Case XXIII: Servile Work on Sunday

James is a cigar maker and has a little business of his own. He is accustomed, on Sundays, after going to Mass, to spend five or six hours in his shop, making cigars. He does not give any scandal because no one knows it. He does it, he says, in order to escape from idleness, and besides, it seems to him much better to be engaged in some decent work at home, than to spend the time loafing around, or in saloons. Are his reasons sufficient to justify him?

Answer. The following are the chief kinds of work that are permitted on Sundays:

1. Works demanded by our own personal need or the need of our neighbor;

2. Works in the direct service of religion;

3. Works of charity, care and nursing of the sick, burying the dead;

4. Works permitted by custom, as cooking, sweeping the house, etc.;

5. Works permitted by dispensation obtained from legitimate authority.

Now it is very evident that the work done by this cigar maker does not come under any of the heads of this category. Therefore it is work that may not lawfully be done on Sunday, except for other reasons than those advanced by James.

James says that he works on Sundays in order to shun idleness. But this is not a sufficient excuse, because there are other and lawful ways of shunning idleness on Sundays, such as praying, meditating, attending vespers and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, reading good literature, etc. There are authorities that permit servile work on Sundays simply as a means of shunning idleness, if there were good reason to fear that idleness, in this instance, would lead one into sin. But St. Alfonsus thinks that even in such a case, servile work would be permitted only if it were the only means of conquering the temptation to sin. Certainly this cannot be said of this cigar maker. In fact, it would be very rare that it could be said of anybody.

The other excuse that James gives for working on Sunday is equally untenable. He says it is better to be decently employed at home on Sundays, than to be idling about or drinking and gambling in the saloons. It certainly is better, or at least less sinful. But it is not necessary to do either. It is lawful to choose the lesser evil, when that is the only way of escaping the greater evil. But this is not true of James. He does not have to make cigars on Sunday in order to keep out of the saloons. If this were the only means for James to keep out of the saloons, he would be allowed to use it. And in a particular case, it might be. But it is not true of James. He has other and lawful means at hand to escape idleness and the saloons.

Speaking in the abstract, therefore, we would say that this cigar maker, by engaging in servile labor on Sundays, without a valid reason and for a considerable time, that is for longer than two hours, commits a mortal sin, because he violates the commandment to sanctify the Lord’s day, in a serious manner and without a justifying reason or excuse. And even though he works only an hour now and again during the day, if all the time he works, when added together, amounts to considerably more than two hours, then he commits a grievous sin, because the work thus done on Sundays, even though interruptedly, coalesces, as the theologians say.

We say, theoretically speaking, James commits a grievous sin. Practically, we think that for the want of sufficient knowledge, James did not commit a grievous sin. He acted in good faith, believing honestly that he had ample justification for working as he did on Sundays. But once he is instructed regarding his case, if he nevertheless continues to engage in this labor on Sundays, we do not see how he can be excused from mortal sin. Still, even then, James' own peculiar mental character must betaken into account, before a just decision can be reached.