CrossCurrents A Catholic
Reflects on Faith in Our Times
Bernard F. Swain, Ph.D. www.CrossCurrents.us
No More Silent
Sundays?
Last Sunday the noise woke
us up pretty early—well before 8:00. It was
the kind of sustained nagging distant sound that interrupted our dreams and
left us tossing, trying not to wake up before the alarm went off. But after a
few minutes returning to sleep became impossible, so I got up to find the
source of the racket.
Looking out the window, I
quickly spotted a Vietnamese neighbor down the street who was mowing and
blowing his front lawn. I hadnÕt noticed him doing this before, but for all I
knew he intended to make this his Sunday morning ritual. If so, we werenÕt
likely to enjoy sleeping in on Sunday for the rest of the summer.
Since I have never spoken with
my neighbor, I donÕt know whether he is a Buddhist, or a Catholic, or a
secularized and assimilated Vietnamese-American. In any case, I had two
reactions. My first reaction was, ÒDoesnÕt
he know that making noise early on Sundays is inconsiderate? He should know better.Ó
But my second reaction was, ÒSunday ainÕt what it used to be.Ó
The more I thought about it,
the more I realized that this unwelcome interruption of our Sunday morning might
actually be a wake-up call, a sign of change about the future facing all
Americans.
Once I stop to think about it,
I realize that we Americans have already lived through a dramatic change in
what Sunday means. But IÕm not sure weÕve figured out where that change is
leading us or why.
Just think of it as ÒBeforeÓ
and ÒAfter.Ó
ÒBefore,Ó Sunday was a quiet
day everywhere. For most people there was no work, for the simple reason that
most things werenÕt open. There
were no stores, so no shopping, so Sunday centered on family, church, and
leisure.
In the family I grew up in,
that meant that the entire weekend revolved around Sunday Mass and Sunday
dinner. Saturday evening meant bath time and shoe polishing and laying out
ÒSunday bestÓ clothes for Mass the next morning (plus cassock and surplice if I
was serving Mass). Morning time was split between dressing, the Sunday
newspaper, and Mass itself. Sunday afternoon meant Sunday dinner with the whole
family and maybe company as well. There was no work – not even housework
other than cooking –and even the dress code was different from other
days: not only could my sisters not wear pants to church, they could not wear
shorts anywhere on Sunday.
The ÒAfterÓ picture is completely
different. For millions of Americans, Sunday now means sleeping late in the
morning, Sunday brunch over the newspaper, long football afternoons, a day for
shopping and chores, plus the option of Sunday church (although millions also
now take that option Saturday evenings). Since most stores are open (in
Massachusetts, for example, even liquor stores are now open on Sundays), it is
just another workday for people in retail work. For the rest of us, the whole
routine of Sunday has changed.
Thinking about this ÒBeforeÓ
and ÒAfterÓ picture, many of us have the natural reflex to resist or even
resent the ÒsecularizationÓ of Sunday and insist on respect for Sunday as a
special day – as the Sabbath! But on further reflection I realize that,
however natural that reflex is, it is not only doomed but wrong-headed. Why? Because
it overlooks a deeper reality about American life in the 21st
century.
Take my neighborhood. It is
inner-city Boston, and is hardly typical of most US neighborhoods in
2006—but it is a telling glimpse at the typical neighborhood of 2026!
The house opposite ours houses
three generations of a Vietnamese family. Next door is a childless yuppie
couple who live next to a ÒtypicalÓ Boston-Irish extended family who live next
to two families of Haitians. On our left is an African-American family (also
three generations), on our right is a gay couple, and beyond them is a family
of Christian Scientists (the husbands is American, the wife French). Nearby our
street live Cape Verdeans, Dominicans, Cambodians and Indians and Pakistanis
and Jews.
Such a cosmopolitan,
multi-cultural mix remains rare in American neighborhoods so far (just as
Catholics were rare in most suburbs 100 years ago), but it is on the horizon
for most of us. It is only a matter of time.
Now, suppose we insist on
returning to the way it was ÒBefore,Ó when Sunday was a day of rest and peace
and quiet and worship. That will please the Christians among us. But Catholics
now begin the Sabbath on Saturday evening, and Saturday Mass-going is now
commonplace. Do we insist on closing everything on Saturday nights?
If we do that, then how do we show
respect for American Jews, whose Sabbath begins on Friday evening? Do we also close
Friday nights and all day Saturdays (as already happens in a Jewish
neighborhood not far from me)?
What about the growing US
Muslim population? They observe Sabbath on Friday. Does this mean that, to be
fair, we close businesses on Friday and Saturday as well as Sunday?
And I admit not being very knowledgeable about other
religionsÕ practices that may resemble the Sabbath practices of our three main
Abrahamic religions. If another tradition claims another day, do we close that
too?
There are three logical
alternatives here.
1. We can insist on the US as a
Christian nation. That might justify special rules singling out the Christian
Sabbath while ignoring others. Regular CrossCurrents readers already know why I
believe this to be un-American.
2. We can insist, to be fair,
that all Sabbaths be honored with public regulations (store closing, noise
restrictions, etc.). This option fits the American spirit, and might make an interesting
social experiment—but it would likely wreck the US economy by cutting the
current business week nearly in half!
3. We can recognize that, as a
nation which in principle has always been multi-religious but only recently has
faced the challenge of living up to that principle in practice, we can no
longer maintain the way things were ÒBefore.Ó Practically speaking, we must
acknowledge that each traditionÕs Sabbath can be observed by its members (for
example, not forcing individuals to work on their own Sabbath) but will not
include public restrictions on the behavior of other people—whether those
other people belong to another religion or to no religion at all.
For me, all three alternatives
are logical but only #3 is practical.
In other words, my grass-mowing
neighbor has unwittingly delivered me a wake-up call—not just getting me
out of bed, but opening my eyes to the multi-religious future we all face. Right
now, this future may be limited to a few ÒvanguardÓ neighborhoods like mine,
but it is coming soon to a neighborhood in your neighborhood.
Silent Sundays may never be the
same again.
© Bernard F. Swain
PhD 2006
Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com
Dr.
SwainÕs opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other
official body.
Bernie
Swain has devoted more than 30 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses
in the US, Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has maintained a private practice
as trainer, teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious
organizations. He holds degrees in theology and political science from Holy
Cross, Harvard, The University of Paris, and The University of Chicago.
His
writings include Liberating Leadership (Harper & Row, 1986) and more than
200 articles in periodicals such as The National Catholic Reporter,
Commonweal, The Miami Herald, The Catholic Free Press, The Pilot, Harvard
Theological Review,
and Liturgy.
A lifelong
layperson, he lives in Boston with his wife and three children. Visit his
website at:
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