God Squad: The role of the Sabbath
What, precisely, did God do on the 7th Day? I like to rest, too, but staring at a blank computer screen all day gets old, at least for me.
-- J., Cary, N.C., via email
My belief is that the purpose of the seventh day of creation was to establish the divine commandment of rest for us. The purpose of rest is first to help us rebuild our strength for the workweek ahead. I think the Sabbath is also a time to reconnect with our families and spiritual communities, so we don't feel alone.
Above all, I believe the Sabbath is an essential moment in time to reflect on the single most important fact about our lives. This is not a religious fact or belief, although the appreciation of it is the engine that powers every religious tradition. Rather, it's a certain and absolute truth about everyone's life: We've been given more than we deserve.
Christians call this fact grace (charis) (see Romans 5:1-9). Jews call it hesed. Muslims call it rachamim. Hindus call it kripa. Atheists call it luck. Whatever you call it, the fact remains that we don't deserve the health, freedom, family, friends, intelligence, love, courage, abilities (you can add to the list) we possess. Our goodness, our virtue, is simply not great enough to justify being showered with so many blessings -- and yet, mysteriously and wonderfully, we are blessed.
Grace is the opposite of justice. If God was simply a God of justice, fairly condemning us for all our sins, none of us would be saved. We'd all be guilty. However, God's love and mercy improve the harsh decree of justice. The Sabbath is the time we should speak that truth to our souls.
Of course, we wonder why some people are showered with more blessings than others, and we all recognize that some people live in very difficult circumstances, but in general, you simply can't argue convincingly that you've earned every one of your blessings.
I once heard from my dear friend, Father Tom Hartman, about a priest who received a cold bottle of soda from a woman he met in the slums of Calcutta. The soda cost her a week's wages, yet she was glad to offer it to her guest in honor of his visit and in recognition of her many blessings. Such a gift ought to silence all who believe you must be wealthy to be blessed.
If it is true that we live in grace/ hesed/rachamim/luck/etc., the next question is obvious: What are we going to do about it? We can ignore the fact, but that seems ungrateful at best and arrogant and selfish at worst.
Enter the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, we do several things to address the abundance of our blessings.
The first thing religious people do is thank God in prayer. By acknowledging the source of our blessings, we acknowledge our sacred debt to God. That debt is paid not only by prayer but also by the solemn commitment to share our blessings with those not blessed as abundantly.
The Sabbath is a time when we rise above our animal natures and accept our spiritual station. We elevate gratitude and charity above self- absorption. We make sense of being placed at the pinnacle of things and beings God created on the first six days. We rest in order to rise to God in praise and love. That is why God made the Sabbath day.
In your column of beautiful quotes for wedding toasts, you left out my favorite example. It comes from "The Music Man," when Marion the librarian sings about the man she's waiting for. Do you remember? Here's the line: "I want him to be more interested in me than he is in himself; and more interested in us than in me."
-- Via email
Thank you. My favorite quote from "The Music Man" (which has nothing to do with weddings) is: "Oh, we got trouble . . . right here in River City!"
