Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

ings, fields and work sites. In a similar way, people have also excepted certain days from the
time bestowed upon them and given them back to God, as it were, by honoring God on these
cultic days and asking for his blessing for the remaining times of work and trouble. In ancient
Babylon, the seventh, fourteenth, and twenty-first days of the lunar month were cultically
celebrated. The Romans recognized 132 holy days.
Both in the Old Covenant and for the new People of God the rhythm of the week is determined
by the Lord's day. Weekday work, family life and life in society are ordered by the
pulse beat, as it were, of the Lord's day. Sunday rest from work pushes weekday work in the
vertical direction and places it before the face of God. Only from rest and silence before God
does work receive its ultimate interpretation. Ora et labora means: work out of prayerful silence
before God. It follows from these considerations that in the rhythm of the week a certain
day must be established as a workfree day for the whole society. It would be an expression of
individualistic thought if one wanted to leave it up to the individual to select any day of the
week as his or her private leisure day. Without Sunday, common worship of God with solemn
liturgy and proclamation of the Word of God to the community is not possible. A free Sunday
in common is also indispensable for family life, for the cultivation of relationships with relatives
and friends as well as for participation in the cultural life of one's people.
The dominant centre of the Christian Sunday is the Eucharistic sacrifice. From the cross and
the altar, the grace of Christ flows into our lives and into the world. The cross and the altar are
the pledge of the resurrection and of eternal life. It is from these that Sunday receives its eschatological
character. 97 The Sunday rest from work is not an end in itself, but ordered to the
service of higher values. The two Sunday commandments of celebrating the holy sacrifice and
resting from work are therefore not on a par with one another. As a cultic rest, rest from work
should create instead the proper atmosphere for the cultic worship of God. It thus becomes
understandable why the first state and Church laws that were enacted after the persecution of
the Christians for the protection of Sundays forbade in a particularly emphatic way eccentric,
noisy, and publicly disturbing events such as circus performance, animal fights, and noisy
markets. Furthermore, the opus servile, the so-called 'servile work' is forbidden on Sun- day.
It has been pointed out that the expression 'servile work“ stemming from the Old Testament
holy day (non-Sabbath) legislation is today misleading and difficult to interpret. What is
meant is the laborious professional work of every day life such as takes place in factories,
stores, offices, and administrative centers. One must consider here, of course, that in accordance
with the freedom of the children of God, the Christian Sunday commandment is far
from all formalism and rigorism, which should affect the judgment of so-called 'contrasting
relaxation' in a particular way today. Earlier, people were probably too strict here. Today it is
rightly explained that, for example, light „garden work is permitted for a civil servant or
miner on Sunday (after having fulfilled the Mass obligation) as a contrasting relaxation, but
not for a professional gardener,“ insofar it can take place without scandal. 98 14 At all times,
certain dispensations were from the commandment of Sunday rest were allowed which usually
developed by customary law. It is understood that these exceptions are different today
from those obtaining in the Middle Ages. The modem economy is a complicated technical and
organizational apparatus which one cannot completely shut down on Sunday without serious
damage. New dispensations have been added. Traditional dispensations could perhaps fall to
the wayside, such as the opening of stores on Sunday, which was often common in the country,
because getting to a village with a church required a great deal of time, but can be
achieved today in a short time by car or bicycle. Today, there are five kinds of dispensation
which are important. Normal house and farm work do not come under the commandment of
Sunday rest; this was the most important reason for dispensation in the pre-industrial age.
Second, Sunday work is allowed if an emergency (fire, flood, car accident etc.) has to be dealt
97 Cf Joseph Höffner. Der Tag des Herrn (Cologne: Presseamt des Erzbistums. 1974).
98 F Pettirsch, in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 69 (1947):257ff. 124
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