In the Jewish tradition one of the rules for sanctifying the holy Sabbath day properly and avoiding its profanation is this:
“Your speech on the Sabbath day should not be like your speech on weekdays.“
R. Meir ibn Gabbai: The Mystery of the Sabbath. Translated and with a critical commentary by Elliot K. Ginsburg, State University of New York Press 1989, p. 55
Saint James the Apostle, brother of Saint Jude, teaches as part of the Way that leads to life:
“Anyone who claims to be religious without keeping a tight rein on the tongue is practising self-deception (…).“
James 1: 26
A holy day, whether it is the seventh day of the Sabbath in Judaism or the eighth day of the Lord‘s resurrection and glory in Catholicism, needs to be “kept holy“. The Jewish sages teach that whenever the Sabbath is profaned, for example by mundane or raw speech and talk as well as quarreling, it is a breach against the harmony and peace of the “celestial Jerusalem“ and leads to the destruction of the “earthly Jerusalem“ (ibid., p. 41). To remain blessed in the land of Israel hinges on keeping the Sabbath day holy. We read in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
“If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath ‘a delight‘ and the day sacred to the LORD ‘a day honoured‘, if you honour it by not going your own way, from seeking your own pleasure and idle chatter, then you will find true pleasure in the LORD and I shall let you ride over the heights of the land. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.“
Isaiah 58: 13-14
Heavenly blessings come down to here below, to the earthly realm, when the commandment to sanctify the Sabbath day is kept. In the Jewish tradition it is therefore forbidden to profane the Sabbath by bringing to attention and discussing temporal needs, strifes, and worries. Be it politics, or even “the needs of the synagogue“, of the community of the faithful.
“(On the Sabbath) it is forbidden to concern oneself even with the needs of the synagogue. Rather, one must engage only in songs of praise, in prayer and in words of Torah. One who concerns himself with other matters profanes the holy Sabbath.“
R. Meir ibn Gabbai: The Mystery of the Sabbath. Translated and with a critical commentary by Elliot K. Ginsburg, State University of New York Press 1989, p. 36, 40
“On the Sabbath day all Israel are like ministering angels; their only concern is the praise and exaltation of their Creator.“
Should not Catholics do in like manner on the holy first day of the week, the day of their new creation in Christ, the day to which their weekly obligation to assist at Holy Mass is bound? In Judaism, every Sabbath is understood as the miracle of the exodus relived. It is also said that the Torah was given to Israel on a Sabbath. Every eighth day is commemorating the resurrection of Christ, who is the Torah made flesh coming to us in the Most Holy Eucharist, is remembering the Passover of the Lord, the liberation from sin and death and from Pharao‘s – Satan‘s – reign, and thus every eighth day is this exodus relived as well. This is exactly what Catholics are taught every year during the Paschal Vigil when the Exsultet – the paschal song of praise – is chanted.
“For when the holy day arrives on Sabbath eve, She (the community of Israel) escapes from those that beset Her. She leaves their domain and enters the domain of holiness.“
R. Meir ibn Gabbai: The Mystery of the Sabbath. Translated and with a critical commentary by Elliot K. Ginsburg, State University of New York Press 1989, p. 40
The Sabbath day and Sunday should not be confused with one another, though they intimately belong together. The Church never changed the appointed days and times as inbuilt into the weekly rhythm God created.
Saturday always remains the Sabbath day, as is very clear in Latin and many Roman languages in which Saturday is called “sabbato“. Sunday, the beginning of a new week, was always rendered in the tradition of the Church as “the first day of the week“ or the “eighth day“, never the “seventh“, for the “seventh day“ is and always will be Saturday: the day on which God rested from creating the world, the day on which Christ rested in the tomb, devoted in the liturgy to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Interestingly enough, the Jewish tradition pictures the Sabbath as a Queen and a Bride…
“We prolong the Sabbath by extending it into Saturday night, thereby showing that we do not like to see the departure of the holy Guest; indeed, its parting evokes a deep feeling of regret. So we detain it and, in our great affection, escort it with song and (choruses of) praise (…). It is said in the Midrash: ‘(The Sabbath) may be compared to a Bride and Queen who is escorted with song and verses of praise.‘ We have already alluded to the high mystery of Shabbat as Bride and Queen (…). (…) when the Sabbath arrives we must usher it in with songs and choruses of praise; and when the Sabbath departs, we must escort it in like fashion. So is our custom!“
R. Meir ibn Gabbai: The Mystery of the Sabbath. Translated and with a critical commentary by Elliot K. Ginsburg, State University of New York Press 1989, p. 66-67
From a Catholic perspective, we would have to consider both Saturday and Sunday to be very special days of the week as they belong to the Mother of God and to her Son, the Messiah, as they belong to the moon (a symbol of the Blessed Virgin) and to the sun (a symbol of the King of kings). As the light of the moon is a reflection of the light of the sun, the peace of the Sabbath day is a reflection of the even more complete peace in Christ. The eighth day is the fulfillment of the seventh day, in a way a “double portion“ Sabbath.
If only Catholics learned to also live it as a “double portion“ of praise, joy, and recreation kind of day, very careful to not profane it. And one aspect of contributing to keeping the first day of the week holy is this: to drop the idle chatter, to call the day of rest a delight, for a whole day to raise our hearts up to our Creator and Redeemer, up and beyond the trenches of this passing world.
To chant praise only, to give thanks for receiving the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, and then simply to rest with a lover’s heart in His victory, His peace, and His joy; to celebrate, replenish and recreate ourselves in brotherly togetherness.
“Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:
Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 2175 – 2716; 2184 – 2185
‘Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord’s Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.‘ (St Ignatius of Antioch)
The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship ‘as a sign of his universal beneficence to all.‘ (St Thomas Aquinas) Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.“
“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.“