Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

We often think that Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep.

Jesus was sent for all of us.

God instructed us to Observe what is right, do what is just, for our salvation is about to come.

For those who keep the sabbath free from profaning it and holding on to God’s covenant.

This last week that is exactly what happened in the Diocese of Sioux Falls.

As their new Bishop restricted the dispensation from the Sunday obligation.

In doing so Bishop Degrood put the Sunday obligation back in place for those people who are not at high risk of dyeing from Covid-19.

The Bishop said that their numbers in Sioux Falls are very low and that is what supported his decision to reinstate the Sunday obligation.

Even though our Sunday obligation is lifted here in the St. Cloud Dioceses.

We are still bound by the Ten Commandments to keep the Sabbath day Holy in some way.

I am deeply troubled by how some of my  parishioners have done this.

It is not be a matter of convenience.

Of fitting it in when I get a chance.

We should be offering our time to the Lord by way of sacrifice.

After all the Mass is a sacrifice.

It should be respected with great reverence for our God.

To keep Sunday, the seventh day of the week separate from the other days.

In the story of creation that is what we find in the book of Genesis. God creates the world in six days and on the seventh day he rests.

By not keeping the Sabbath it causes oppression.

In the first reading we find the Israelites returning to their home country from the Babylon exile.

They find their homeland in ruins.

As the Israelites return to their land they are still being under oppression.

God’s people find themselves living among foreigners.

Foreigners who do not know about keeping the Sabbath.

They are all being forced to work to rebuild their home land.

That is how God’s people the Israelites were suppressed from rebelling against the government.

Even today we find in our community//

this idea that the harder we work the better.

We have this mind set that work will set us free.

One of my favorite classes at St. Thomas was Christian Faith and Business management. It was taught by Dr. Michael Naughton who once said.

Work never sets you free, it enslaves you.

He went on to talk about the importance of leisure.

Leisure as being time spent thinking about the important questions in life like our salvation.

Another favorite quote that I like of Doctor Naughton’s is.

If we do not get Sunday right//

we will not get Monday right//

and the days that follow.

I think I could add to this.

If we do not get the Sabbath right

we will not get are salvation right.

If we do not get our salvation right, we will find ourselves in the fires of Hell for all eternity.

Eternity is to long to be spent in the wrong place.

But, that is what happens if we keep distancing ourselves from God.

As we continue to sin by violating God’s commandment of keeping the Sabbath Holy.

We know what God is wanting for us.

Isaiah tells us, I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar.

God is wanting us to spend time in prayer with him at the altar in Church.

Notice God says our offering is acceptable.

Why is the Sabbath day so important for us?

The Sabbath day is a day of detachment from things that are not obligated.

It is a day were we stop doing work that is unnecessary because work makes us appear that we are worshiping idols.

Replacing God with the almighty dollar.

We need to take a break from the economic struggles.

An exodus from the tension.

There is a need to separate ourselves from technology and instruments.

They are all distractions that keep us from praying to God.

Pulled in many directions we cannot keep our focus.

That is why we need the Sabbath.

We need to get our mind off of our daily work.

By keeping the sabbath Holy,

God wants us to find that inner peace.

When we experience this inner peace we will know that we are doing God’s will.

We will notice that when we return to work on Monday.

The work that we do will be in harmony with the nature of the world.

In the book entitled the Sabbath by Abraham Heschel.

I think he says it best when he says:

“All that is divine in the world is brought into Union with God.

This is Sabbath, and the true happiness of the universe.”

God is calling each and everyone of his people back to Church to this house of prayer for all his people.

We come to the altar, not with animal sacrifices, but with the correct sacrifice that Jesus has given us.

The bread and wine.

That will become the Body and Blood of Jesus that was sacrificed on the wood of the Cross.

God made it known to us that Jesus his son was the acceptable offering for the sacrifice for our sins.

On this the seventh day.

We give honor and praise to our God on the Sabbath holding on to his covenant by keeping it holy.

If we do not get the sabbath right,

we will not get our salvation right.

Eternity, is to long to be gone a way from God.