And in order to make ends meet, your boss says you have to come in on a Sunday. Like, okay, that might be something you have to do on occasion. Okay, so that is a family need, family obligation you might have. And so that might legitimately excuse you from this particular Sunday day of rest, right? At the same time, it is upon us to be able to say to the boss, I would like to have Sundays off. This is important to me as a religious exercise, I'm called to enter into worship, I'm called to enter into rest, I'm called to enter into family life. So to make that known to your boss is going to be very important. So keep that in mind. And this is for everybody from the parent who's responsible for their family, as well as to the high schooler

who has a summer job or whatever kind of job, to be able to say, it is important for me to exercise this commandment of the Lord to not only worship him on this day, but also to enter into a day of rest. And so I'm asking my boss, could you please not schedule me on Sundays? Now, if your boss does that, okay, that could be a legitimate excuse. You made it known to them that you don't want to be scheduled on Sundays and they do this. That could be a legitimate excuse. It goes on to say, though, the faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses does not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health, right? So they scheduled me on Sunday, and so now that's just what I do where I get over time on Sundays. And so that's kind of what I do now. So I'm not going to be careful.

That legitimate excuse doesn't lead to a habit. Now, this is where. it comes to not just our own lives, which is hard enough to look at, but the lives and how we're impacting those around us. And this is what's so convicting, paragraph 2186, those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. So that is very important. So we have to be mindful of our brethren. Again, I know sometimes the temptation is I need to get myself in order. I need to get my house in order. I'm just going to I'm going to do me right and just you do you I'll do me and we'll take care of ourselves yet and this is so important goes on to say Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works and humble service of the sick the infirm and the elderly that we realize that in their patrimony we've inherited right in the 2000 year history of Christianity of the Catholic church that there is a strong strain where it was oh Sunday is the day that we serve others Sunday is the day that we perform those acts of mercy, those acts of love for those who need them.

What if we look at Sunday as that kind of day, not only a day of entering into worship, entering into rest, but also a day where we have good works and humble service of the sick, the infirm, the elderly. It goes on to say, 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, and this might be something where I know families are so scattered right now, maybe Sundays a day where you get a phone call, phone call to grandma, grandpa, phone call to your mom or dad, phone call to your kids, or to your siblings. I mean, how many brothers and sisters are just scattered across the country? This could be an incredible day that we just say, let's spend that time together. I know that during COVID, this was a, it was a gift for us in so many ways. I mean, obviously it was difficult. That's no doubt. But one of the gifts that we did was we set up a Zoom call every Sunday afternoon. And we just kind of got to gather and see each other. And it was one of those things. things that I thought, this could be the kind of thing that we're all living in

different towns, or many of us are living in different towns, could be the kind of thing that we could do indefinitely. And of course, what happened was it was pretty definite. It stopped at some point. But what an opportunity to exercise this invitation, this command to not only worship, to not only rest, but also to reach out to family members, to relatives, which is difficult to do the other days of the week. Last line in 2186, Sundays a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind and meditation, which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life. Now, I've had a couple chances to get to Israel. And in many of these opportunities, we go to this place called Kafar Khadem, which is basically a, it's a community that where

they dedicate themselves to live, here, we're living in this community, and we're dedicating our lives to follow the laws of the old covenant. And so they observe the Sabbath rest very, very seriously. And so one of the things that they get to testify to is they say, you know, starting on Friday afternoon, Friday evening, we just get to be with our families all day on Saturday. We just get to be with our families. We get to pray. We get to rest. We get to rejoice in each other. We just get to go for a walk. And it's one of those things where when they describe it, there's something in the human heart that just longs for that. And if you could do that, why not do that? Especially since the commandment of God is to enter into that. Now, last couple

things. Paragraph 2187, it says that sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Okay, that means we have to work as a culture. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day. Okay, this is where it gets serious. Traditional activities like sports, restaurants, etc., and social necessities, public services, et cetera, require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. So what do we do? Let's go to a movie on Sunday.

That means someone's working at that movie. Let's go out to eat on Sunday. Okay, that means that someone's going to have to work at that restaurant. And so there's no cut and dried answer. Keep this in mind. There's no black and white answer to this. Even the church leaves this kind of open-ended, where it says traditional activities, sports, restaurants, etc.

Require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. So we recognize that the church is not prohibiting sports, church is not prohibiting restaurants, church is not prohibiting going to a movie. It's not saying we can't do that. It is saying, though, at some point, isn't there some point where we just say, okay, that's enough? You know, if there's anything that afflicts the human heart in the Western world in the

21st century, is this inability to say enough, the inability to say, okay, I'm going to stop. the inability to say, okay, let's pause. I'm full, right? We always want to pack in our days. We always want to pack in the stuff. We always want to do more and more and more. What if we worked together and said, you know, there's an opportunity for us to do less. So here's an example. I think this example can be pretty helpful for us. And this can be the last thing. Keep in mind, right, that it's not just our own lives, our family's lives, but also the obligation of people around us, that there are people who have to work. There are people who are in misery, people in poverty.

And it could be, again, the argument can be made that by going out to a restaurant on a Sunday, you're helping someone get paid. Again, there's an argument there. And so let's be wise, let's be prudent, let's be temperate in all this. There was a priest. His name was Father Bill Bear.

And Father Bill Bear was the rector of the seminary called St. John Viani Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. And at one point, he's just a wise, wise priest and so faithful. And at one point, you know, he worked with all these young men who were in college seminary. And so, if you know anything about college, is that a lot of things are due on Mondays. And you have tests on Mondays, you have projects that are due on Mondays. You have group work that's due on Mondays.

And so, obviously, as you probably know, or you can imagine, Sunday is the day of cramming. And so here are all these seminarians who come to Father Bear and say, Father, what do we do? Do I actually take all of Sunday off and enter into rest? Well, but my small group's meeting on Sunday night. we were planning for our presentation on Monday morning. What do we do? And he just said, how about this? How about, how about from four o'clock on Saturday night, right? The sundown kind of idea, the vigil time. From four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, evening, put your work aside, enter into that rest, that evening. The next morning, when you get up on Sunday, you continue

to live in rest, you go to mass, enter into worship, and then you live out that rest, maybe, you know, go over to the dining center, maybe go for a walk, whatever the thing is. But you can enter into that rest and keep living in that rest until like one o'clock. And then at one o'clock you can pick your work back up. But the idea behind this is that you're cultivating, you're training yourself to enter into rest. You're training yourself to limit. You're training yourself to say, okay, at some point I can say enough. Why?

Because you're not a slave. You're free. And so even if you did this as a family or even if you did this as an individual to say, okay, at some point on Saturday. putting the work aside, entering into the Lord's Day. I'm entering into worship. I'm entering into rest. And then, again, all that morning, worship on Sunday, worship and rest.

Maybe that's when you call your family. Maybe that's when you make time for family. And then at some point saying, okay, at 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, whatever the time is, there's things that need to get done. So I'm going to pick that work back up. But at least you've carved out a time, a space that belongs to the Lord. And you began exercising this no muscle, right? the ability, the capacity to say no, the capacity to say enough and, and above all, everything

else, the capacity to say yes to the God who commands this instead of just simply saying, I just can't do it, because that's what we want to say, right? I just can't do it. I couldn't possibly. I couldn't possibly take the entire Sunday and let it belong to the Lord. Well, start where you can. That's the invitation. That's from Father Bill Baer, who passed away a few years ago. So may he rest in peace. And may all of us rest in this. life. Let's pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mac. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.