The Eschatological Lord’s Day – Worship, Rest, and Communion

by Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG

The current Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983 and subsequently revised, in Canon 1247, contains the following regarding the keeping of Sundays, the Lord’s Day, and Holy Days:

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.¹

The corresponding canon (n. 1248) in the 1917 Code of Canon Law reads as follows:

On feast days of precept, Mass is to be heard; there is an abstinence from servile work, legal acts, and likewise, unless there is a special indult or legitimate customs provide otherwise, from public trade, shopping, and other public buying and selling.²

According to the Catholic moral tradition, the motivation behind the content of these canons is as follows:

• Man’s natural powers are rested
• valuable help is given to man’s spiritual and religious life
• family life is fostered
• social worship and universal religion are encouraged ³

But, more simply stated, it can be said that the purpose of the Church’s law regarding the keeping of Sunday is to encourage worship, rest, and communion.  This article will quickly explore each of these points before explaining the deep reason for the Church’s association of these three with the proper keeping of the Lord’s Day.

To begin with, the faithful are required to worship God on Sunday.  Specifically, they are required, unless legitimately excused, to attend Mass.  While other religious activities are encouraged, such as spiritual reading, catechism, and devotions, the Church requires attendance at Mass and only in-person participation at Mass fulfills this requirement.  In this precept, the Church has codified in her law this directive found in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Not forsaking our assembly” (Heb 10:25).

Next, the faithful are expected to rest on Sundays.  Historically, the Catholic moral tradition has identified four types of work:

1. Servile work is that which a) requires mainly bodily activity, b) has as its immediate purpose the welfare of the body, c) was formerly done by slaves; e.g., farm work such as digging or ploughing, mechanical work like sewing or making shoes.
   N.B. The character of servile work is not determined by the worker’s intention or by the fatigue involved, or by the fact that wages are received, etc., but solely by the nature of the work itself which remains servile even if done out of charity or for the sake of recreation.
2. Cultural work is that which a) is the product chiefly of the mental facilities, b) is immediately directed towards the development of the mind, c) used to be performed by persons who were not slaves, such as reading, writing, singing, playing the organ.  These acts remain cultural even if energy is lost in their performance and wages received.
3. Ordinary (natural) work is that which is done indiscriminately by all classes and is chiefly intended for the daily sustenance of the body, such as eating, hunting, travelling, cooking.
4. Judicial and commercial work is that which is transacted in the courts or in the course of public trading, such as sitting in court, defending criminals, buying, selling, leasing, etc.⁴

The canon in the 1917 Code makes it clear that unnecessary servile, judicial, and commercial work are forbidden (generally) on Sundays (there can be situations where servile, judicial, and/or commercial work become necessary and, thus, would not be forbidden).  This reflects the traditional Catholic moral position that these activities are, per se, incompatible with the proper keeping of the Lord’s Day as a day of rest and worship, but cultural work and ordinary (natural) work are allowed.⁵  While the canon in the 1983 Code is less precise on the types of “works and affairs” which are incompatible with the keeping of the Lord’s Day, there is a certain advantage to this.  In interpreting this canon, the traditional prohibition against servile, judicial, and commercial work is still present, but there is also a prohibition against the improper use of those types of work which are allowed, namely cultural work and ordinary (natural) work, a prohibition not expressed in the earlier version.  As was stated, cultural work and ordinary (natural) work are not per se incompatible with the proper keeping of the Lord’s Day, but they can become so if undertaken immoderately.  For example, while practicing an instrument is not per se contrary to the keeping of the Lord’s Day, prolonging the practice to such an extent that no rest was actually had and/or that one spent the day isolated from others would violate the purpose of the law, which is there to foster communion and rest.  While it is true that in the early Church, existing in a Roman world, had to treat Sundays as normal days of work, once it was possible, the Church imposed the expectation of rest on Sundays.

Lastly, on Sundays, the faithful are expected to have and build communion with, first, the members of their family, their natural household, but also with the other members of the Church, the household of faith.  This is part of the reason why attendance at Mass is required.  Mass is not a private devotion, but an act of the Church in common, although there is a differentiation of roles.  The time of Sunday outside of Mass, additionally, should not be spent in isolation, with each pursuing his or her own interests.  But, rather, it should be spent with others, particularly those of the natural household and the household of faith, so that the ties of relationship may be established or strengthened.

After this brief explanation, the question can be explored as to why the Church promotes, nay more, demands worship, rest, and communion of her faithful on the Lord’s Day.  The answer is that each Lord’s Day is, in a certain sense, a proclamation of, an expectation of, and a participation, in a limited yet real way, in the “life of the world to come,” as it is said in the Creed.  In the world to come, the blessed will be eternally, communally worshiping God – “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunders, saying: Alleluia: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, hath reigned.  Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to him.  For the marriage of the Lamb is come: and his wife hath prepared herself” (Apoc 19:6-7); be at rest in God – “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.  From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours” (Apoc 14:13); and be in communion with God and with each other – “And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men: and He will dwell with them.  And they shall be His people: and God himself with them shall be their God” (Apoc 21:3).  Each Lord’s Day, then, is eschatological, a fancy word meaning being associated with the last things, in that each and every Sunday should point forward, by the behavior of the faithful, to how they hope to, and how the blessed will, spend their eternity.  This is contrasted with the damned who do not join the heavenly worship nor have rest – “And the smoke of their torments, shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image and whoever receiveth the character of his name” (Apoc 14:11); and who are cut off from communion with God – “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the pool of fire” (Apoc 20:15).

The faithful, then, are required to attend Mass, because Mass, unlike private devotions or other religious activities, is a participation in, in a real yet limited way, and thus a foretaste of, the heavenly liturgy.  The faithful are required to rest, not in imitation of the rest of the Jewish Sabbath, which marks the seventh day and the completion of creation, but, rather, in order to mark the day which is now, because of the resurrection of the Lord, the eighth day, which is richer and more supernaturally abundant by far than the seventh, and a day which is now a proclamation and foretaste, in a real yet limited way, of the day of eternity.  Lastly, the faithful are expected to build communion because they will not spend their eternity, God willing, in isolation with just God, but, rather, they will be with all of the blessed communally worshiping God and enjoying His beatitude for eternity.

The requirements and expectations set by the Church, then, are an invitation to begin living here below, if only for a day weekly, and occasionally during the week on Holy Days, in the manner of proclamation and foretaste of how the blessed will spend their eternity.  Viewed in this light, these requirements and expectations no longer seem as impositions but rather as something which elevates, something which can be entered into joyfully.  For, ultimately, how we spend our Sundays indicates how we hope to spend our eternity.  May these reflections change, if necessary, how we approach the keeping of Sundays and let us keep the Lord’s Day, the whole day, as a proclamation of, in expectation of, and as a participation, in real yet limited way, in the “life of the world to come,” by worship, rest, and communion.

Rev. Cav. William Rock, FSSP, SMOCSG was ordained in the fall of 2019 and was invested as an Ecclesiastical Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George in the summer of 2025.  He currently resides at the FSSP Canonical House of St. Casimir in Nashua, NH, and ministers at St. Stanislaus parish.

In support of the causes of Blessed Maria Cristina, Queen, and Servant of God Francesco II, King 

1. Code of Canon Law – Book IV – Function of the Church (Cann. 1244-1253).
2. The 1917 or Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001).
3. Prümmer, Dominic M. Handbook of Moral Theology. Trans. Sheldon, Gerald W. Edit. Nolan, John Gavin. (New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1957), pp. 193-194 (n. 420).
4. Ibid., p 196 (n. 426).
5. Ibid. (n. 427).