Question Two: On the Observance of Feasts

S. Th. II-II, q. 122, a. 4.

685. From what law and to what does the precept of the observance of feasts oblige. - From the law of nature there is a precept of assigning some time to the external worship of God: for there is in man a natural inclination to this, that some time be deputed to every necessary thing, such as bodily refreshment, sleep, and other things of this sort; hence also to divine worship, by which the mind is spiritually refreshed. But positive law establishes the determination of this time and the mode of externally worshiping God: in the Old Testament, indeed, the divine Mosaic law established the observance of the sabbath, but this determination, as being purely ceremonial, ceased when the New Law came, along with the other ceremonies of the Old Law, so that it was not changed into another but was totally abrogated; but in the New Testament, from the time of the Apostles, a custom was introduced and gradually made obligatory, establishing the observance of the first day of the week. To this day the Church has still joined several other feasts, which today are those of the Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, and most holy Body of Christ, the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary, the gracious Mother of God, St. Joseph her Spouse, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and finally All Saints (can. 1247).

But in certain regions, as in France and Belgium, by territorial privilege they have been reduced to four: the Nativity and Ascension of the Lord, the Assumption of the B. M. V., and the Feast of All Saints. Hence if a Frenchman or Belgian is staying outside his fatherland in a place where the other feasts have not been abolished, he is bound to observe them.

Moreover, the precept of observing feasts includes a twofold part: the one negative, of abstaining from one midnight to the next from servile and forensic works (can. 1248), which are especially apt to draw the faithful away from divine worship; - the other positive, of assisting at the sacrifice of the Mass, concerning which it will be said where sacrifice is treated.

686. Servile works to be avoided are those which a) are performed principally by the powers of the body, and b) tend immediately to bodily use, and therefore c) formerly were usually exercised by servants, now by domestics and workers. They are opposed to liberal works, which principally tend to the powers of the soul, or at least to cultivating the soul, and which are usually exercised by free men or masters, or by all indiscriminately. From this definition it is plain that there are no common works; nor does a work become servile because it is exercised for the sake of profit, or for a long time and with great bodily weariness, or vice versa; but the matter depends upon the nature of the work and its intrinsic end.

According to the aforesaid definition, liberal works are: works which regard the exercise of letters or sciences: studying, reading, teaching, disputing, preaching, writing or transcribing, by hand or machine, even for profit; - works of the liberal arts, such as singing, playing musical instruments, painting artistically, sculpting more subtle works or completing greater ones, delineating figures, exercising the photographic art unless it is done with great apparatus; - making a journey and all things which are necessary for this: arranging and guiding horses, preparing a vehicle, carrying baggage, the labor of coachmen, sailors, and attendants of railway carriages; - engaging in bodily games: military, nautical, theatrical, dancing; - hunting, fowling, and fishing, unless they are done with great apparatus (for example, at sea) or labor; - banquets, feasts, drinking-parties, conversations, etc.

On the contrary, servile works are: rural works, such as plowing, digging, sowing, reaping, gathering harvests, cultivating vineyards, cutting trees, measuring fields, plucking or peeling fruits; - works of the mechanical arts: masonry, smithing, carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking, roofing, weaving, typography even in composing type, which is not immediately ordered to the expression of concepts but to the printing of letters or forms; - drawing musical lines, multiplying transcriptions, for example, polycopy; - labors in factories, mines, foundries; exercising the works of a butcher and skinning beasts, baking bread, making distillations of liquors with great apparatus; - painting not artistically, or preparing colors, a board, or a wall for artistic painting with notable labor, doing preparatory works of greater labor or works pertaining to sculpture; - women's works, such as spinning, sewing, making netted or checked work, weaving by hand, making lacework, - indeed, embroidering images with a needle or reproducing them on cloth, not only by means of a machine but also by hand, unless it is done with singular art; in which case one must still beware lest women think any ornaments whatever are lawful; - stringing gems on thread, making rosaries, scapulars, cords, artificial flowers, images of wax, silk, paper, etc.; - and more probably: driving loaded beasts of burden, or with their help loaded wagons and ships, and a fortiori, placing burdens on beasts, wagons, or a ship; likewise grinding, etc.; but in these things the custom of places is to be considered.¹

¹ Custom is not to be understood of great workshops in which there is no less labor than elsewhere.

687. Forensic works prohibited are a) public market and b) forensic acts or judicial commotion; for both are signified by the name forum: the place where trials are held, and the place where markets are held (can. 1248).

1. Under the name of market there are prohibited a) annual fairs which are celebrated once or twice in a year; it is excepted if by custom they are tolerated somewhere, but to introduce such a custom would be a sin; b) quasi-weekly fairs which are held once or twice in a week (the practice exists of transferring them to another day); c) negotiations held on the Exchange; d) public rentals and sales of houses, fields, trees, furniture, etc.; but private ones are not prohibited, even if such contracts are made before a notary; e) per se sales and purchases in public shops are also prohibited; but in certain regions, as in Belgium, there already seems to be a legitimate custom of selling and buying in this way indiscriminately whatever things; likewise it is licit to sell things of lesser importance even in public streets, such as newspapers, flowers, cards, and some edible things.

2. Under the name of forensic acts or judicial commotion there are prohibited actions which intrinsically regard the cognizance and decision of both secular and ecclesiastical judicial matters, such as summoning and hearing the parties, interrogating witnesses, receiving a judicial oath, taking proofs, rendering or executing sentence.² But extrajudicial acts are not prohibited, such as privately consulting advocates or informing judges, or examining a case, or questioning a client, or transcribing the acts of a suit.

² It should be noted that ecclesiastical trials are also prohibited on the last three days of Holy Week (can. 1639).

688. The precept of abstaining from prohibited works obliges under grave obligation all the faithful who have the use of reason from the age of seven onward;³ nevertheless it admits lightness of matter. Authors generally judge:

³ Hence proposition 52 was condemned by Innocent XI: "The precept of keeping feasts does not oblige under mortal sin, scandal set aside, if contempt is absent."

a) with regard to servile works, it is certainly mortal to labor beyond two hours, or two and a half hours for a very laborious work, and up to about three hours for a lighter work;

b) if the matter is so light that it is in no way contrary to the end of the law, and is reckoned as almost nothing, it is not a sin, for example, to sew one or another stitch;

c) with regard to forensic works, the gravity of matter is determined more from the quality and importance of the work (and from scandal) than from its quantity itself; for example, a sale of a house with great solemnity, or a session of a tribunal, would be mortal, even if it is done in a brief time;

d) prohibited works, performed without an excusing cause within the same day, coalesce, provided they are exercised by the same person; hence one does not sin gravely who orders six servants to labor for an hour, unless however there is scandal.

689. The causes excusing from the obligation are:

1. Legitimate custom (can. 1248), at least probable, as was said concerning trade in shops for Belgium, and in certain places milling.

2. Legitimate dispensation by the Supreme Pontiff, and also by the Bishop or by the pastor or superior of an exempt clerical religion, but in a particular case, according to the norm of can. 1245, namely, for a just cause, with the individual faithful or individual families subject to him, even outside the territory, and in his own territory also with travelers.

Pastors, unless they have received special delegation, cannot, for example from the pulpit, dispense the whole parish for rural works in time of harvest; yet in a case in which necessity is evident, they can declare the works to be licit, but then there is no need of dispensation.

3. Necessity of worship, or piety toward God, which permits:

a) works which directly contain the external worship of God, such as the acts of the priest and of those serving him: carrying the cross, images, relics in processions; ringing bells, blowing the organs, swinging the thurible;

b) works which regard the worship of God altogether proximately, such as adorning altars, arranging sacred vestments;

c) indeed works which regard it less proximately, such as adorning or cleaning the church, erecting altars in public streets, baking hosts, erecting a funeral structure, if they could not conveniently be done at another time, or if a custom exists somewhere; otherwise they do not exceed venial sin.

But those things are not permitted which regard worship only remotely, such as restoring a church, whitewashing walls, sweeping the church, making candles, making or repairing vestments, chalices, linens, washing linens, cutting or carrying stones or wood for constructing a church or altar.

4. Public necessity, from which are permitted works of war, repair of public works which allow no delay, labor to be expended for the celebration of public festivities which are a moral necessity of social life, selling and distributing things or merchandise morally necessary to the community, capturing and interrogating a thief who otherwise would flee, printing daily newspapers where there is a custom, etc.

5. One's own private necessity, from which it is licit:

a) proximately to prepare the necessary foods of the day; and from custom, even superfluous and unusual foods, and to do all things in order to the table, such as plucking some fruits, washing dishes, slaughtering smaller animals;

b) to do what is necessary for the neatness of the house or of a person (such as shaving the beard, cleaning clothes, dyeing shoes), namely, things which usually cannot conveniently be done at another time or on all days;

c) to labor if otherwise someone could not feed himself and his own, or would undergo a sufficiently notable detriment, or would lose the occasion of a great and extraordinary profit.

Hence workers do not sin who mend clothes or wash and repair tools, cultivate a little garden, if another time is lacking and they cannot have it done by others without subtracting from due sustenance; likewise those whose work cannot be interrupted without notable damage, such as workers with molten iron or glass, burners of bricks or lime; likewise farmers who, to avert damage from rain, turn, bind, or carry hay or crops, gather fruits, water vegetables; likewise children, workers, servants who are compelled, provided it is not done in contempt of the precept or hatred of religion. Nevertheless servants and workers who were often compelled would be bound, as far as they can, seriously to seek another master for themselves.

The need to avoid idleness does not excuse, nor the weight of vehement sadness, indeed not even the danger of sin, unless it cannot otherwise be avoided, which scarcely happens. But in these circumstances a reason will more easily be present for the pastor to dispense and grant permission to work for some hours.

6. Another's necessity, or charity toward neighbor, permits, even for profit:

a) works which per se and proximately are works of mercy, such as serving the sick, burying the dead;

b) other works which per accidens and remotely are works of charity, if grave necessity is present, such that the neighbor could labor for himself, or if a determinate church or pious place were very needy;

c) but it is not licit to labor for the poor or poor churches in general, nor for them in particular, if they are in only common necessity.

Hence bakers, butchers, smiths, tailors licitly labor for neighbor because of some urgent necessity, for example, of a funeral, wedding, journey,⁴ etc.; - likewise from custom, barbers, hairdressers, and those who dye the shoes of passers-by, even when offering their work to all; - likewise with regard to judicial matters: it suffices that necessity, charity, or the public good demand them (can. 1639). Thus the reason of assisting the poor or oppressed, the necessity of finishing a case or avoiding the expenses and journeys of litigants, for which reasons by Belgian law justices of the peace can sit on feast days,⁵ and a criminal case begun is not to be interrupted.⁶

⁴ Yet they can be culpable if they have rashly promised, or during the week have neglected the work, or have undertaken too much work, more than they can perform.

⁵ Code de Procedure civile, a. 8.

⁶ Code d'instruction criminelle, a. 533.

690. Observations. - 1. Among works not prohibited, there are several which, in some determinate case, are more opposed than servile works to the end of the precept, namely, to the sanctification of the feast; but for this reason they do not fall under the precept. Yet they are not to be commended to the faithful, but rather the faithful are to be kept away from them.

2. Although sins committed on a feast day are directly contrary to this end (and therefore much more gravely than servile works), and thence are more grave, nevertheless they are not directly opposed to the ecclesiastical precept itself; hence one who sins mortally on Sunday nevertheless keeps the ecclesiastical precept: for an extrinsic end does not fall under the precept (I, n. 361).

3. The ecclesiastical precept does not oblige one to elicit acts of faith, hope, and charity, although the virtues are the end of the precept, and this is fulfilled in a more perfect mode from them: for they do not pertain to external worship, and besides, the end of the precept and the mode of fulfilling it do not fall under the precept (I, n. 362).

4. Those who labor on a feast day because of an excusing reason should take care lest they be a scandal to others!