Remember keep holy the Sabbath

Beginning in grade school, we all were taught the 10 Commandments. These are God’s laws, given to Moses to be obeyed by God’s people. The commandments direct us not to lie, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to kill, etc. We know God was serious about all the ones I just mentioned, but somehow we have the idea that God is not as serious about the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath. However, the Bible makes it clear that God is as serious about the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath as He is about the commandment not to kill. God commands that we keep the seventh day as the day that we gather and worship Him.
Why would God in His love and wisdom command us to worship Him? God does not need our praise. Our worship adds nothing to the greatness of God. So why would God command us to worship Him. The reason is that God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows that if we fail to worship Him, little by little we will forget who He is. And God knows that if we forget who He is, we will forget who we are.
In 1910 the average American worker worked six days a week. Today it is five days a week. Yet a hundred years ago a higher percentage of people attended church or synagogue. How is it that people then worshipped God more often than we do today even though they had less free time than we do? Part of the answer is that over the past 100 years we have lost a Sabbath mentality and have adopted a weekend mentality. In past generations people worked six days but the seventh day belonged to God. Today we work five days and then we have a weekend. We feel that the weekend belongs to us. It is my time and if I can work God in so much the better, but the weekend belongs to me.
The problem with the weekend mentality is that the result is that we begin to think that we are only made for work. We work five days, then have our free time, so that we can go back to work. We end up thinking that we are only created for work and for the here and now.
Years ago a farmer would work his mule, but every now and then he would let the mule rest, not because the mule had any dignity, but so that the farmer could get more work out of the mule.
If the weekend is only for us to rest so that we can work some more, we will forget our dignity. God knows this and so commands us to worship. God tells us that we are not a beast of burden. God tells us that we are not created merely to work. God tells us that we are not created merely for the here and now. God tells us that there is a reason why we exist and that our lives have a purpose. God tells us that we are created in His likeness, to enter into a relationship with Him that begins now and lasts into all of eternity.
And so God commands us to worship Him. The command to keep holy the Sabbath is for our benefit. God calls us together to listen to the priceless gift of the Bible and to share the priceless gift of the Real Presence in the Eucharist so that we will not forget who we are.
Since March of 2020, out of concern for the health of our people, I dispensed the obligation to attend Mass. It is now time to return to church and worship God. I would hope that no one would look upon this simply as an obligation. Instead, I would hope we would want to return to Mass. God calls us together to worship and to remember He has claimed us as His sons and daughters. God does not need us; God wants us. He thirsts for our faith to come alive in us.
Even though the dispensation from attending Mass is now ended, no one is expected to come to church who is physically unable to do so, or whose health would be endangered if they came to church, or if the health of those they care for would be endangered. It is for us to gather as the family of God and to keep holy the day set aside for God so we may remember the dignity God has given to us.